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http://www.bbc.com/news/business-19959759	Eurozone summits: Moments of truth or waste of time? - 22 October 2012 - From the section Business Eurozone leaders met for the umpteenth time in October in their latest attempt to shore up the faltering economies of Europe and restore confidence in the euro. Since the onset of the financial crisis in 2008, there has been an almost constant string of meetings among top policymakers in a concerted effort to resolve the debt crisis that has decimated the Greek economy and dragged the eurozone to the brink of its second recession in three years. These include meetings of the Eurogroup, Economic and Financial Affairs Council (known as Ecofin) and European Council, as well as full-blown European Union summits. And yet still the crisis rumbles on, with Spain looking increasingly likely to follow Greece, the Republic of Ireland and Portugal in seeking a bailout as it struggles to bring its debts under control. So what have all these meetings, talks, lengthy negotiations and summits been in aid of? What have they actually achieved? Bankers have long pilloried policymakers for their inability to get to grips with the crisis and implement effective reforms to solve it. But do they have a point? Decide for yourselves with our handy summary of the major eurozone meetings held since Athens first called on its neighbours for help. Eurogroup meeting, 2 May 2010 Following a meeting of the Eurogroup - the finance ministers of eurozone members - 14 countries agree to loan Greece 80bn euros ($105bn; £65bn), with a further 30bn euros coming from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), "in order to preserve stability in the euro area". The loans were agreed on the basis that Greece got its finances in order after years of over-spending. "Parliamentary approval is expected to follow swiftly," the Eurogroup says, with the loans made available before 19 May. Emergency eurozone summit, 7-9 May The big one. Leaders agree to set up an emergency fund to act as a buffer against any future crises. Or rather they set up two. The first, with 60bn euros behind it, is catchily titled the European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism, or EFSM. The second, effectively a private company set up by members with 440bn euros at its disposal, is the European Financial Stability Facility, or EFSF. On top of this, leaders also agree to establish the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), a permanent fund with 500bn euros to lend to replace both the EFSM and the EFSF, by 2013. Remember this date. During the summit, the European Commission also signs off the loan agreement for Greece. The commission also acknowledges the need "to make rapid progress on financial market regulation and supervision, in particular with regard to derivative markets and role of rating agencies". So far, so good. Ecofin Council meeting, 18 May A relatively low-key affair, in which finance ministers take stock of the reforms agreed at the summit. Significantly, however, when discussing the EU budget for 2011, ministers declare: "The key objective is to support economic recovery in Europe by reinforcing growth and employment opportunities." Similar sentiments have been expressed in numerous meetings since, suggesting policymakers recognised at an early stage the need for growth despite drastic austerity measures being implemented across the eurozone. EU summit, 28-29 October Leaders agree to get tough on members who overspend and run up big budget deficits, with the EU to be given extra powers over national budgets. At present, the EU can only punish states which run up deficits above 3% of annual economic output. Under the new proposals, it could slap sanctions on any state deemed to be following a dangerous economic policy, even before it passed the 3% ceiling. Excessive public debt would also trigger sanctions. The leaders agree that the new mechanism should be ratified no later than the middle of 2013. Such a policy would require amendments to EU treaties. Extraordinary Ecofin Council and Eurogroup meeting, 28 November After a request for help from the Republic of Ireland on 22 November, ministers agree to a bailout of 78bn euros. The money comes from the emergency funds agreed earlier in the year, and from loans from Denmark, Sweden, the UK and the IMF. Still, six days to agree almost 80bn euros of loans? Not much hanging around there. Again, the loans were conditional on Ireland cutting its debt levels. EU summit, 16-17 December Lots of strong talk defending the euro in the run-up to the summit by both French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. If the euro fails, "Europe fails", Mrs Merkel says. But the summit itself proves something of a damp squib, with no major announcements despite growing concerns about the future of the single currency. In fact, the chancellor pours cold water on talk of so-called eurobonds - bonds backed by all member states rather than individual countries - which many see as an effective way to restore confidence in the bloc. Emergency eurozone summit, 11 March 2011 Again, little of note is achieved, apart from agreement on a vague pact to co-ordinate economic policies and tighten rules on government spending. EU summit, 24-25 March Hopes were high after leaders indicated in the run-up to the summit they were ready to act decisively, but again disagreements between members end in all-round disappointment. The summit is overshadowed by the resignation of the Portuguese prime minister and concerns the country is heading the way of Greece and Ireland. Informal Eurogroup and Ecofin meeting, 8 April Plans are set in motion for a Portuguese bailout. Eurogroup and Ecofin meeting, 16 May Hey presto, finance ministers unanimously approve a 78bn-euro bailout for Portugal. Again, of course, help depends on the Portuguese government getting to grips with its finances and reducing its debts. Eurozone heads of state meeting, 21 July Events force leaders to address the Greek problem, which is threatening to blow the whole euro apart. Further help for the stricken economy is agreed, in the form of a new, provisional 109bn-euro bailout. The thorny issue of allowing Athens more time to repay its debts, and the possibility of the private sector writing off some of the money it has lent to Greece, is mooted. The European Central Bank (ECB) strongly opposes the idea, arguing such a move would undermine confidence in the euro. The council of the EU also proclaims its commitment to do "whatever is needed" to protect the eurozone, words that will be used many times by various policymakers over the coming months - words that are met with increasing scepticism by those listening. Informal European Council and eurozone summit, 26-27 October Again Greece dominates the agenda, along with the need to recapitalise banks that are heavily exposed to Greek debt. Mrs Merkel proclaims that the "world is watching Germany and Europe". "They are looking to see if we are ready and able to assume our responsibilities during Europe's worst crisis since the end of World War II," she says. Some argue leaders are doing anything but. There is also talk of increasing the firepower of the EFSF, with France pushing for the ECB to help push its capacity to 2-3 trillion euros. Germany is having none of it and the idea comes to nothing. The European Council also expresses its "unequivocal commitment to... accelerate structural reforms for growth and unemployment". At a time when austerity is being forced on every member state, such a pledge appears to be little more than empty words. Significantly, however, for the first time France and Germany suggest they are willing to let Greece leave the eurozone should it wish to. EU leaders summit, 8-9 December Finally there is movement, although not in the immediately pressing area some would like to see, namely Greece. But Europe takes a big step towards closer integration by agreeing a so-called fiscal pact that involves much tighter budget rules and automatic penalties for those who break them - ideas that are first discussed at the EU summit more than a year earlier. After objections from the UK, eurozone members, together with some others, agree to press ahead. To take effect, the pact must be ratified by 12 eurozone states, with the aim of coming into force on 1 January 2013. There is also agreement on bringing the eurozone's permanent bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism, into force in July 2012. Leaders also agree "that the measures with the most potential to boost growth and jobs should be given priority", although the emphasis remains very much on austerity and debt reduction. EU summit, 30 January 2012 All eyes remain on Greece and yet leaders again reassert the need for growth and "smart" cuts that allow room for growth, which hardly chimes with the reality of drastic austerity measures that are being implemented by highly-indebted states to try and hit deficit targets. The European Commission says 82bn euros of EU money is available for countries to spend on projects to boost jobs and growth. It also says it is confident a deal with Greece's private creditors is imminent - they are being asked to write off 50% of what they are owed. EU summit, 2 March All but two - the UK and the Czech Republic - sign up to the fiscal pact. It will now go before national parliaments and, in the case of Ireland, a referendum. (On 1 June, the Irish voted yes to the pact, and on 11 October, France became the 13th country to ratify it, so the pact will come into force on 1 January 2013, as originally planned.) Eurogroup statement, 13 March After private creditors finally agreed to take a massive loss on their Greek loans a few days earlier - writing off about 75% of what they are owed - finance ministers agree to a second, 130bn-euro bailout for Greece. Eight months after first agreeing to help, the eurozone finally signs off on the new loans. Eurogroup and Ecofin meetings, 21-22 June Following meetings among eurozone finance ministers, and after months and months of rhetoric, the leaders of the bloc's biggest economies appear to be ready to tackle stagnant growth and high unemployment. Germany, France, Italy and Spain outline plans to push for a 130bn-euro package to boost growth. But it soon becomes clear there is little new money involved, and analysts suggest the initiative is more symbolic than anything else. The leaders also seek to agree other proposals on closer integration - including a banking union and a financial transactions tax - to be put forward at a broader EU summit the following week. However, they again fail to reach agreement on eurobonds. EU summit, 29 June Leaders agree to use the eurozone's emergency fund to offer support directly to struggling banks, without adding to government debt. Funds will also be used to buy bonds of highly indebted countries such as Spain and Italy that are struggling to raise money from international investors. After lengthy talks, they agree to set up a joint banking supervisory body for the eurozone as a prelude to forging closer ties between the bloc's banks. Ecofin meeting, 10 July Finance ministers agree to lend Spain 30bn euros this month to help its troubled banks, the first instalment of the package worth up to 100bn euros agreed four weeks previously. They also agree to give Spain another year to cut its deficit to the 3% EU limit. Eurogroup meeting, 8 October The eurozone's permanent emergency fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), is officially launched. The original launch date was supposed to be next year, but EU leaders agreed at the end of last year to bring the date forward to July 2012. Still, let's not nit-pick. EU summit, 18/19 October Leaders agree to set up a single body to supervise all of the eurozone's banks as a key step towards the ultimate goal of banking union. The plan is for the so-called Single Supervisory Mechanism to help shore up ailing banks and, eventually, give them direct access to loans from the ESM. But this is pretty much it in terms of actual detail - just how this will happen and when remains unclear. Another grand gesture with little substance, but more should become clear early in the new year.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4575803.stm	Doctors are testing new prostate cancer drugs that could help beat advanced tumours resistant to current therapies. Scans can help diagnose prostate cancer Advanced prostate cancer is generally treated with hormone therapy, but this works only for a short time before the patient eventually dies. When hormone therapy fails, there are few options other than palliative care. The Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust teams are looking at 25 anticancer drugs as potential life-savers. Professor Colin Cooper, head of the Everyman Centre at the Institute of Cancer Research, said prostate cancer had been a neglected area while other cancers, such as breast cancer, had seen massive improvements in treatment and survival rates. "We know very little about it, what causes it, about its development and we are not very good at treating it. "A third of people who develop prostate cancer will die from it and it is the commonest cancer in men," he said. In the UK, about 30,000 new cases of prostate cancer are diagnosed each year. It has been difficult for researchers to determine the genetic causes of hormone-resistant prostate cancer because it has been hard to acquire cancer cells from patients because of the nature of the spread of this cancer. In the coming trials, Dr Johann de Bono and colleague will remove cancer cells from patients with prostate cancer and grown them in the laboratory to identify molecular pathways and new targets for drug treatment. Dr Johann de Bono, team Leader and Consultant Medical Oncologist at The Institute of Cancer Research and Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, said: "These initiatives will ensure that, in the future, drug targets can be discovered and new anticancer drugs developed specifically for prostate cancer. "We want to bring the discoveries we make with new drugs to the patients as quickly as possible. "This is a key area of cancer research that has been neglected for too long and we now have a major shift in focus and we are playing a big part in that." The news comes ahead of the Institute for Cancer Research's Everyman Male Cancer Awareness Month, which runs through June, to encourage men to take more of an interest in their health. Dr Chris Hiley, of the Prostate Cancer Charity, said: "Accelerated funding is needed to increase the pace of research by the Everyman centre and all similar research conducted in the UK. We must get results into practice as soon as possible."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/southern_counties/6161419.stm	Being eligible for a breast reduction depends on where you live, according to plastic surgeons in West Sussex. About 3,700 breast reduction operations are carried out each year The medics from the Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead surveyed 303 primary care trusts. They found many trusts considered the surgery to be a cosmetic procedure and of low clinical priority and would refuse or limit funding for it. The surgeons said the variation between trusts was "at odds with the ethos of the NHS". Of the 80% of trusts which responded to the survey, 76% accepted that physical discomfort such as breast, back or neck pain was an indication for surgery although 10% of those said they would not normally fund it. The research stated that bilateral breast reduction surgery (BBR) had well documented physical and psychological benefits with about 3,700 operations carried out in England each year. But it found the criteria for surgery ranged widely between the trusts and led to a postcode lottery. Some 12% of trusts required that a professionally fitted bra had not relieved symptoms before allowing the procedure, while 20% required women have a minimum cup size, ranging from DD to F. Another criteria was based on body mass index, (BMI) with 90% putting it as a requirement. The BMI requirement from trust to trust ranged from 25 to 32, meaning in one part of England a woman of 14st would be eligible but elsewhere she would only be allowed the operation if she weighed 11st. The research said: "The large variation in criteria between trusts is potentially unfair and at odds with the ethos of the NHS." The findings are to be presented at the National Meeting of the British Association of Plastic Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons in London on Friday.
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-22309217	Warning over bug in Android Viber chat app - 26 April 2013 - From the section Technology Security firms are warning about a security bug in the popular Viber app for Android phones. The flaw in the net phone application lets attackers bypass screen locks and take control of a smartphone. The app has been downloaded more than 50 million times from Google's Play store according to statistics from the search giant. Viber said it was aware of the flaw and was preparing to release a fix that would close the loophole. The flaw was discovered by Vietnamese security firm Bkav and works in different ways depending on which Android phone a victim is using. In a blog post, Bkav said the attack revolved around sending several messages to a victim via Viber. The free Viber app works like Skype and lets Android phone users send messages and talk for free. Bkav discovered that sending pop-up messages and using some other parts of the Viber app let them circumvent the lock screens that many people use to secure their phones. "The way Viber handles to pop-up its messages on smartphones' lock screen is unusual, resulting in its failure to control programming logic, causing the flaw to appear," said Nguyen Minh Duc, head of Bkav's security division. He advised people not to let anyone else use their phone until the bug was fixed. Viber said it was aware of the flaw and, via its support forum, gave people advice about how to avoid falling victim. It said it was working on a fix and hoped to resolve the issue soon. The discovery of the bug is the latest in a series of security flaws that have struck apps in Google's Android store. Many cyber thieves are aiming their efforts at the phones in a bid to steal saleable information or generate revenue by getting handsets to call or send messages to premium rate numbers. Despite this, Martin Borrett, director of IBM's European Institute for Advanced Security, said phone apps were getting more secure faster than other sectors at the same point in their development. IBM was "optimistic" about the improving security of mobile apps because tools were emerging that made it straightforward to scan code for the bugs and loopholes that cyber thieves seek, he said. "You cannot expect all developers to be experts in security," he said. "We have to make tools that make it easier for them. "I think people are more switched on to the issues and are better placed to address them and have the knowledge and tools to counter these threats," he told the BBC.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/cambridgeshire/8522684.stm	The Cambridgeshire hospital's debts of £40m have been underwritten A failing hospital looks set to become the first of its kind to be run by a private firm, after the only NHS bidder withdrew from the race to manage it. Five private health providers are still vying to manage Hinchingbrooke district general in Cambridgeshire. A boss from the East of England health authority denied the move amounted to the privatisation of the service. But a health union warned the hospital was part of a "dangerous experiment" involving bidders with no experience. The health authority's director of strategy, Stephen Dunn, said all the companies in the contest had provided elective surgery, such as knee and hip replacements, to NHS patients in treatment centres. He said: "The NHS remains firmly part of this process. Staff and assets will remain in the NHS. They are not being sold. "This is not about selling the family silver. This is not about privatisation. These worries are just unfounded." But a spokeswoman for health union Unison said it was a waste of public money to go through a process of "market testing" just as Hinchingbrooke started making progress. She said she was worried most private sector companies did not know how to run a hospital with intensive care, maternity and emergency services. "The experience in the UK is that when you have an emergency in a private sector hospital it is transferred to the NHS. This is a dangerous experiment," she said. Earlier this week Cambridge University Hospitals Trust withdrew from the race to run the large, debt-ridden hospital in Huntingdon from April 2011. A spokesman for the Trust said: "The competitive bidding process will involve considerable investment in both time and money. "Continuing to take part would have an impact on services at Addenbrooke's and The Rosie. Accordingly, we have decided to withdraw from the project." Any incoming company would have to help repay an NHS loan being used to underwrite the hospital's £40m debt.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-26013101	Armed services bullying action call by MP Madeleine Moon - 3 February 2014 - From the section Wales A Welsh MP has called for an urgent overhaul of the way bullying is dealt with by the armed forces. Bridgend MP Madeleine Moon, a member of the House of Commons defence committee, said a new ombudsman was needed to properly investigate complaints. Last year, a survey of military staff found one in 10 said they had been a victim of discrimination, harassment or bullying the previous year. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said it had zero tolerance of bullying. Ms Moon said there was an attitude within the profession "that you don't complain", particularly against a more senior officer, which allows a lot of issues to go unresolved. She said the committee had been looking at the issue with staff surveys since 2006, which had shown an attitude of sexual harassment in particular affecting women and some men. Last year's Armed Forces Continuous Attitude Survey found 10% of respondents said they "believe they have been the subject of discrimination, harassment or bullying in a service environment" in the previous 12 months. That came after the defence committee said in February 2013 changes were needed to the current complaints system, which it said did not command the confidence of services personnel. 'Set the standard' Adrian Weale, a former regular army officer, told BBC Radio Wales he thought an independent ombudsman was a good idea as armed forces personnel had to complain through their chain of command - and that may be via the person they accused of bullying them. Ms Moon said she had also spoken to soldiers with first-hand experience of bullying and harassment. "What we need is a complete change in attitude within the military so that actually they join the 21st Century," she said. "You would not tolerate that in your workplace if you worked anywhere else. "We need an independent ombudsman who can commission reports, who can investigate what's going on and set the standard for change. "At the moment you are relying on some of the perpetrators of the problem to create the climate of change and that's not going to happen." An MoD spokesperson said: "The armed forces have a zero tolerance approach to all forms of bullying, discrimination and abuse. "All allegations will be thoroughly investigated, either by the civil or military police, and appropriate action will be taken. "We recognise that it takes great courage for any individual to come forward and report a sexual offence and we have taken a number of steps to improve training and awareness to ensure that service personnel know how to report concerns and what support is available to them. "We take this issue extremely seriously which is why last year we also set up a new database to improve the quality of information relating to service police investigations."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3244100.stm	China's authorities want to inject new life into a song collection by former leader Mao Zedong, by releasing a brand new version sung by 20-year-olds. Mao still has godlike status in parts of China The recording has been compiled to mark the 110th anniversary of the birth of the revolutionary. The state-run Beijing Times said the songs, which include a rap track, were being released in an effort to extend Mao's legacy to Chinese youth. It says the album contains old-time favourites like "The East is Red". "Ten years ago, the album 'A Red Sun' brought a crimson tide of songs rushing through our music industry," the newspaper said. "This year ... the China Record Company has finished the production of the powerfully red 'Mao Zedong and us'." China is planning to celebrate the anniversary in various ways, with at least two films being made, stamps issued and several books published. They include a book by Mao's own grandson, Mao Xinyu, called Grandfather Mao Zedong. Mao, who ruled China from 1949 until his death in 1976, is considered the founder of Chinese Communism and the modern Chinese state. Correspondents say he still has godlike status in some parts of China. However, he was also responsible for the Cultural Revolution, a 10-year campaign of violence and chaos begun in 1966 to renew the spirit of Communism.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-14563847	'Everything' being done to tackle Shell oil leak - 17 August 2011 - From the section NE Scotland, Orkney & Shetland Everything possible is being done to tackle Shell's North Sea oil leak, the company has insisted. Shell has been dealing with the release of what has been estimated as more than 200 tonnes from a leak near the Gannet Alpha, which was discovered last week. The pipeline still contains up to 660 tonnes of oil. Meanwhile, Scottish Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead said there was no evidence the incident was having a significant impact. And he also stressed the importance of openness and transparency surrounding the leak. Glen Cayley, technical director the company's exploration and production activities in Europe, said, if the inspection and maintenance procedure had been flawless, the incident would not have happened. He told a media conference in Aberdeen: "We are making good progress in stopping the leakage from the flow line to the Gannet platform. The flow rate currently stands at less than one barrel a day. "I must stress again how much we regret this incident, that the situation is under control and we are working towards a swift solution." A planned summer shutdown of the platform is expected to commence on Thursday, to allow an inspection of other pipelines that feed the platform. Mr Lochhead said: "We have made clear the Scottish government's primary role is to assess and advise on the impact this spill may have on the marine environment. "The current information we have is that only one oiled bird has been spotted - there is no evidence of any significant impact. "We do not expect fisheries to be impacted, but again monitoring will be undertaken. Marine Scotland's Fisheries Research Vessel Scotia has been diverted to the area and tasked to take samples from the incident area for analysis." In the wake of calls for Shell to be more open, the environment secretary added: "I have spoken with both Shell's senior management and the UK government's offshore incident representative, Hugh Shaw, over the past 24 hours and I stressed, once again, the importance of clear communication on the current operation and the expectation people have for complete openness and transparency on the situation. "I was assured by both that this point had been taken on board, and I'm pleased to see that steps have now been taken to put more information in the public domain. "This must continue."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/8382285.stm	First Test, Brisbane, day two (close): Australia 380-8 dec v West Indies 134-5 Coverage: Regular score updates plus daily reports on BBC Sport website Gayle's dismissal sparked a collapse of four wickets in four overs West Indies suffered a top order collapse as Australia took control of the first Test on day two at the Gabba. Chris Gayle hit a typically flamboyant 31 before he was trapped leg before by Ben Hilfenhaus as the tourists stumbled from 49-0 to 63-4 in just four overs. Brendan Nash (18) and Travis Dowlin (40 not out) helped West Indies close on 134-5, 346 runs adrift of Australia. Ricky Ponting had earlier declared after Nathan Hauritz's maiden half century lifted Australia to 480-8. Hauritz (50 not out) provided some tail-end fireworks with Peter Siddle (20 not out) as the home side, who had resumed on 322-5, made solid progress. Marcus North and Brad Haddin had added 84 for the sixth wicket before the latter was eventually caught behind for 39 before Mitchell Johnson went the same way for seven with lunch approaching. Johnson appealed the decision under the new decision review system, in use in Australia for the first time. Umpire Ian Gould adjudged that Johnson had edged the ball to West Indies wicketkeeper Dinesh Ramdin, however, third umpire Mark Benson did not find enough evidence to overturn Gould's decision after watching slow-motion replay, hotspot technology and on-field microphones. Replays suggested Johnson had missed the ball but the rules state that the on-field umpire should be given the benefit of doubt. Gould was again challenged by West Indies skipper Gayle after he had been adjudged leg before while playing back to a good-length Hilfenhaus delivery. Replays were more conclusive this time, confirming he was plum in front and the decision halted the tourists' reply, which had begun in sprightly fashion. Adrian Barath (15) edged an attempted drive off Johnson to Shane Watson at third slip in the next over. Siddle then rapped Shivnarine Chanderpaul on the pads before Johnson and Watson combined again to dismiss Dwayne Bravo for a second-ball duck. Australian-born Nash faced up to a barrage of bouncers before finally succumbing with a loose shot off yet another short ball to leave the tourists 96-5. The closing scoreline could have been worse for West Indies as Dowlin was dropped by Ponting when he was on seven.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8146995.stm	By Dan Collyns BBC News, Lima Children in the remote southern highlands are often malnourished Almost 250 children under the age of five have died in a wave of intensely cold weather in Peru. Children die from pneumonia and other respiratory infections every year during the winter months particularly in Peru's southern Andes. But this year freezing temperatures arrived almost three months earlier than usual. Experts blame climate change for the early arrival of intense cold which began in March. Winter in the region does not usually begin until June. The extreme cold, which has brought snow, hail, freezing temperatures and strong winds, has killed more children than recorded annually for the past four years. A total of 246 under the age of five have died so far, only half way through the winter months. One third of the deaths were registered in the southern region of Puno, much of which is covered by a high plateau known as the altiplano which extends into neighbouring Bolivia. Aid workers say prolonged exposure to the cold is causing hypothermia and deadly respiratory infections such as pneumonia. Children, who are often malnourished, are more vulnerable to the extreme cold. Poverty is widespread in Peru's southern highlands and there is a lack of healthcare and basic services. The government has declared a state of emergency in the affected areas but critics say the cold snaps are predictable and the annual deaths preventable. Many have blamed government inefficiency for the deaths. But Peru's Health Minister, Oscar Ugarte, has said regional officials have not effectively distributed government resources. Meanwhile in the capital, Lima, it has become an annual ritual for businesses and ordinary citizens to donate blankets, clothes and food for the victims of the cold weather in the south of the country.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/club/your_reports/newsid_3703000/3703128.stm	I told my head of year about it loads of times and all she said was 'I'll have a word ' or 'If you can try and avoid them'. I couldn't really avoid them when they were in my form. Eventually, I was finding it hard to breathe on school mornings, so I went to the doctors and I was diagnosed with panic attacks. That shows how much I was dreading going to school. By the end of Year 9 the bully started shouting at me and calling me names and saying stuff that hurt me. After that I couldn't take it so I stood up and ran to the nearest teacher that I could find, they got my head of year and the bully was dealt with. But all this should have been sorted when I was in Year 7 and then I wouldn't have suffered. Group of friends I still get a few snide remarks now but I'm not really bothered because I have a big group of friends. My advice is don't suffer in silence and press on about the bullies until something is done to stop it." Andrea, 14, Scarborough Why don't you write us a Press Pack report - and get it published on the site?! It can be about anything that's happened in your local area - or your views on the news.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-27979341	Peron statue in Argentina's Buenos Aires still in limbo Even though it has been 40 years since Juan Domingo Peron died, the three-times president of Argentina still divides opinion. His supporters praise his efforts to tackle poverty and continue to revere him and his wife Evita. But his critics dismiss him as a populist demagogue. And as BBC Mundo's Natalio Cosoy reports, even though the party he founded is in power, plans to erect a statue in his honour have been delayed time and time again. "Peronism is based on emotions," Lorenzo Pepe says about the political movement named after the former leader. Mr Pepe is the general secretary of the Juan Domingo Peron National Institute and one of a group of Peronists who as early as 1985 proposed the erection of a statue of the former Argentine leader. "Peronism has to be seen, and if possible touched," he says as he explains the rationale behind the statue to Mr Peron, who served two terms from 1946 to 1955, and another from 1973 until his death the following year. The plans are not new, to the contrary, the Argentine Congress passed a motion in 1986 which stipulated that a Peron monument be built by an Argentine sculptor, paid for by donations from the Argentine public, and erected in the capital, Buenos Aires. Since that promising start, it seems everything has gone downhill. First, it took almost a decade to sort out the red tape involved in building the statue. Then it took until 2005 for a location for the statue to be picked. It was to be erected outside the presidential palace, the Casa Rosada, near the landing pad for the presidential helicopter. Another two years passed while a contest was organised to choose the artist who would create the statue. The winner, Enrique Savio, estimated the cost at 2.5m pesos ($775,000; £455,000) at the time. The statue seemed to be back on track, but in October 2008, Argentina's aeronautical authorities queried its planned location. They said they feared it could impede the safe navigation of the presidential helicopter. But Mr Pepe, a former Congressman and rail union leader, threw his weight behind the project and managed to get backing for the chosen location. His hope was to get the statue completed in time for 17 October of the following year, when Peronists mark the day in 1945 when hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to demand the release of Mr Peron, who had been arrested by the military government of the time. But the date came and went, and nothing happened. A new target date was set for 25 May 2010, the bicentennial of Argentina's independence from Spain, but again it was to pass without the statue being lifted onto its pedestal. This time, the problem was money. Despite Peronist presidents being in power since 2002 and the political movement having some 3.5 million members, no more than $10,000 have been collected so far. But Mr Pepe's determination to see the statue built did not wane in the face of adversity. "I want to see it [completed] before I die and I will pull all my strength behind it," he says, undeterred by the myriad setbacks. "Everyone wants to do see it done, but no-one actually does anything," sculptor Enrique Savio says, deeply frustrated about the years of uncertainty he has lived through, dedicating money, time and effort to the project. To add insult to injury, a statue of Juan Peron may soon be erected near the Casa Rosada. But it will not be Mr Savio's. The city of Buenos Aires legislature, controlled by an opposition party, recently voted in favour of erecting its own monument to the ex-leader using their own funds, very near the spot where Mr Savio's sculpture is meant to stand. Matias Ranzini, who is in charge of the rival project, says the city legislature wanted "a tribute of the people of the City of Buenos Aires to Peron, since the national one could not be done". The rival monument could be finished in less than eight months' time. Mr Savio took part in the competition to build this rival statue, too, but was beaten by sculptor Carlos Benavidez. Some observers of the long-running saga say the failure to erect the stature reflects the void left by Juan Peron and the rivalries stoked by his death. Historian Marcos Novaro argues that "Peron's death on 1 July 1974… irrepressibly aggravated the power vacuum, the loss of control over the economy and the clash of opposing forces". Critics say the feeble alliance between the left and right wing of the Peronist party collapsed when their leader died, leaving in its wake an inability to accomplish something as seemingly simple as a monument. Juan Peron himself liked to say that "reality is the only truth". And the reality is that 40 years after his death, neither of the two monuments planned for Buenos Aires has been erected.
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-39525635	Co-op Bank receives takeover 'proposals' The Co-op Bank says it has received a number of takeover approaches from potential bidders. The lender said it had received "a number of non-binding proposals", and it had selected "several parties" with which to continue talks. The bank, in which the Co-operative Group still has a small stake, was rescued from the brink of collapse by a group of hedge funds in 2013. Last month, it reported its fifth annual loss in a row. On Thursday, the Co-op Group declared the bank worthless, cutting the value of its stake in the lender to zero. The write-down of its stake in the bank pushed the Co-op Group into a pre-tax loss of £132m for 2016. In its latest statement, the Co-op Bank said that, in addition to talks with suitors, it was also in discussions with existing and other potential new investors to raise capital. It added that it continued to discuss both the sale process and capital raising process with the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), "which has welcomed the actions being taken". The Co-op Bank put itself up for sale in February after it was unable to reach a strong enough footing to satisfy regulatory requirements. It blamed low interest rates and the higher-than-expected cost of its turnaround plan for its failure to meet the PRA's rules.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-11987543	Aid groups fear central Africa LRA 'Christmas massacre' Aid groups have called for efforts to prevent mass killings by one of Africa's most feared rebel militias over the Christmas period. The aid agencies say a concerted effort is needed to stop the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) from committing what have become known as "Christmas massacres". LRA fighters killed hundreds of people in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan in December 2008 and 2009. Hundreds of people were abducted during those attacks. Figures show that the LRA over the past two years has become the most deadly militia in the DRC, the aid groups say in a report. On Christmas Day 2008 and over the following three weeks, LRA beat to death more than 800 people in north-eastern DR Congo and Southern Sudan, abducting hundreds more. In December 2009, the brutal militia killed more than 300 villagers in DR Congo in the run-up to Christmas. An LRA spokesman denied that his organisation was responsible for the atrocities. The rebels - originally from Uganda and also roaming across parts of Sudan and the Central African Republic (CAR) - killed or abducted more than 1,000 people in remote areas of DR Congo last year alone, the report says. "The LRA abducts, mutilates, rapes and kills women, men and children, using extreme violence against the most vulnerable," the report adds. The militia is also notorious for kidnapping children to save as soldiers and sex slaves. "It is unbelievable that world leaders continue to tolerate brutal violence against some of the most isolated villages in central Africa and that this has been allowed to continue for more than 20 years," said Marcel Stoessel from Oxfam, one of the 19 organisations behind the report. US President Barack Obama in November outlined a plan to remove the LRA's leader, Joseph Kony, and disarm the LRA. Mr Kony is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Mr Obama was responding to US legislation passed in May promising a comprehensive strategy to put a stop to the LRA's killings, rapes and mutliations. But the new report says more humanitarian aid and a more concerted military effort is needed to stop the rebels from committing more atrocities. "Recent signs of diplomatic commitment from the African Union and the United States must provide tangible answers that protect the population from violence," the agencies say. The report also calls on the UN Security Council to put the rebel group on its agenda.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6377639.stm	Doctors in Miami are delaying the release of the world's most-premature baby, saying she will stay in hospital a few more days for checks. They had earlier said Amillia Taylor would be allowed to go home on Tuesday. Amillia is believed to be the first baby to have survived following a gestation period of less than 22 weeks. She weighed a mere 10 ounces (284 grams) at birth on 24 October. Babies under 14 ounces were thought to stand no chance of survival. A spokeswoman at the Baptist Children's Hospital gave no details on the doctors' decision, simply saying: "They want to observe her a couple more days." Doctors held out little hope of Amillia surviving Amillia spent a little under 22 weeks in her mother's womb, a world record according to the University of Iowa which keeps track of premature babies born throughout the world. Initially, doctors held little hope for her survival. She measured just 9.5in (241mm). "She's truly a miracle baby, " said Dr William Smalling, neo-natal expert at the Baptist Children's Hospital. "We weren't too optimistic. But she proved us all wrong," he said. Amillia has experienced respiratory problems, a very mild brain haemorrhage and some digestive problems, but doctors now say her "prognosis is excellent". Her parents named her Amillia - which means resilient in Latin, a fighter and hardworking - to reflect her survival against the odds. "It was hard to imagine she would get this far. But now she is beginning to look like a real baby," said Sonja Taylor, Amillia's mother. "Even though she's only four pounds (1.8kg) now, she's plump to me," Mrs Taylor said. She said the worst thing had been not being able to hold her baby for more than six weeks after she was born. On Tuesday, Amillia is going home after spending nearly four months in the hospital's neo-natal intensive care unit where her every move was monitored 24 hours a day. Doctors say she will still have to be monitored closely after her release, requiring asthma medication and extra oxygen for months to come, as she still weighs less than 4lb 6oz (2kg). Amillia's survival demonstrates the dramatic advances in neo-natal care in recent years, correspondents say.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-24549744	Plans to cut £64m from its budget have been announced by Wolverhampton City Council. The council has tweeted "services will go and jobs" and claimed this was "the most severe financial challenge in the authority's history". The proposals include raising charges to schools for providing meals, reducing library opening hours and closing the central baths. The council has blamed a reduction in central government grants. It said the move was necessary to avoid a deficit of £89m by 2019. A rise in council tax of 2% next April, the first increase in four years, is "virtually certain", the Labour-controlled authority said. Councillor Andrew Johnson said: "There is just no way we can make these levels of savings without dramatically reducing our spending in terms of the services we provide." The charges the council makes for providing school meals could rise 2.5% in 2014/2015 and 5% over the following three years. Schools will have to decide whether to pass increase on to parents, the council said. Closing libraries early and charging users for internet access could save £1.7m, the authority said, and avoid the total closure of one of its 15 branch libraries. A subsidy of £316,000 to the city's central baths could be ended and it could close completely if the council is unable to find someone to take over its running. The council has published full details of the proposals on its website, with a consultation period beginning next month. The final decision will be made by the full council in March 2014.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-politics-14140754	Phone hacking: Cameron appoints judge to lead inquiry David Cameron told the House of Commons that Lord Justice Leveson is to head the public inquiry into phone hacking allegations in the wake of the scandal at News International. His will also look at newspaper ethics, and the media's relationship with both the police and politicians. Witnesses will be under oath and the initial part of the probe would report within one year. Mr Cameron said anyone involved in the phone hacking scandal at News International should play no part in UK media again, no matter how high in the organisation they were. - 13 July 2011 - BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4684306.stm	Conservative leader David Cameron has called for curbs on prime ministers' power to declare war or agree treaties without the approval of MPs. Mr Cameron wants MPs to have greater input in key areas Mr Cameron wants his party's democracy task force, headed by ex-Chancellor Ken Clarke, to examine the way ministers use the Royal Prerogatives. He wants more key decisions to be down to MPs, rather than the prime minister. Last year Gordon Brown called for a debate on whether MPs should have the final say on sending troops to war. The Royal Prerogatives are a series of historic powers officially held by the Queen that have, in reality, been passed to politicians. They enable decisions to be taken without the backing of, or consultation with, Parliament. Mr Cameron has explicitly ruled out any change to the Queen's personal prerogative powers, such as the power to dissolve Parliament and appoint the prime minister. But in a speech in London on Monday, he said trust in politics could only be restored if MPs, rather than the prime minister, had the final say over whether troops were committed to military action. Lord Butler appointed He said: "The prime minister is able to do what he wants without consulting Parliament at all. "In the case of the Iraq war, there was a vote - as there was under John Major as well - but there are no formal arrangements on when that vote should take place. "In Kosovo there was no vote at all." Mr Cameron said it would still be possible to send troops into action urgently without having suddenly to assemble Parliament. He also wants MPs to be given a formal role in areas including making international treaties and changing the structure of government. And he suggested holding "parliamentary confirmation hearings" for major public appointments, such as the BBC chairman or the chief executive of the NHS. But the new democracy task force will not look at introducing proportional representation to British elections. Ex-Cabinet secretary Lord Butler, who investigated the intelligence-based origins of the Iraq war, is being appointed to the task force. Lord Butler has been critical of Tony Blair's "sofa style" of government, saying the Cabinet had been bypassed in favour of small, informal groups of advisers to help him make decisions. In December, Chancellor Gordon Brown argued that limits on government power were an important part of the British tradition of liberty. There was "a case for detailed consideration of the role of Parliament in the declaration of peace and war", he said. Ex-minister Mr Clarke told BBC Radio 4's Today programme there needed to be checks in place to stop "personal, arbitrary, presidential rule". But Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain pointed to major constitutional changes made in recent years, including the Human Rights Act, devolution and reform of the House of Lords. "The Tories are very belatedly, having opposed every one of these changes and reforms in recent years, starting to catch up with Labour in wanting a modern, viable constitution with more accountability and more democracy," he told Today. Campaign group Charter88 welcomed Mr Cameron's pledge but urged the Tories to back their calls for a written constitution to show where power lies in Britain.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23424289	Author Jane Austen is to feature on the next £10 note, the Bank of England says, avoiding a long-term absence of women represented on banknotes. The Pride and Prejudice author will be the next face of the note, replacing Charles Darwin, probably in 2017. Chancellor George Osborne tweeted the move showed "sense and sensibility". In April, the Bank prompted a high-profile campaign against the prospect of having no female characters, besides the Queen, on the UK's currency. It had announced that Sir Winston Churchill would be put on the £5 note from 2016, replacing social reformer Elizabeth Fry. The latest announcement means that women could be absent from newly issued banknotes for up to a year, although the Elizabeth Fry £5 note will still be in circulation. 'In the wings' On Twitter, Mr Osborne wrote: "[Incoming Bank of England governor] Mark Carney's choice of Jane Austen as face of £10 note is great. After understandable row over lack of women, shows sense and sensibility." Banknotes are regularly redesigned, in order to maintain security and prevent forgeries. The most recent new design from the Bank of England to enter circulation was the £50 note. This features Matthew Boulton and James Watt, who were most celebrated for bringing the steam engine into the textile manufacturing process. The decision to replace Elizabeth Fry on the £5 note prompted protests and discussions about female representation on banknotes, but Jane Austen was thought to have already been part of the Bank's plans for the next new note. Sir Mervyn King, in his last public appearance as governor of the Bank, said the author was "quietly waiting in the wings" to replace Darwin. Mr Carney started discussions about female representation on banknotes on his first day in office. The Bank said in a statement that it was "never the Bank's intention" that none of the four characters on banknotes would be a woman. "Jane Austen certainly merits a place in the select group of historical figures to appear on our banknotes. Her novels have an enduring and universal appeal and she is recognised as one of the greatest writers in English literature," Mr Carney said. He also announced a review of the selection process for future banknote characters. Jane Austen will be the 17th historical figure to appear on Bank of England notes. The review will be completed by the end of the year. The pressure was increased on the new governor through protests, an online petition - signed by 35,000 people, and a threat of legal action. The campaign was led by Caroline Criado-Perez, from Rutland, who was invited to speak to Bank officials about the situation earlier in July. She described the expected announcement as "a brilliant day for women and a fantastic one for people power". "We warmly welcome this move from the Bank and thank them for listening to us and taking such positive and emphatic steps to address our concerns," she said. "To hear Jane Austen confirmed is fantastic, but to hear the process will be comprehensively reviewed is even better. The money raised for a legal challenge will now be donated to women's charities the Fawcett Society, Women's Aid and Rape Crisis. Jane Austen, who lived from 1775 to 1817, became one of the country's most celebrated novelists. She was born in Hampshire as one of eight children. She began to write as a teenager. Her first novel, Sense and Sensibility, appeared in 1811. She described her next novel, Pride and Prejudice, as her "own darling child". Her other published novels were Mansfield Park, Emma, Persuasion and Northanger Abbey - the final two of which were published after her death. Most of her novels were published anonymously. The portrait of Jane Austen, which will appear on the banknote, is adapted from a sketch drawn by her sister Cassandra Austen. Other features include: - A quote from Pride and Prejudice - "I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!" - An illustration of Elizabeth Bennet, one of the characters in Pride and Prejudice - An image of Godmersham Park in Kent - the home of Jane Austen's brother, Edward Austen Knight, and the inspiration for a number of novels - A central background design of the author's writing table which she used at home at Chawton Cottage in Hampshire Fellow writers William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens have appeared on banknotes in recent times. Dickens was on the £10 note and Shakespeare on the £20 note. Bank of England notes can be spent throughout the UK. In addition, three banks in Scotland and four in Northern Ireland are authorised to issue banknotes.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4620778.stm	Euthanasia is extremely rare in the UK and few doctors want to see it legalised, a study says. The late Diane Pretty fought a long court battle for an assisted death Pro-euthanasia campaigners have long argued terminally-ill patients are helped to die in secret. But fewer than 1% of deaths were by euthanasia in 2004 and few doctors want to see the law change, the Brunel University survey of 857 doctors found. Euthanasia and doctor-assisted suicide, whereby the patient is given the means to kill themselves, are both illegal. Of the 584,791 deaths in the UK in 2004, 0.16% (936) were by voluntary euthanasia, the survey revealed. Some 0.33% (1,930) involved the doctor ending a patient's life without consent from the patients, for instance if they are in a coma. This is sometimes known as involuntary euthanasia. But not one GP or hospital doctor said they had taken part in physician-assisted suicide in the poll which asked them to report on the last death they had attended. A third of deaths were put down to alleviating symptoms which may have the effect of shortening life, while just under a third were from withholding treatment because it is deemed in the best interests of the patients. Both practices are legal in the UK. Just 2.6% of doctors said changing the law would benefit patients. It is the first time such a comprehensive study into medical practice has been undertaken in the UK and shows euthanasia rates are lower than in many other countries. Report author Professor Clive Seale said: "Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide are understandably very emotive subjects, but this work shows that UK doctors are less willing to take such actions than in several other countries. "We have a very strong ethos of providing excellent palliative care in the UK, reflected in the finding that doctors in the UK are willing to make other kinds of decisions that prioritise the comfort of patients, without striving to preserve life at the cost of suffering. "The results suggest that providing the best kind of patient care is a major driver behind medical decision making." The findings come after a private members bill was introduced into the House of Lords in November proposing a relaxation of laws governing doctor-assisted dying. Lord Joffe's bill advocates assisted dying, whereby doctors can prescribe a lethal dose of medication for a patient to take themselves. But proposals to legalise voluntary euthanasia, where the doctor actually helps a patient die, which were in his original draft, were dropped. Deborah Annetts, chief executive of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society, said the report supported the calls for a change in the law. "This research proves some doctors break the law and deliberately help patients die. "This is all done in secret and denied in public. This cannot be safe." But Julia Millington, political director of the ProLife Alliance, said: "Surely the response of a civilised society is to stop this unlawful killing altogether rather than use such research to support demands for doctors to be permitted to do it legally." And Dr Vivienne Nathanson, head of science and ethics at the British Medical Association, said she was "concerned a tiny minority of doctors have apparently admitted they have acted illegally in deliberately ending a patient's life".
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17657057	Chris Daughtry from American Idol sued for royalties Former American Idol contestant Chris Daughtry is being sued by three former bandmates, who say they are owed money for songs they wrote together. The musicians claim they contributed music and lyrics to four songs but have been defrauded of the proceeds. Legal papers filed in North Carolina accuse Daughtry of "constructive fraud" as well as "unfair trade practices" and "other deceptive and wrongful conduct". On his website, the singer described the accusations "false". "I am very hurt," wrote the 32-year-old. "The songs listed in this lawsuit were written solely by me and no one else and at this time, I have no further comment." Ryan Andrews, Scott Crawford and Mark Perry were part of Daughtry's band Absent Element, formed in a church in Burlington, North Carolina. They claim they had a role in writing Home, a US top 10 hit in 2007, as well as three other songs. According to their legal case, work on the songs began before their singer's stint on American Idol, and before Absent Element disbanded in 2006. Daughtry, they added, had reached an understanding on sharing revenues from their compositions, "and conducted himself in a way that reflected that understanding". The singer now fronts a new band, simply called Daughtry. He is one of the most successful graduates of American Idol, selling more than 6.1 million albums. According to Billboard magazine, only Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson have achieved higher sales after leaving the show.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4624547.stm	Ventriloquist Paul Winchell, who was the voice of Tigger in Disney's Winnie the Pooh films, has died aged 82. Winchell voiced Disney's Tigger from 1968 to 1999 He was a popular children's TV host in the US, and first voiced Tigger in 1968 in Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day, which won an Academy Award. Winchell also voiced Gargamel in The Smurfs and Boomer in The Fox and the Hound, as well as voicing other Disney and Hanna-Barbera productions. He was also an inventor, patenting an artificial heart in 1963. His other patents included a disposable razor, a flameless cigarette lighter and an invisible garter belt. Winchell last performed as Tigger in 1999, in Winnie the Pooh: Seasons of Giving. Lisp and laugh For Tigger, he created a slight lisp and laugh, crediting his British wife with Tigger's "TTFN" catchprase - "ta-ta for now", itself coming from BBC radio comedy It's That Man Again. In 1974, he earned a Grammy for best children's recording with The Most Wonderful Things About Tiggers from the film Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too. Born in 1922 in New York, Winchell contracted polio aged six but beat speech impediments as he learned to throw his own voice. In 1988 he told the Associated Press news agency: I first met Walt Disney 25 or 30 years ago. He said, 'We're both in the same business. I use cartoons and you use dummies and we both entertain children.' "That was long before I started working here. Walt gave me a VIP tour of the studio. I remember people doing voices. I said, 'Gee, that must be fun.' And here I am."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16527603	UK's Jermaine Grant charged over Kenyan bomb plot A 29-year-old British man has been charged in Kenya with possessing illegal explosive-making material and plotting to explode a bomb. Jermaine Grant and his three Kenyan co-accused denied the charges. Mr Grant, arrested in Mombasa last month, has already been jailed for a year for being in Kenya illegally. Earlier this week, police spokesman Eric Kiraithe told the BBC that he was being questioned about possible links to the Somali Islamist group al-Shabab. "Such information could also assist us in preventing any possible al-Shabab threat," Mr Kiraithe said. In October, Kenya sent troops into Somalia to pursue the al-Qaeda linked group, blaming it for a recent wave of abductions which threatened its tourism industry. Al-Shabab, which controls much of south and central Somalia, denied any involvement and said the Kenyan incursion was an act of war and it would take revenge.Ordered to uncover faces The BBC's Jamhuri Mwavyombo in the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa says Mr Grant appeared in court with three Kenyan co-accused, two men and a woman. The charge sheet said as well as possessing bomb-making equipment, they planned to improvise an explosive device with the intention of causing loss of life and harming innocent civilians. Three of the defendants were remanded in custody until the case reconvenes on 20 February, while the woman was granted bail of $228,000 (£149,000), our reporter says. When they entered the courtroom the judge ordered them to stop covering their faces from photographers. After this Mr Grant kept his head down, she says. Mr Grant, from Newham in east London, was arrested by police in Mombasa before Christmas and pleaded guilty to being in the country illegally and giving false information. Over the weekend, the UK updated to its travel advice on Kenya, warning that extra care should be taken if travelling in the East Africa country as there were threats of an imminent terror attack.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-28780966	A-level results: Northern Ireland students perform strongly - 14 August 2014 - From the section Northern Ireland Northern Ireland students outperformed their counterparts in England and Wales in A-level A* and A grades, but were not so strong in A* results alone. In the full A-level, 29.9% of students scored A or A, whereas across the nations 26% got these grades. Increased interest in film or media studies was linked by the Joint Council for Qualifications to the filming of the Game of Thrones in NI. However, political studies A-level entries were down. The Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQCIC) said there was a slight increase in top A grade, rising from last year's 7.2% to 7.3% this year. The figure across England, Wales and Northern Ireland was 8.2%. About 32,000 students in Northern Ireland have received their A-level exam results. The vast majority of candidates were able to find out their grades online. About 24,000 of them have been able to log on to the internet from 07:00 BST, wherever they are in the world, to check their performance. A spokeswoman for the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA) said almost 13,000 students had used its online results service by noon on Thursday. In mathematics, 45.3% of entries were awarded grades A*-A. The most popular subjects continued to be biology, mathematics, history, English and religious studies. The most popular subject for boys was mathematics, with 1,815 entries, while the top choice for girls was biology, with 1,871 entries. Increased interest in the creative industries was reflected in a greater number of entries in subjects such as film and media studies (up 5.7%), and art and design (up 3.5%). Entry figures at AS level jumped to 45,751, an increase of 5.2% on 2013 figures, the highest entry for AS in Northern Ireland since its introduction in 2001. Education Minister John O'Dowd said the results were the "culmination of many years of hard work by pupils, with support from their teachers and families". ""However, not all pupils will get the results they were hoping for today and I urge those young people not to worry. "Help and advice is available to you and I encourage you to speak to your teachers, careers advisers and parents to discuss your future career or study path," he said. Employment and Learning Minister Stephen Farry said: "The importance of making an informed decision following exam results is imperative to effective career planning. "Taking time now to explore options will pay dividends in the future." Rebecca Hall, president of the NUS-USI (National Union of Students - Union of Students in Ireland), said: "Many students in higher education find it difficult to make ends meet and the cost of living has increased in recent times. "I would take this opportunity to call for the employment and learning minister to examine increasing student grants and maintenance loans in line with inflation annually, within the review being conducting on higher education here." Northern Ireland's two universities want to recruit higher-paying students from outside the region, but they said local applicants would not be disadvantaged. Both Queen's University, Belfast, (QUB) and the University of Ulster (UU) have been offering perks, such as free flights and en-suite accommodation, to prospective entrants with addresses outside Northern Ireland. Students from Great Britain who opt to study in Northern Ireland currently have to pay up to £9,000 a year in tuition fees to their chosen university. In contrast, applicants from Northern Ireland who are offered a place at either QUB or UU will pay a maximum tuition fee of £3,685 during the academic year 2014/15. A deal that secured reduced fees for local students was reached in 2011 following negotiations between Northern Ireland Executive ministers and Stormont's Department for Employment and Learning (DEL). However, if the Northern Ireland students apply for a course based elsewhere in the UK, they could face the full £9,000 annual fee, depending on their choice of course and college. Anthony McGrath from QUB said students from Great Britain who paid £9,000 for a place at the Belfast university would have "a number of different incentives to come here". "We've tried to package things together for GB students to try to attract students, try to make things as easy as possible. "We find that there are a number of barriers in the way for students to come to Belfast, to come to Northern Ireland, and we've tried to reduce those barriers." Mr McGrath, however, said he believed Northern Ireland students were "getting a great deal at the moment, because they're paying much less than GB students" to study at Queen's. Both QUB and UU have assured students from Northern Ireland that they would not lose out on university places as a result of their drive to attract higher-paying applicants.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9778000/9778815.stm	The American people are in mourning after the murder of 27 children and adults in what is believed to be the country's worst school shooting. The people of Egypt have begun voting in a referendum on a new constitution. Plus - troubled families - and what to do about them. We have exclusive access to the person appointed by the government to sort them out. And Viva Forever! the Spice Girls musical opened this week, we debate the pop musical: fun entertainment or blatant cash cow? We speak to lyricist Tim Rice. 0709 As many as 27 people have been killed, including many children, in a shooting attack at a primary school in the US state of Connecticut. Laura Trevelyan reports from Newtown, the sight of the massacre. 0713 Protests will be staged in Northern Ireland today about whether to fly the Union flag over Belfast City Hall. Chris Buckler reports from Belfast. 0715 Dr Rowan Williams made his final speech in the House of Lords as Archbishop of Canterbury, yesterday in parliament. Parliamentary correspondent Mark D'Arcy has a summary. 0721 The Russian opposition is holding a rally today, calling on supporters to gather near the secret service headquarters. The rally is not sanctioned by police. Russia correspondent Steve Rosenberg reports from Moscow. 0724 Sport news with Rob Bonnet. 0731 James Alan Fox, professor of criminology at Northeastern University in Boston, and an expert on mass killings, speaks to Justin Webb about what is to blame for these kinds of killings 0736 Egyptians are voting in a referendum on their new constitution. Tens of thousands of troops and police are on the streets to keep order, after the president's decision to take more power to his office. The BBC's Egypt correspondent John Leyne assesses the mood in Cairo. 0739 The paper review. 0742 Today reporter Zubeida Malik looks at this week's census results, focussing on the number of foreign-born residents in the UK who hail from India. She speaks to three generations of Indian immigrants. 0754 Thought for the Day with Brian Draper, associate lecturer at the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity. 0757 The Football Association's adviser on racism, Lord Ouseley, is stepping down because football club's are not doing enough to combat racism in the game. Black championship and premiership player Nathan Blake and former England manager Graham Taylor discuss the issue. 0810 The Justice Secretary Chris Grayling has produced plans to try to stem the growth in applications for judicial review, in which courts are asked to decided whether decisions by government or public bodies have been carried out properly. The BBC's legal affairs correspondent Clive Coleman assesses the proposal and the former Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf, discusses the proposal. 0817 The best selling author Wilbur Smith has signed a new book deal worth £15m, but he will be using "carefully selected co-authors" to help write the book. Ian Rankin the crime writer and Jennie Erdal, the author of Ghosting - a book about her experiences as a ghost writer - discuss how often this happens and whether it is important. 0823 Sport news with Rob Bonnet. 0836 The BBC's Barbara Plett has been in the American town of Newtown, where a school shooting took place yesterday, talking to residents about the experience. Robert Spitzer author of "The Politics of Gun Control" and professor of political science at the State University of New York College at Cortland spoke to Justin Webb about America's options for gun control. 0844 The paper review. 0846 The BBC's Winifred Robinson follows the work of the government's Troubled Families Unit, set up after the riots in England last year. 0850 Justice Secretary Chris Grayling talks about his plans to tackle what he describes as "ill-founded" judicial reviews, suggesting that in future they should cost more. Ministers say the changes will not alter role reviews play in holding them, and others, to account. 0854 After poor reviews for the new Spice Girls musical Viva Forever!, what are the key ingredients for a hit musical these days? Lyricist Sir Tim Rice and theatre critic Dominic Cavendish examine the legitimacy of musical theatre as a serious art form. Get in touch with Today via or text us on 84844. This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4462167.stm	By Jane Wakefield BBC News technology reporter Intel foresees a bright future for Wimax in rural areas, developing countries and as a successor to wi-fi. Wimax could bring broadband to rural areas The technology may not be familiar to many, but Intel wants to put it firmly on the global broadband map. For developing nations, with poor fixed communication infrastructure, Wimax could offer a vital link to the digital world. Providing the silicon for Wimax modems is an important first step in its journey from pipedream to reality. Filling the gaps There have already been around 100 trials of the technology around the world and products are likely to be commercially available within two years. Wimax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) has, on paper, a lot going for it. Theoretically it can provide data rates of up to 70 mbps over distances of up to 50 km, although its actual range is dictated by many variables, including topography, environmental conditions and network capacity. Hyped by many as a successor to wi-fi, it also has a vital role to play alongside the fixed broadband technologies of DSL and cable. This role is best summed up as a hole-filler, plugging gaps left by DSL and cable, providing a lifeline to those in rural areas and countries with poor fixed communications infrastructure and opening up the net to a whole new generation of users. Next billion users In the UK, BT has already put the technology through its paces in four trials in remote areas in Cornwall, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. It was tested in difficult environmental conditions and the feedback from users was good, according to Chet Patel, BT's general manager of internet access products. It could become a crucial technology in ensuring 100% broadband access across the UK, he said. BT will eventually offer Wimax in the form of an off-the-shelf self-install modem, similar to its plug-and-play DSL service which helped kick-start broadband take-up when it was launched in 2002. Wimax products will become available in around 18 months time and modems - with a manufacture cost of £100 - are likely to be subsidised by net service providers. The chip currently being launched by Intel is specifically aimed at the fixed wireless market and it is optimistic about the impact it can have here. Wireless technology and satellite often becomes sidelined as "other technologies" in pie-charts where the lion's share of take-up goes to DSL and cable. Intel is betting on this changing. "This category of other represents the next billion users," said Scott Richardson, general manager of Intel's broadband wireless division. Wimax could eventually supersede wi-fi But others doubt whether Wimax can ever be a real competitor to DSL and cable. "Wimax will come into its own in places like Ireland, central and eastern Europe, Portugal, Estonia and Africa," said Ian Fogg, an analyst with Jupiter Research. But he is sceptical that it can compete in areas where traditional broadband technologies are more widely available. This is down to speed. While DSL and cable providers are already offering up to 8 mbps, Wimax will not realistically go much beyond 10 mbps when it is debuted in the next 18 months, Mr Fogg predicted. Where Wimax has a brighter future and where Mr Fogg sees Intel's interest in the technology really lying, is as a successor to wi-fi. This flavour of Wimax, which will see the technology deployed on laptops and handheld devices, is currently under construction and when it is ready will be a natural successor to wi-fi. This is some way off though. "It will take five to 10 years for Wimax to be spread around the country and during this time, wi-fi will continue to be very important," said Jonathon Pagget, chief operating officer of Airspan, a wireless equipment manufacturer. Eventually though, Wimax will overshadow wi-fi. "Where today you see wi-fi, tomorrow you will see Wimax," said Mr Richardson. Farther out, he envisaged Wimax working hand-in-hand with 3G and other high-speed technologies to provide a "personal broadband" possibly in the form of a pocket modem that can connect a multitude of devices wherever the user happens to be.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7810368.stm	By Paul Reynolds World affairs correspondent, BBC News website Diplomacy will have to wait until there is a decision of arms in Gaza. At the moment, diplomacy carries little weight This conclusion is inevitable in the face of a determination by the Israeli government that it faces an unacceptable threat from Gaza that must be dealt with. By delaying ground operations for a week, it gave Hamas a chance to back down and call a halt to the firing of rockets into Israel. But Hamas chose confrontation, probably fearing that to do otherwise would be to show weakness. In theory, a diplomatic solution is on the table. It would consist of the following: a mutual ceasefire, a prohibition on the smuggling of arms into Gaza and a relaxation of the Israeli economic squeeze on Gaza. This would give something to each side. There would be calm across the border, Israel would get some assurance - which would have to be backed up by an enforcement mechanism - of reducing at least the entry of arms into Gaza and Gazans would see the prospect of an improvement in their daily lives. However when or even if it is possible to talk seriously of such an agreement remains to be seen. On Saturday evening, after the Israeli ground operations began, the Security Council found itself unable to agree on a new call for a ceasefire. The United States blocked a statement with the argument that Hamas had not agreed to a previous ceasefire call. A new statement, in the words of the US deputy ambassador Alejandro Wolff, "would not be adhered to and would have no underpinning for success, [and] would not do credit to the council". The visit of President Sarkozy of France, who arrives in Egypt on Monday and then goes on to Israel and the Palestinian territories, will lead to more talk of a cessation and the conditions attached to it. The former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is the representative of the Quartet of the US, the UN, Russia and the EU, has also been busy. The European Union's troika of foreign ministers is also visiting on Monday, but at this stage of a major conflict like this, outsiders from Europe cannot make an effective intervention. With the Bush administration blaming Hamas, Israel has the diplomatic support it needs. Not that Israel will want to ignore international opinion. It has been careful in its operations to stress that it will maintain humanitarian supplies into Gaza. The unanswered question is whether Israel will succeed, first in its military operations to stop the rockets, and then in its diplomatic aim of getting a durable arrangement. The war in Lebanon showed the difficulties of combat against a well-entrenched militia-type organisation. So there is a danger for Israel of its troops getting bogged down to no great effect. Much depends on whether Hamas has been able to recover from the shock it must have received eight days ago when the air assault began. On the other hand, a decisive Israeli ground intervention could leave the door open to negotiation - but only if Hamas chooses to walk through that door.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4345077.stm	By Stephen Dowling BBC News website Nottingham, the city of the Robin Hood legend that became a textiles powerbase during the Industrial Revolution, now struggles with a reputation for drugs killings and teeming with binge drinkers on lawless Saturday nights. Nottinghamshire is struggling to deal with violent crime It is a city, apparently, where the local police cannot deal with the amount of murders taking place on their patch - so much so that they may have to farm some investigations to other forces, Nottinghamshire's chief constable has warned. But many of the citizens of Nottingham are becoming upset at seeing their city painted as the new crime capital of Britain. And while they are not pretending there are not problems, they say Nottingham's image is being tarnished. Hilary Silvester, the chair of Nottingham's Civic Society, told the BBC News website: "I'm concerned about this view of people running around waving guns. It's not my impression of the middle of Nottingham. "There is crime here, just like there is crime in all big cities. Very often it is localised." Nottingham's problems have been blamed on vicious drug gangs fighting for control of the city's narcotics trade. The city also attracts thousands of drinkers and revellers every weekend night, drawn to more than 350 licensed premises within a square mile of the city centre. Its police are stretched to the limit on weekend nights, officers have complained, and too many are being diverted from street duty to undertake clerical duties, chief constable Steve Green said. Ms Silvester said: "Everyone tends to look at Nottingham when they want to do a feature on violence or binge-drinking." While she understood Mr Green wanted to boost the number of officers working on the beat, "we got this image of Nottingham being totally inhabited by gangsters", she said. That image had become so bad, earlier this month, the city's tourism chiefs "re-branded" Nottingham as a county capital for shopping, culture and entertainment. They feared the media coverage of drug killings and binge drinking was discouraging tourists from visiting. "I would like to see this city known for things other than shopping and binge-drinking," said Ms Silvester. "We still want to be Nottingham, but we want to be the best Nottingham possible." Brendon Lawrence was shot on the street in Nottingham in 2002 Nottingham City Council has not welcomed reports calling the city a crime centre. A spokesman told the BBC News website "the portrayal of our city as the capital of violent crime is not supported by fact and it simply is not the reality of everyday life here". The number of firearms incidents in 2003/4 was 233, putting it in fifth place in England and Wales in terms of population, he said. Violence against the person rates of 31.8 per 1,000 was lower than Blackpool, Lincoln, Peterborough, Gwent and Leicester's, the council said. But the mother of one of Nottingham's gun crime victims, Janice Collins, says that the realities of life in the city are as bad as Mr Green has painted. Mrs Collins, whose son Brendon Lawrence was killed for being "in the wrong place at the wrong time" in 2002, said she backed the chief constable "every step of the way". A member of Mothers Against Guns, she said she had seen "30-year-old detectives who looked like they were 60" because they were so over-worked. She said Nottingham's police needed to be given the extra resources they needed to carry out investigations. But she laid a lot of the blame for Nottingham's problems on the community itself. "These crimes can't be solved if the community doesn't come forward. I've told people that if they come forward and speak out, Nottingham's police would act on it." She said people knew who was carrying out the killings, and Nottingham's crime problems could be solved in a week if the police had the information to convict them. She also said she believed life sentences should be mandatory for those who killed with guns. Nottingham's last attempt at a guns amnesty, in November, only took 35 weapons out of commission. The hardcore drug-dealers and offenders were not being dissuaded, Mrs Collins said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/7867556.stm	Readers have been sending in photos of their snow sculptures. This snow mouse was the creation of Andy Connolly from Clapham Common. This snow gnome was made by Ben Moffat and his sister Hannah. Holly and Josh Noke from Hampshire have used their school-free day to make some creative art. Doonyia, Zeena and Miran Ismail had a busy day in the snow in Caerphilly. Cathy Mooney called this snow sculpture "A man with a telecaster' in the style of Henry Moore. Reza Bamdad made this snow bride together with her mum as a surprise to her sister Mariam who will get married this summer. No school today for Adam Tay so he was free to fix the snowman's nose, which fell off during the night. Claudette Tinsley from Somerset had to wait until it was dark before there was enough snow to create Beethoven the snowman. The Vekaria and Taparia families used the snow to make a statue of the Indian deity, Ganesh, the elephant god. Richard Uridge: "Darwin has evolved from a snowball!" Louie Martin from Romsey sent this photo of the snow version of himself and his cat Remi. Who needs sand when there is snow? This snow castle was built by Thomas and Jemma Davies from Kent.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21506563	OECD economies in 0.2% quarterly decline - 19 February 2013 - From the section Business The economies of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) contracted by 0.2% in the last three months of 2012. It was the first such decline for this group of mainly rich countries since the beginning of 2009. The eurozone was the biggest factor, with a 0.6% contraction. Japan and the UK shrank too and the US saw no growth. The OECD's figures highlight the continuing weakness that has afflicted the developed world. At no stage since the financial crisis have developed economies grown very strongly. It has never been a convincing recovery. But the figures for the final quarter of last year actually show a decline for the first time in nearly four years for the OECD as a whole - which is nearly all the rich countries and a few of the more developed emerging economies. The data refer to the final three months of last year. There have been some more positive developments since then. In Europe, some business surveys have suggested improving confidence. Individual country figures have already been published - and are, it should be said, subject to revision. What the OECD's compilation shows is the persistence and extent of the post-crisis malaise.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-28112851	Mobile home petition taken to Downing Street - 2 July 2014 - From the section Dorset A petition calling on the government to debate commission paid on the sale of mobile homes has been taken to Downing Street. Sonia McColl, from Wareham in Dorset, wants the government to reconsider the 10% levy home owners have to pay to park operators if they sell their home. She presented a petition signed by 30,000 mobile home residents. Mrs McColl was made an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list for her campaigning work. She and other park home residents from across the country were joined by the MP for Mid Dorset and North Poole, Annette Brooke, for a rally. Mrs McColl said: "Park owners are getting a very large chunk of the home owner's equity. Because of that, when people sell their home they can only afford something inferior. "Many people feel trapped because of this. Others need to go into care and they won't have enough money when the homes are sold to sustain the care they want." Mrs McColl led a campaign to change a rule which meant park owners could prevent residents from selling their homes. The law had led to rogue landlords blocking sales in order to buy the homes themselves at a cheaper price. The Mobile Homes Act was brought in last year, offering some protections for residents and powers to prosecute park operators. However, Mrs McColl believes the 10% levy charged by park operators when people sell their homes is too large. It was reviewed in 2002 and 2006 but on both occasions was kept at the same level. "We are not asking for the commission to be abolished, we are asking for a compromise," she added.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8572760.stm	An artists impression of CoRoT-9b which was spotted by the CoRoT satellite It is 1,500 light-years from Earth but CoRoT-9b is the first temperate planet found known to be similar to those within our own Solar System. The presence of CoRoT-9b was detected by a space mission designed to find planets we cannot see from the ground. "It is the size of Jupiter and has an orbit similar to Mercury," said lead researcher Dr Hans Deeg. In the journal Nature, the scientists say it is the first planet of its type which can yield detailed information. More than 400 exoplanets, or planets outside the Solar System, have been discovered so far but Dr Deeg, who works at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias in the Canary Islands, explained that the others have all been "exotic". "They are either extremely hot, being very close to the central star on short orbits, or they are on eccentric orbits, taking them close to and far from the central star, giving them extreme temperatures." CoRoT-9b has a temperate climate. "This is the first planet where it makes sense to apply the models developed for planets within our solar system," said Dr Deeg. We expect this to be a reference object for the next decade Dr Hans Deeg The surface temperature is estimated to be between about -20 and 160 degrees Celsius. Dr Deeg explained that although some of the exoplanets previously discovered were thought likely to be temperate it was not possible to confirm that or to find out much information about them. The planet was discovered by an international team of 60 astronomers and identified using the "transit" method. During its orbit of 95 days it passes in front of its central star, or transits, for about eight hours. "The transit method enables us to obtain much more information about it," explained Dr Deeg. "We expect this to be a reference object for the next decade. "We can derive its temperature as we know the distance to the central star and the type of central star it is." A blue planet? CoRoT-9b was spotted by the CoRoT satellite, which is a mission led by the French space agency, Centre National d'Études Spatiales. Its presence was then confirmed by observations from several telescopes from the European Southern Observatory, in Tenerife and at other sites. "An analysis of the data from the satellite gives us the size and the data from the ground gives us the mass," explained Dr Deeg. "We don't know the colour. It's likely that it has high atmosphere water clouds which might make it blue but that depends on the mixture of gases which we really do not know," he added. The scientists say the discovery of the planet shows that the development history of our Solar System has been repeated around other stars. This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/women/7012240.stm	Germany reached the Women's World Cup final with an own goal and a quick-fire second-half brace against Norway. Germany celebrate the crucial opening goal in Tianjin Norway, looking to reach their first final since 1995, had the better of the first half with Leni Larsen Kaurin and Solveig Gulbrandsen going close. But defending champions Germany went ahead when Trine Ronning turned in Birgit Prinz's cross on 43 minutes. Kerstin Steegemann's deflected effort doubled their lead and Martina Mueller pounced on a mistake for the third. If the first goal knocked the stuffing from Norway, those two strikes in three minutes left them dead and buried after they had started so well. While Germany lined up numerous shots but failed to hit the target, Norway were far more accurate in front of goal. Kaurin connected with a firm long-range effort before fluffing while one-on-one from closer range, and Gulbrandsen cracked a corner on the half volley that tested Nadine Angerer low to her left. But it was Germany who struck when Prinz was released down the left and Ronning, who had earlier denied Melanie Behringer with a perfectly-timed tackle in the box, turned the ball in at the near post as she looked to defend a fierce, flat cross. Norway came close to an immediate equaliser when a corner dropped in the the six-yard box and caused panic in the German ranks, but that was as near as they were going to come to an equaliser. Defending champions Germany hit their straps after the break, when they were quicker to close down their European rivals and deny them space. The game was all but up on 72 minutes when Steegeman's looping, deflected shot from the right left a scrambling Bente Nordby with no chance in the Norway goal. And when Siri Nordby's under-hit pass was collected by Mueller for a cool, low finish from the left Germany could start thinking about Sunday's final against either the USA or Brazil. It could have been worse for Norway, but Fatmire Bajramaj cracked a fierce effort on to the crossbar when played in by Prinz from the right. For Norway it was a first loss to European opposition at a World Cup. While Germany will go into Shanghai's showdown in confident in confident mood having scored 19 goals without conceding, although Angerer was forced to protect that proud record with a fine, low save from Marie Knutsen. Germany have now gone 529 minutes without conceding a World Cup goal, dating back to the 2003 tournament, which has broken China's previous best mark of 442 minutes. Germany: Angerer, Stegemann, Hingst, Krahn, Bresonik (Minnert 81), Behringer (Bajramaj 41), Garefrekes, Lingor, Laudehr, Smisek (Mueller 65), Prinz. Subs Not Used: Holl, Rottenberg, Bartusiak, Peter, Fuss, Wimbersky, Mittag. Goals: Ronning 42 og, Stegemann 72, Mueller 75. Norway: Bente Nordby, Stangeland Horpestad, Huse, Folstad (Siri Nordby 48), Stensland, Marie Knutsen, Ronning, Solveig Gulbrandsen (Storlokken 56), Herlovsen (Klaveness 46), Larsen Kaurin, Ragnhild Gulbrandsen. Subs Not Used: Nilsen, Skarbo, Fiane Christensen, Giske, Mykjaland, Wiik, Guro Knutsen. Booked: Larsen Kaurin. Referee: Dagmar Damkova (Czech Republic).
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/politics_show/6699931.stm	Will squeezing the companies really work? Emissions trading is a way of reducing emissions. The aim is to put a price on emissions so that companies have an incentive to reduce them - in a similar way to when companies try to reduce water consumption to cut water bills. The EU's scheme is called the European Emissions Trading Scheme (ETC). There is a cap on the total amount of pollution companies across Europe are allowed to emit. The cap is divided between countries, which in turn give credits to individual companies, allowing them to produce a certain amount of pollution. If companies emit more, they have to buy credits - if they produce less they can sell their spare quota. City skylines can be almost unrecognisable The aim is for companies to find the cheapest way of reducing emissions amongst themselves, by allowing one which can cut its emissions very cheaply to sell their credits to someone who can not. Income from the credits should balance the cost of cutting emissions. Reducing over time The theory is that the total emissions cap is reduced over time, and so companies have to cut their emissions more and more. As that happens, the price of spare pollution credits will rise, making it steadily more cost-efficient to cut pollution rather than buy more credits. Not a total solution? Is carbon trading a realistic answer? Critics complain that carbon trading does not have good enough accounting - how can we be sure that the reported reductions have been made? They are also concerned that companies producing little pollution have less incentive to reduce their pollution further than they would with a tax-based system. The European scheme (ETS) has faced criticism because of the way some countries gave their own companies over-generous permit allocations in its first phase, limiting how far they needed to reduce their pollution. You can reach the Politics Show team by using the e-mail form below... Disclaimer: The BBC may edit your comments and cannot guarantee that all emails will be published.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/5408732.stm	The Ulster Defence Association is keen to stand down and needs help to achieve it, according to loyalist politicians. The views of UDA members were considered Senior commanders in the paramilitary organisation were among those attending the launch of a document on the organisation's future. Frankie Gallagher of the Ulster Political Research Group, which gives advice to the UDA, said they believed the "war was over." He said: "We believe people want to move on, will you help us move on?" He added: "We are going to say to the rest of civic society and the rest of communities that we don't know how much it will cost, if it costs anything, but what we are saying is that if everybody chips in and helps us, then we can create that environment." The pamphlet outlining ways of transforming loyalist areas has been published, following a consultation within working class Protestant areas. It includes the views of UDA members. On Monday, one of the UDA's most notorious units said it wanted to disband, but it wanted the government to give it £8.5m to help the process. The South East Antrim Brigade of the UDA has been responsible for dozens of murders throughout the Troubles. It said it now wanted to become "a community development body". The leadership is backing a new group, Beyond Conflict, "to deal with drugs, paramilitary activity, race relations, interface violence and unemployment". Nationalist and unionist politicians criticised the announcement.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6163392.stm	International aid agencies have launched a massive relief operation to help 1.8 million people affected by heavy flooding in the Horn of Africa. Large areas of central and southern Somalia have been flooded after several weeks of heavy rains. Neighbouring Kenya and Ethiopia are also affected. Crocodiles in Somalia killed at least nine people after floodwaters swept them into villages, reports say. At least 80 people in the region have died in the last three weeks. The UN has said the floods could be the worst in the region for 50 years. Several rivers have burst their banks, washing out roads and destroying bridges. Particularly hard hit have been the areas around the Shebelle and Juba rivers in southern Somalia. The region contains some of the most productive farmland in the country. The Shebelle river has flooded its banks, affecting towns and villages in a swathe of territory stretching hundreds of kilometres. A UN aid worker on high ground near Beledweyne in Somalia told the BBC Somali service he could see people climbing trees or fleeing the town as it became flooded with crocodile-infested waters. The interim government of Somalia, based in Baidoa, has appealed for international help. The Islamic militia which controls much of the south of the country, including the capital Mogadishu, has also asked for help, Reuters news agency said. Refugee camps flooded Floodwaters from the Juba river in Somalia and the Tana river in Kenya have combined to inundate a large region of north-eastern Kenya. Three camps in the area, housing 80,000 refugees from the conflict in Somalia, have been cut off. Roads and bridges have been washed out by floodwaters The UN refugee agency has begun airlifting emergency supplies to the camps, at Daabad near the border with Somalia, and has ordered its staff to move to higher ground. A dam on the Tana river, south of the town of Garissa, is close to bursting, the UN said on Friday. Much of Garissa is underwater and 20 people are missing, AFP news agency reported. In western Kenya, a hippo went berserk and killed six people after floods washed it into the town of Busia, Elizabeth Byrs from the UN's humanitarian affairs agency told AP news agency. The heavy rains in the Horn of Africa follow a long drought that has dried the ground and left it unable to soak up large amounts of rainfall. Crops already blighted by the drought have now been destroyed by the flooding. "We are facing a disaster where many people will die not only of floods, but also of diseases and food shortages," a Somali government spokesman told AFP. Heavy rains are expected to continue for several more weeks.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5033514.stm	The actor who portrayed fictional Colombian coffee icon Juan Valdez for four decades has hung up his trademark poncho for the last time. Juan Valdez - one of the most famous Colombians of all time "It's pretty nostalgic," said Carlos Sanchez, 71, who for 37 years promoted coffee as the moustachioed farmer. Juan Valdez has played a role in presenting a positive side of Colombia to the world, correspondents say. And he will live on, because Colombia's coffee federation is set to unveil his third incarnation in June. Juan Valdez, with his leather bag, straw hat and poncho, and accompanied by his faithful mule Conchita, embodied rural Colombia. Colombia's coffee federation uses the logo as a seal of guarantee First created in 1959, he was found roaming the countryside in search of the finest coffee beans. Ever the quintessential Colombian coffee farmer, he turned up at sporting events, and poured a coffee for Jim Carrey in the film, Bruce Almighty. The logo showing Juan and Conchita first appeared in 1981 as part of efforts to advertise one of Colombia's main exports. "I feel like a flag, like a national anthem," said Mr Sanchez as he told a news conference about his memories of playing the iconic coffee grower since 1969, including meeting Bill Clinton and the Spanish royal family. Carlos Sanchez spoke of his great pride in being Juan Valdez Mr Sanchez said touring the world advertising Colombian coffee had become too tiring. From a field of 400, Colombia's coffee federation has narrowed the choice to replace Mr Sanchez down and will announce the new Juan Valdez in June. The younger Juan will be "humble but proud of Colombia's coffee", Gabriel Silva, president of the National Federation of Coffee Growers said. He will be used to promote the drink to today's consumers, focusing on its quality and the fact that it is grown in environmentally sound conditions, Mr Silva said. But some things will not change. "He has to have a bushy moustache," Mr Silva said.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-10678147	Boy cycles around Poole Bay in memory of friend An eight-year-old boy has cycled 40 miles (64km) around Poole Bay in Dorset in memory of the friend who taught him to ride. Taylor Dart, of Calvert in Buckinghamshire, started and finished the ride at his grandmother's home in Ferndown on Sunday. His friend Taylan Rawlinson was just seven-years-old when he died from a brain tumour in August last year. Taylor has already raised more than £1,500 towards brain tumour research. Taylor said: "He helped me ride my first bike without stabilisers and I just love biking. "I've already raised £1,550 and I hope to raise £1,600." Taylor's father, Phil Dart, said he completed the ride in three hours and 28 minutes. He said that since Taylan died his son had been thinking about what he could do in his memory and decided to do a 40-mile bike ride around Poole Bay. Mr Dart said: "He's organised it himself and he's set up his own justgiving page. "He has been training very hard on his bike, he's been doing various training rides. He started off doing 26-mile rides and then a 35-mile ride. "He's been eating lots of pasta and other carbohydrates to try and keep his energy levels up and has been very, very focused on preparing and keeping his bike in good shape. "He's been doing all the usual things you'd expect him to be doing in the run-up to a big ride. "He's only eight, he's thought about doing this all by himself - proud is not a big enough word."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-25116204	Top India seer Jayendra Saraswati is cleared of murder An influential Hindu religious figure has been found not guilty of the murder of a temple manager in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Sri Jayendra Saraswathi, head of a 1,000-year-old Brahmin monastic order, was arrested in 2004 in connection with the murder of Sankararaman, manager of a temple in Kanchipuram. A court also acquitted 22 others charged in connection with the murder. The verdicts came more than nine years after Sankararaman was murdered. The case generated nationwide attention and took several twists and turns. During innumerable examinations and cross-examinations by lawyers throughout the trial nearly 90 out of of 189 witnesses turned hostile, reports say, One of the accused was murdered earlier this year. The court ruled that the family of Sankararaman had "failed to identify the accused". It found "no incriminating evidence" against Jayendra Saraswathi, Bangalore-based journalist Imran Qureshi told BBC Hindi. Jayendra Saraswathi is head of the Kanchi Shankara Math, a leading Hindu monastic order. He was charged with conspiracy to murder along with with a junior seer Vijayendra Saraswathi. Prosecutors alleged that the two men hired hit men to kill Sankararaman, who was one of their former aides. Sankararaman reportedly wrote anonymous letters accusing Jayendra Saraswathi of misusing monastery funds. The allegations included embezzlement of gold procured for making a temple chariot and providing lavish lifestyles for the cleric's relatives. Both men denied the allegations and any role in the killing. They were granted bail in 2005. Jayendra Saraswathi is one of India's most revered religious figures and his arrest angered his Hindu nationalist supporters.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-37194498	'Deluded' lottery scam man jailed A "deluded" money launderer who helped run a lottery scam that targeted elderly victims has been jailed for six months. Gerald Sunnie received cheques worth tens of thousands of pounds from three pensioners. He then forwarded the money to "individuals across Europe" while keeping a share of the cash. He was convicted of a £33,000 money laundering charge under the Proceeds of Crime Act. Dundee Sheriff Court heard that Sunnie initially became involved after being "deluded" into thinking that he had won a £200,000 American lottery prize that had not turned up. Sunnie started taking in cheques that he was told were to cover "European tax liabilities" on his winnings, passing the money on after taking his portion of it. The 58-year-old's bank accounts were closed down due to "fraudulent activity" and he was twice told by Trading Standards officers that he was helping to facilitate an international fraud. But he started up his activity again in August 2013, taking in dozens of cheques from three elderly victims over the course of the next year. 'Obviously a scam' He told his trial that a man from the fraudsters he was passing the money to had called him two weeks earlier saying his £200,000 winnings were still on the way, and that he still expected a cheque to come through his door. Sunnie's lawyer Gary McIlravey admitted that his client was "deluded". Depute fiscal Muhammad Sadiq, prosecuting, said: "It's clear he may have been a victim at first, but he did then benefit by processing payments on numerous occasions after being told it was a scam." Sheriff Simon Collins QC convicted Sunnie of money laundering, saying a large number of vulnerable people had been defrauded out of a large sum of money. The sheriff added: "By any standard the arrangement he entered, even from the outset, was obviously a scam. "He was told it was a scam and that he was taking part in a fraud and his bank accounts were closed. "He processed nearly £52,000 but claimed not to have made even inquiries of those involved in these arrangements. This stretches credulity." He said Sunnie's role had been "key" to the scam, that his motivation was "clearly personal gain" and that he had shown "little or no remorse".
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-42983881	Why is Australia investigating its banks? Finance is Australia's biggest industry, and its banks are some of the most profitable in the world. But now the nation's highest form of public inquiry is examining misconduct by the nation's banks and financial institutions. The royal commission follows a decade of scandals that have rocked the sector. How dominant are Australia's banks? Australia's "Big Four" - Commonwealth Bank (CBA), ANZ, National Australia Bank (NAB) and Westpac - collectively have about 80% of the country's banking market. A recent government-funded report found the sector was "unquestionably strong", but criticised levels of competition and transparency. What have been the scandals? All four major banks have faced misconduct allegations. They include: - Risky financial advice: Commonwealth Bank customers lost millions of dollars due to inappropriate advice from financial planners. - Dodgy mortgages: About 20 NAB bankers were sacked after issuing home loans based on incorrect or incomplete documentation. - Rate-rigging lawsuits: All four banks were accused of manipulating a key interest rate benchmark. - Alleged breaches of anti money laundering laws: Commonwealth Bank admitted it was late to disclose 53,000 suspect ATM transactions. Analysts estimate that Australian banks have paid more than A$1bn (£550m; $780m) in penalties and compensation since the 2008 financial crisis. Despite this, the banking giants have continued to post large profits, sometimes at record levels. Why was an inquiry deemed necessary? Momentum grew from continued public debate about whether banks were putting profits and shareholders ahead of customers. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had initially opposed an inquiry, but agreed in December that one was needed to restore confidence in the sector. He said the royal commission would extend to the entire financial industry, including superannuation - or pension contributions - insurance and wealth management sectors. The biggest banks said they welcomed the inquiry as a way to end "political uncertainty". What will be investigated? The catchily-titled 'Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry' will examine misconduct which has already been established in the sector - as well as allegations about other wrongdoing. It also has the remit to look at possible gaps in how the industry is monitored and regulated. Anyone can make submissions to the inquiry - with bank customers among those expected to give plenty of input. The commissioners will have the power to examine documents, call witnesses and take evidence. The inquiry is scheduled to take 12 months. The banks say they remain confident about the process, but some industry watchers have predicted further damaging revelations. What could happen afterwards? The inquiry can make recommendations to reform the industry, and even prosecutions, if it finds wrongdoing. But it cannot award compensation for individual cases or even directly tell institutions to take action. But it can propose redress schemes. Could the inquiry fall short? Critics have said a year-long inquiry may not be able to sufficiently investigate all allegations. The most recent royal commission, which covered child sexual abuse, ran for four years.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-46812497	Seagulls nest at top of fire service animals rescues list Seagulls are the animal most rescued by firefighters in Cornwall, figures have revealed. Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service said it was involved in rescuing 201 animals over three years, from 2015 to 2017. The birds topped the table, needing to be rescued 55 times, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said. In second place, were dogs, which clocked up 42 rescues. Third was the classic firefighter rescue case - cats, with 28. With the cat rescues, there were no details about how many were rescued from up trees. Those incidents resulted in the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) suggesting people attacked by aggressive gulls should wear hoodies for protection. In a third case, in 2016, an 18-year-old woman fell 15ft (4.6m) from a St Ives harbour wall when a seagull tried to snatch her ice cream. - Why seagulls are just 'misunderstood' - Seagulls, scourge of the seaside? - How to stop seagulls stealing food - BBC News Firefighters spent 652 hours rescuing animals from 2015 to 2017 with the largest amount of time focused on livestock, which accounted for 459 hours. In comparison, the Cornish service attended 3,350 fire callouts over the same period, spending more than 13,000 hours. A total of 26 horses were rescued by the fire service during the three-year period, along with 13 cows. A number of different animals account for two rescues each over the three-year period including: ponies, deer, jackdaws, ducks, crows, swans, sheep, calves and lambs. And, lastly, several species needed rescuing just the once, including: a raven, parrot, blackbird, bullock, budgie, puppy and a fox.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-25464275	What did I learn from 2013's crop of political books? It turns out some not very nice things were happening at the top of the Labour government; Benjamin Disreali was a bit of a one; Peers very seldom wear ermine and do a lot of work when no-one's looking; Sir Fred Goodwin spent a small fortune repainting the Royal Bank of Scotland's fleet of corporate Mercedes in the exact shade of blue on the RBS logo; fundraising for British political parties remains murky; governments of all colours keep on making the same expensive mistakes, and Nick Clegg played a very cunning game forming the Coalition… One of the joys of presenting BBC Parliament's BOOKtalk is that I get to browse across subjects way beyond the immediate Westminster bubble "must read" list. But for me the undisputed political book of the year has to be the book at the top of that list - disgraced spin doctor Damian McBride's occasionally terrifying account of his life and work in the court of Gordon Brown. McBride... or McNasty, or McPoison, was a high functioning alcoholic when he became Chancellor, then Prime Minister Brown's conduit to the press, and a key player in the factional New Labour wars between Blairites and Brownites. He gives an achingly vivid account of his role in New Labour's palace intrigues in his confessional memoir, Power Trip. And he managed to shock even Westminster insiders who'd had an occasional glimpse of his activities. Is it totally candid? Probably not. Few in Westminster give away all their secrets, if only out of self-preservation. But there are enough accounts of systemic leaking and brutal smears to provide a horribly revealing insight into the seamy side of political life. And it's very well written. The centrepiece is a devastating portrait of Gordon Brown, the leader in whose name McBride leaked and smeared. It is warts 'n all stuff, tantrums and blame games, and ruthless court politics as well as flashes of leadership at the height of the credit crunch. And there is a glimpse of the praetorian guard of young(ish) men around Brown, men who make up the politiburo of the post-Brown Labour Party: Ed Balls, Douglas Alexander and Ed Miliband, all jockeying for position. The moment when Ed Miliband turns on McBride and refuses to believe he wasn't behind a leak against him is reminiscent of Prince Hal cutting Falstaff - "I know you not, old man..." There's a sense of McBride trying to purge his conscience through confession, and maybe establish himself as a kind of guru for recovering spin doctors, but I think it will be a long time before he's forgiven on earth, if not in heaven. Less gaudy is Matthew D'Ancona's inside story of the Coalition - In It Together. His central revelation is that the Conservative leadership always expected it might have to make a post-election deal with the Lib Dems, and had done a lot of the policy, if not personal groundwork. D'Ancona is obviously well plugged into the Camerons, at a personal as well as journalistic level, and the book is very much a Camerons-eye-view of events, with the quality of insider information from the Lib Dem side somewhat thinner. The aim is clearly to provide the kind of insider account that Bob Woodward has written about successive US presidents, or Andrew Rawnsley gave of the Blair years. But despite the sheer unfamiliarity of the Coalition, and the inherent divisions of a multi-party government, the result is somehow less gaudy. Maybe the sheer venom of New Labour's tribal factionalism just isn't there. Maybe, through force of circumstance the Coalition is simply more earnest. But you do get a flavour of a government of chums, at least at the very centre - a social circle, D'Ancona says, before they became a political faction. Required reading, but not the last word. A less flattering view of the Coalition, or at least of its genesis comes from the Labour former transport secretary, Lord Andrew Adonis, who was a player in the frenetic negotiations which followed the 2010 election. His book, Five Days in May traces the drama hour by hour, meeting by meeting, even text by text capturing the weird combination of fizzing excitement and total exhaustion both of the politicians and the media, following that gruelling campaign. The villain of the piece, as he tells the tale, is Nick Clegg, who stands accused of being determined to join up with the Tories from the first, when a rainbow Coalition with Labour, eked out by the votes of smaller parties, was a genuine alternative. I've never quite been able to buy this argument. First, Clegg would have had to be prepared to sustain Gordon Brown in power for months, perhaps more than a year, when Labour had clearly lost the election, even if no-one had won it. Second, a Lab-Lib combination would not have had a majority in the Commons - so it would have had to live hand to mouth, relying on the Northern Irish, the SNP and the rest, and prone to extortion at every turn. Third, I'm not convinced Brown could have delivered his own party. Maybe there were some left of centre soul-mates who could link hands across the Lib-Lab divide, but there were plenty on the Labour side in particular who loathed the Libs... Fourth, if Brown was to go as Prime Minister, even after a few months, who would succeed him? The Libs were being asked to buy a pig in a poke.... For all those reasons I find it hard to believe a Lib-Lab coalition would have been feasible, able to rise to the gravity of the economic crisis, or able to last very long at all. The idea that if only Nick Clegg could have linked hands with Gordon Brown, the sundered tribes of the centre left could have united, the music would have come up and we would all have lived happily ever after, strikes me as quite fanciful. But the speculation along these lines is almost the least important part of the book - it's fascinating about the mechanics of coalition negotiating (there's a wonderful moment when Peter Mandelson resorts to texting a Lib Dem negotiator sitting across a table from him, to try and get one of his colleagues to calm down....). Adonis is critical of the final shape of the deal suggesting one of Clegg's biggest mistakes was failure to demand control of a big spending department, presumably health or education. It's a fair bet that if the electorate vote in another hung parliament Adonis will find himself in another set of conference rooms, for another five days in May in 2015... On the biography front, I enjoyed Douglas Hurd and Edward Young's Disreali, or, the Two Lives. Some years ago, when he'd written his earlier book on Peel, Lord Hurd appeared on BOOKtalk and spent much of the programme laying into Disreali for destroying his hero, who was, he said, a much better man and a much braver politician. His view hasn't changed and the Disreal who emerges from this rollicking account of Victorian politics is no statesman, merely a pot-boiler novelist, a sexual chancer, a cynical charmer and a political dilettante. A more po-faced biography is Scott Berg's monumental account of a highly significant, but almost forgotten US President, Woodrow Wilson. The astonishing tale of the stern academic who was catapulted to the governorship of New Jersey and then, almost without a pause, into the White House has very few parallels anywhere in political history. Machine politicians wanted Wilson to be a Mr Clean front-man for politics as usual. Not only could they not control him, but they found themselves outmanoeuvred and side-lined. Wilson was an effective reformer at state and national level and eventually - despite his slogan of "too proud to fight" - took America into the First World War. He tipped the balance of the War and tried to shape the peace. But then we come to one of the great "what-ifs" of US history. Just as it looked as if he might persuade a reluctant country to join his creation, the League of Nations, he was laid low by a stroke. For months his wife Edith governed the country through his staff - so that some scholars credit her with being the first woman president. And by the time he recovered his enemies had defeated his plan, and America sank back into isolationism until 1940. The best book by an MP this year is Conundrum, by the Conservative MP Richard Bacon, who sits on Parliament's formidable financial watchdog, the Public Accounts Committee. His book poses the question why does every government get things wrong and what can be done about it? Bacon yomps through a series of hyper-expensive public policy disasters: the National Programme for IT in the NHS; the Rural Payments Agency; the FE college building programme; recruitment of student doctors; the Child Support Agency. And as each is examined there's a sense of déjà vu all over again, as the same mistakes are repeated. His answers revolve around proper lines of accountability and clarity in setting objectives - but the clash between the demands of politics and of proper management are harder to resolve. Anyone who wants to be in government - and anyone who already is should read this book. The best book on Parliament is constitutional scholar Meg Russell's look at the modern upper house, the Contemporary House of Lords. It can be a majestic sight... that glittering chamber full of gilt and heraldry, the hundreds of peers in their scarlet ermine-trimmed robes, but its actual work is poorly understood outside its own Chamber, even a few yards away in the Commons. She describes an increasingly powerful and assertive House of Parliament, which has learned how to deploy its limited power to considerable effect and has become a shaper of laws and a dangerous nuisance - or should that be candid friend to ministers. This shines a light on a seldom-examined but vital part of our law-making. For those who like their history a little more distant, Tudor historian turned Tory MP Chris Skidmore has produced Bosworth the Birth of the Tudors - an account of the defeat and death of Richard III who was hacked to death in a Leicestershire field, fighting to defend his crown. Legend has it that the crown in question was plucked from a bush and presented to his successor, ushering in a new era and a new dynasty... Interest in the last Plantagenet monarch has been revived by the discovery of his body beneath a Leicester car park, and by evidence that he was indeed deformed, by a spinal condition, even if he wasn't the crookback of Shakespeare's plays. Skidmore, the author of several books on Tudor history, has produced a lucid account of the successful invasion by the future Henry VII, recounting the manoeuvres and politicking around the doomed Yorkist regime, as Henry marched through Wales gathering support for his bid for the crown. He's now working on a full-dress biography of Richard III and has even found some new source material to draw on. I'm looking forward to the result...
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-sussex-50170507	French bulldogs wearing tutus have delayed a flight from Gatwick Airport. A number of emotional support dogs were travelling in passengers' hand luggage on a Norwegian Air flight destined for Austin, Texas. The Boeing 787 had been due to depart at 11:00 BST but was delayed by an hour and a half. A spokesman for Norwegian Air said the captain decided to offload the "distressed" dogs and their owners. Norwegian Air said emotional support dogs, for people with mental or emotional disability, are allowed on direct flights to and from the US, excluding flights to the UK. Pictures on social media showed the dogs being carried in holdalls and wearing tutus. "The safety and security of our passengers and crew is always our number one priority," the Norwegian Air spokesman said. "Flight DI7181 from Gatwick to Austin had not yet departed when the captain took the decision to offload emotional support dogs and their two owners at the gate due to the dogs showing signs of distress in the cabin."
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50248549	A hungry herd of 500 goats has helped save the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library from the California wildfires. In May, the library hired the goats to clear flammable scrub surrounding the complex as a preventative measure. The goats ate the brush, creating a fire break that slowed the flames and gave firefighters extra time to react. The library near Los Angeles was threatened by the Easy Fire, the latest in a spate of fires causing evacuations and power cuts across the state. The caprine contractors included Vincent van Goat, Selena Goatmez and Goatzart. They helped save exhibits including an Air Force One jet and a piece of the Berlin Wall. "We were told by one of the firefighters that they believe that fire break made their job easier," Melissa Giller, a library spokeswoman, told Reuters. The goats were hired from a local company - 805 Goats - to clear around 13 acres of land. Scott Morris started the company last November and charges around $1,000 (£771) per acre of land. As California continues to have more wildfires, Mr Morris says he will need to double his herd to meet demand. Another large southern California institution - the Getty Museum in Los Angeles - was also protected this week by scrub-clearing work carried out by staff. What has happened to animals caught in the path of fires? Ranchers and volunteers have been scrambling to evacuate farm animals, carrying them away on trailers, dropping them somewhere safe, and then turning around to rescue more. In some cases, when the flames move too quickly for trailer rescues, the animals are simply let loose in the hope they can escape on their own and be recovered later. Along with their owners, pets have been displaced from their homes too, with many animals killed or lost. The Pet Rescue and Reunification Facebook group - dedicated to helping reunite pets with their owners - is flooded with pictures of animals missing amid the fires. Several shelters under threat of fires have also had to evacuate animals. Of the more than ten active wildfires raging in California, the Kincade Fire in the north of the state is the largest, with more than 76,000 acres burned so far. The governor has declared a state-wide emergency.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/winterolympics2002/hi/english/luge_&_skeleton/newsid_1750000/1750493.stm	\|You are in: Luge & Skeleton\| Friday, 11 January, 2002, 10:54 GMT The wrong side of the tracks Britain's generally poor showing in the Winter Olympics can easily be explained. There are not many natural facilities in the UK, whereas the top winter sport countries cannot get enough of them. Take the luge for example, where competitors slide down a track horizontally at 90mph. Britain's representative in the sport, Mark Hatton, has had to train at Swindon Ice Rink because of a distinct lack of Olympic bob tracks in this country. But Hatton hopes his unorthodox and unglamorous training regime will pay off in the form of a top-15 finish in next month's Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Hatton said: "The local blacksmith made us some start handles which we put on the side of the rink and we practise our push-offs. "Unfortunately our push-offs are all that we can practise." Still, the push-offs are all important in the only Olympic sport measured in thousandths of a second. And when you think it takes 12 thousandths of a second to blink, you realise how close a sport it is. "I've tied with another racer to the same thousandth of a second before over a two-mile course," added Hatton. "But on the second run I easily beat him by a few thousandths." Hatton has to spend eight months of each year leading a solitary life abroad on the World Cup circuit. He needs plenty of courage to devote himself full-time to a sport considered one of the most dangerous of all Olympic disciplines. Luge was belatedly added to the Olympic programme only in 1964 because it was originally considered too dangerous. Two weeks before its introduction, British luger Kazimierz Kay-Skyszpeski was killed on the Olympic course. "I do it because there's no feeling like it. It's the greatest sport I've ever done," added Hatton, a former semi-professional rugby player. "You're two inches from the ice, close to or above 90mph. "It's not so much fear as you being aware of your own mortality. In Salt Lake City, Hatton will come up against one of the greatest of all Winter Olympic competitors, Germany's Georg Hackl. Hackl is bidding to become the first Winter Olympian to win four consecutive gold medals in the same event. "He's an exceptional athlete. He takes it to another level. "There is so little time separating people in this sport - but he stands out," said Hatton. "He is so much smoother than everybody else. He and the sled are one." The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites Other top Luge & Skeleton stories: Links to more Luge & Skeleton stories are at the foot of the page. Links to more Luge & Skeleton stories
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-28781440	Michael Brown shooting: Anger at crackdown on protests - 14 August 2014 - From the section US & Canada Police in the US state of Missouri have clashed with protesters for a fourth night amid growing anger at the fatal shooting of a black teenager by police. Heavily armed riot police fired tear gas as they moved in on demonstrators in the St Louis suburb of Ferguson who had ignored an order to disperse. Several people were arrested, two of them journalists who said they were assaulted before being released. The tension was sparked by the death of Michael Brown, 18, on Saturday. Details about the incident have been disputed but eyewitnesses said the unarmed teenager had his arms raised when he was shot multiple times by a police officer. Police say there was a struggle and the officer suffered facial injuries. As the outrage showed no sign of dissipating, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon said he would travel to the area on Thursday and called for "patience and calm" from members of the community. "While we all respect the solemn responsibility of our law enforcement officers to protect the public, we must also safeguard the rights of Missourians to peaceably assemble and the rights of the press to report on matters of public concern," he wrote in a statement. "I am committed to ensuring the pain of last weekend's tragedy does not continue to be compounded by this ongoing crisis." At the scene - Aleem Maqbool, BBC News, Ferguson Of those young black men and women taking to the streets, many say they have no other outlet to show their objection - not just to the way Michael Brown died, but to the way the police treats them as a community - and that they will not stop protesting until they are listened to. While demonstrations throughout have been vociferous, for the most part they have been peaceful. They were again during the day on Wednesday. But after dark, police seemed intent on enforcing what had earlier been a request that "all those wishing to demonstrate, disperse well before the evening hours". Tear gas was used and police lines swept through roads in the suburb of Ferguson that have been the focus of the confrontations. Requests for calm have come even from the White House, but there is a sense that the young people on the streets have the moral support of many among the older generations within their community here, who also see this as an opportunity for long overdue change. The killing and the resulting protests have laid bare tension between Ferguson's majority black population and its overwhelmingly white police department, analysts say. The town's population of 21,000 is two-thirds black, while only three of the local police force's 53 officers are black. Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson has said his priority was improving race relations in the town. On Wednesday, the Ferguson police department asked protesters to gather only in the daylight and to disperse "well before the evening hours" for safety reasons. The plea came after three nights of tense, sometimes violent protests that resulted in dozens of arrests, looting and the burning of a shop. Despite this appeal to stay away, and calls for calm from President Barack Obama, Mr Brown's parents and civil rights activist the Reverend Al Sharpton, the anger seemed as palpable as ever on the streets of Ferguson on Wednesday night. Armoured vehicles blocked off streets and protesters linked arms defiantly as they were told through loudspeakers to leave the area or face arrest. The demonstrators chanted: "Hands up, don't shoot." Molotov cocktails were thrown at lines of police, who launched smoke bombs and fired tear gas. Two journalists were briefly detained by police earlier on Wednesday while working inside a McDonald's restaurant. One of them, Ryan Reilly of the Huffington Post, told BBC Outside Source an officer handcuffed him, applied force to his neck, and "purposefully" banged his head against a glass window and then "sarcastically apologised". He and Welsey Lowery of the Washington Post were taken to the police station but soon released, apparently after a third reporter called the Ferguson police chief and asked for comment. "The only reason we're out is because of the fact that we are reporters," Reilly said. "If they treated a white reporter who was working on his laptop that way, I can't imagine how terribly they're treating other people." Lowery later tweeted: "Apparently, in America, in 2014, police can manhandle you, take you into custody, put you in cell & then open the door like it didn't happen." Civil rights activists and Mr Brown's family and friends have called for an end to the clashes, while also demanding that police release the name of the officer who shot and killed Mr Brown. The authorities have declined to release the name, citing concerns for his safety, a decision that has been criticised by protesters demanding more transparency. The officer has been placed on administrative leave. President Obama has promised a full investigation by the US Department of Justice into the teenager's death, and the FBI has launched its own inquiry.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-16071171	Devon village upset over Olympic torch relay - 8 December 2011 - From the section Devon People in a Devon village are disappointed after learning that they will not see the Olympic torch as it passes along the relay route in 2012. The Olympic torch will travel from Modbury to Kingsbridge by bus, the parish council has been told. And Olympic organisers have confirmed that the torch will not be visible as it passes by Aveton Gifford or other villages on the route. The torch will travel on the village bypass on 20 May en route to Exeter. It will be carried through 30 cities, towns and villages in Devon. Runners will carry the torch through Modbury before it is put on a bus and taken to Kingsbridge where it will be carried through the town before being put on a bus again to West Charleton. It is part of a 70-day tour of the UK before the torch arrives at London's Olympic stadium for the opening ceremony on 27 July. A Locog spokeswoman confirmed that the torch would "unfortunately" not be visible as it passed communities between the running destinations. She said: "It will be in a convoy to ensure it gets between the towns and and cities as quickly as possible to get as many as we can. "Ninety five per cent of the population will be within 10 miles of where the relay will be." John Coates, chairman of Aveton Gifford Parish Council, said: "I expected that we would see the torch, anything less that and I feel let down. "We are on the route but if you blink you'll miss it. "There is nothing quite like being able to say 'I saw the Olympic torch relay'. "But 'I saw the bus the Olympic torch was being carried on' is not really the same." Locog said it had talked to local authorities before deciding on the torch destinations. Each torch bearer will run about 300m. Among the first people to be offered a conditional place in the torch relay was Plymouth teenager Sophie Elvin. The 17-year-old was nominated after being praised for her work with a local theatre club and as a mentor to other young people.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-jersey-19826797	Jersey police force appeal after burglaries in the west - 4 October 2012 - From the section Jersey Cash, electrical items and jewellery have been stolen in a series of break-ins in the west of Jersey. Two properties were targeted in daytime burglaries in St Brelade. Another break-in occurred in St Ouen. The States of Jersey Police began implementing Operation Hornet in January 2012, which aimed to target burglars in the island. Det Insp Steve Langford said people should be mindful of security and ensure valuables were not left in view. He added: "We have received a great deal of support [for the operation] and we are grateful for that."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10219962	UN official criticises US over drone attacks - 2 June 2010 - From the section US & Canada The use of targeted killings with weapons like drone aircraft poses a growing challenge to the international rule of law, a UN official says. Philip Alston said that the US in particular was doing damage to rules designed to protect the right of life. Mr Alston, UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, feared a "Playstation" mentality could develop. His report to the UN Human Rights Council also brings renewed scrutiny of Israel and Russia. Both nations are also reported to have carried out targeted killings of alleged militants and insurgents. President Barack Obama has increased the use of Predator drones to attack militants in Pakistan. 'Hundreds of killings' The UN report comes days after the US hailed news of the death of Sheikh Sa'id al-Masri, al-Qaeda's third in command in Pakistan, who was reportedly killed by a drone strike in May, along with his family. Mr Alston reserves particular criticism for CIA-directed drone attacks, which he said had resulted in the deaths of "many hundreds" of civilians. "Intelligence agencies, which by definition are determined to remain unaccountable except to their own paymasters, have no place in running programmes that kill people in other countries," the report says. Mr Alston also suggests that the drone killings carry a significant risk of becoming war crimes because intelligence agencies "do not generally operate within a framework which places appropriate emphasis upon ensuring compliance with international humanitarian law". And he adds: "Because operators are based thousands of miles away from the battlefield, and undertake operations entirely through computer screens and remote audio-feed, there is a risk of developing a 'Playstation' mentality to killing." 'Law of 9/11' In Mr Alston's view, there are circumstances in which targeted killings may be legal. But his report also expresses concern that the US has put forward what hedescribes as "a novel theory that there is a law of 9/11", enabling it to legally use force in the territory of other states as part of its inherent right to self-defence. This interpretation of the right to self-defence, he says, would "cause chaos" if invoked by other nations. BBC diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus says that Mr Alston clearly believes that the rules of conflict need updating to encompass weapons that may strike a long way away from any traditional definition of the battlefield. However, some security analysts are concerned that this could jeopardise highly sensitive counter-terrorism operations. Michael Boyle, a lecturer in strategic studies at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, was quoted by the Associated Press news agency as saying: "The drones programme is effective in terms of getting terrorist operatives in places where there's limited reach or where, if you were to do it any other way, the political cost or the human cost would be too high."
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-23498231	Brazil policemen tried over Carandiru jail massacre - 29 July 2013 - From the section Latin America & Caribbean The trial has begun in Brazil of 26 policemen accused of killing dozens of inmates during a prison riot in Sao Paulo in 1992. Witnesses say riot police began shooting at random as they stormed the Carandiru prison. In half-an-hour, 111 prisoners were killed in what became known as the Carandiru massacre. The policemen currently facing trial are accused of killing 73 prisoners on the second floor of the jail. A verdict is expected by Friday or Saturday. The trial is being held in phases, dealing in turn with the victims on each floor of the prison building. Twenty-three policemen were sentenced in April to 156 years in jail over the first floor deaths. Dozens more are expected to face trial in the coming months. 'People killed randomly' The policemen say they acted in self-defence, having to quell a rebellion inside a notorious jail where prisoners were armed. Human rights groups point out that there were no police casualties during the operation. "We never thought they would come in and kill people randomly, as not everyone had joined the rebellion," former prisoner Jacy de Oliveira told BBC Brasil's Luis Kawaguti. "The policemen began shooting everyone; if you looked a policeman in the eyes, you were dead," he said. In 2001, Col Ubiratan Guimaraes, who led the police operation to regain control in Carandiru, was convicted of using excessive force. But he was acquitted on appeal in 2006. The Carandiru prison was closed in 2002 after a series of riots across Sao Paulo state. The building, which was located next to one of the underground stations of Brazil's largest city, was eventually demolished. It was once one of Latin America's biggest jails, housing 10,000 inmates.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-22656826	Man, 54, killed in one-vehicle Oldmeldrum collision - 24 May 2013 - From the section NE Scotland, Orkney & Shetland A 54-year-old man has died after a crash on an Aberdeenshire road. Emergency services were called to the scene of the one-vehicle accident in Oldmeldrum at about 12:40. Diversions were put in place at the A947 Meldrum House roundabout, at its junction with the B9170. A police spokesperson said: "Inquiries are ongoing to determine the cause of the collision."
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-22895606	Czech PM aide held in raids against organised crime - 14 June 2013 - From the section Europe Police in the Czech Republic have raided government offices across the country as part of a crackdown on organised crime. Several people have been arrested, including the most senior aide to Prime Minister Petr Necas. Some 400 police officers began raiding businesses, government departments and the prime minister's office in the early hours of Thursday morning. Mr Necas said he had done nothing "dishonest" and would not resign. "I am personally convinced that I did not do anything dishonest and that my colleagues have not done anything dishonest either," he added. He said that he expected police and prosecutors to explain why such a large operation was necessary. Mr Necas is due to appear before parliament on Friday morning. The main opposition Social Democrat party has called on him to resign. President Milos Zeman has scheduled a meeting on Friday with the prime minister, the chief of police and the leader of the opposition to discuss the crisis, Radio Prague reports. The raids on officials, MPs and businessmen are unprecedented in their scale and seriousness, the BBC's Prague correspondent Rob Cameron reports. Two former MPs from Mr Necas's Civic Democratic Party are reported to be among those arrested. The head of Mr Necas's office, Jana Nagyova, was among those detained. She is described as his closest adviser. Mr Necas was also "visited" by police and two state attorneys, Interior Minister Jan Kubice said, but gave no further details. Commentators agree that this could be the death blow for an already shaky government, our correspondent says. The raids appear to be connected to a long-running police investigation into links between corrupt businessmen and the state administration, he adds. In March, the country was gripped by the case of a lobbyist, Roman Janousek, who was alleged to have had huge influence over politicians and officials in Prague. Mr Janousek was arrested on suspicion of deliberately running over a woman with his car while drunk, which could incur a jail term of up to 10 years.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/north_west/3773767.stm	Babies deserve the best start in life and at Anglesey Sea Zoo, it is no different for lobsters. Anglesey Sea Zoo has been holding talks and giving visitors, like Huw Padrig Price, a chance to handle lobsters at the new hatchery Wales' first hatchery for lobster opens with curators looking to release up to 600 babies a year off the north Wales. Conservationists are working with fishermen to help lobsters get over the first crucial six months. What began as a small-scale breeding programme has now turned into a full scale project due to £50,000 European funding from Objective One. The hatchery is also open to the public, to help educate people about lobsters and the need to preserve their stocks. Assistant curator Clare White said: "About 20 years ago, there was a serious problem off the coast here but levels have come back up and we hope this will continue." The zoo plans to work closely with more local fishermen, to help achieve a balance between conserving fish stocks and helping the industry. One fisherman already brings into the zoo "berried" or pregnant female lobsters, who can each lay between 2,000 and 20,000 eggs. But only a fraction of these get through to the larvae stage, which may leave between 20 or 30 juveniles from each brood to grow to maturity. Lobsters are about three centimetres long at six months but can carry on growing all their lives The hatchery, which has a capacity for up to 2,000 lobsters a year, will release them when they reach six or seven months old - then they have to take their chances. Ms White said: "The first couple of years are the most crucial - if they survive that and pass the dangers, they can live to the age of 60." "They don't really have any predators apart from humans or the odd seal who might take their chances with the shell." The zoo is also marking the mother lobsters with a "V" notch on their tails as a sign to fishermen, which lasts up to three years and should allow them a chance of greater breeding time. A EU-funded £200,000 tail-notching scheme involving the North West and North Wales Sea Fisheries' Committee expects to see 15,000 lobsters released back into the sea over the next three years. Fishermen are reimbursed for mother lobsters which are notched and returned to the sea. A spokeswoman for the NWNWSC said: "The programme would not work without the committment and dedication of the fishermen. "We have a good relationship with the Sea Zoo, who educate visitors coming to their lobster hatchery and help advertise the importance of conservation programmes such as the lobster notching and return of lobsters to the sea."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/southern_counties/3017462.stm	More than a quarter of the churches in Brighton and Hove have been earmarked for closure because their upkeep is too expensive. The 56 churches cost £800,000 a year to maintain Overall it has been proposed that 15 out of the 56 churches in the city should be shut because of the cost of their maintenance and dwindling congregations. The recommendations come in a review by the Brighton and Hove Pastoral Society which took two years to compile. It is estimated that the churches cost £800,000 to maintain each year and Brighton and Hove has a higher density of them than anywhere else in the country. Brighton churches facing closure St Luke's, Prestonville St Mary, Kemp Town St Mary Magdalene, Coldean The Chapel Royal Among the churches recommended for closure is St Matthias although church warden Penny Buller said it should not be shut down. "This is not a dying church this is actually a vibrant church that fulfils a real need in this community, not just for the congregation which is growing, but also for all the people who just use it a few times a year," she said. Canon Neil Milmine, Rural Dean of Brighton, who is also vice-chairman of the society, said: "It is sort of modelled on the picture in the Bible of the vine where by pruning you actually give rise to new growth, new fruiting. "Inevitably pruning is a painful process and our hearts go out to those who are feeling the pain of that." Church leaders have stressed the report is only for discussion. In Hove the churches earmarked for closure are St Julian Kingston Buci; St Andrew, Portslade; St Phillips; Holy Trinity; the parish church of All Saints and St Peter, Fishergate. Other churches have been recommended for redevelopment and others have been put under close review.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-20317360	Woman 'hit by cars' and killed on road near Oxford - 13 November 2012 - From the section Oxford Police believe a woman may have been struck by a number of cars before dying in a collision near Oxford. The 21-year-old, from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire was hit by a Ford Ka at about 22:30 GMT on Monday. She was pronounced dead at the scene on the Oxford-bound carriageway of the A40, between Forest Hill and Thornhill park-and-ride. Thames Valley Police is hoping to speak to drivers who were in the area before the collision. PC James Mahony said: "We would like to speak to anyone who did not stop in the area at the time of the collision, but who thinks they may have struck something in the carriageway at around that time and place. "They may not have been aware that it was a person." The woman's next of kin have been informed.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-25551324	Man and dog escape home 'arson' in Lowestoft - 30 December 2013 - From the section Suffolk A man and his dog have escaped from a house fire which police are treating as arson. The man, who lives in Britten Road in Lowestoft, left the house and saw flames coming from the lean-to at the side of the property. Police, who were called to the address at about 04:35 GMT, are investigating the fire. They want to speak to a "blonde woman" and a teenage boy, who was wearing a "grey all-in-one outfit". A spokesperson for Suffolk Police said the woman had banged on a nearby resident's door to alert them to the fire. The teenager is described as being about 5ft 8in (1.7m) tall and is thought to have spoken to several people at the scene of the fire. Two fire crews tackled the blaze, which damaged half of the ground floor of the property.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-17812026	Brighton council plans safety measures for Lewes Road - 23 April 2012 - From the section Sussex Safety improvements are being considered for a dual carriageway in Brighton that has seen nearly 150 accidents in the past three years. One of the crashes on Lewes Road led to the death of teacher Jo Walters in 2010. Brighton council said many of the other accidents were serious. Out of the 146 collisions, 50 involved cyclists, the local authority said. Plans include using one lane of the dual carriageway for buses and cyclists and one for cars, in both directions. Changes to Lewes Road's main junction, the Vogue gyratory system, are also planned. The junction, which has seen about 25 accidents over three years including four serious injury crashes, would have cycle lanes installed along with traffic lights activated by cyclists. Councillor Ian Davey, cabinet member for transport, said the route had an above-average accident rate and added: "Lewes Road is a busy road with an unenviable safety record. "The aim would be to address road safety problems and make it safer and more convenient to walk, cycle and use public transport." About 30,000 households have been sent questionnaires about the changes as part of public consultation. The council said the proposals had been backed by the Jo Walters Trust which was set up to honour the teacher after her death. It said Brighton and Hove Albion, local bus companies and both universities in the city had also supported the plans. Brighton council has posted a cyclist's view of the Vogue junction on YouTube . The footage was shot by a cyclist wearing a head camera.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/south_east/7598792.stm	Councils are fined if they fail to meet waste targets A site for two councils to jointly recycle food waste and left-over recycling materials has been earmarked. Rhondda Cynon Taf and Merthyr Tydfil councils say the planned facility would "greatly reduce" the amount of waste that is dumped at landfill sites. They say the project could be part of the Bryn Pica landfill and recycling centre near Aberdare. A shortlist of companies selected to bid for the scheme is due to be announced shortly. Earlier this week it was announced that all 22 councils in Wales had met targets on the amount of biodegradable waste they can send to landfill sites. But councils were warned that targets would be getting tougher and they would need to "step up" action. Failure to meet targets result in financial penalties. The Tomorrow's Valley/Cwm Yfory joint project between Merthyr and RCT councils would allow both authorities to recycle more food waste and materials left over after recycling. The recycling unit will serve two counties If sent to landfill sites, this waste can form hazardous landfill gas and leachate, the liquid created by rain water mixing with waste. More than half of councils have already started or aim to begin offering food waste recycling in the next year. Merthyr and RCT are among those that have already started to introduce food waste collections. Aled Roberts, Welsh Local Government Association spokesperson and chair of Waste Awareness Wales, welcomed the proposal. "For too long Wales has relied on landfill and there is recognition that to deal with our waste in the most sustainable and environmentally-friendly way, investment is needed in a range of facilities," he said. The Welsh Assembly Government has already urged councils to introduce more food recycling and offered a package of grants.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/7042987.stm	The flood-damaged Severn Valley Railway is hoping to have most of the line open again early next year. Torrential rain in the summer caused the damage to the line Three quarters of the 16-mile (26km) line between Bridgnorth, Shropshire, and Kidderminster remains closed after the summer floods. Owners said many smaller jobs had been completed and it was aiming to have the whole line open by about March. Fundraising was continuing at the weekend with a Diesel Gala on Saturday and a Classic Car Show on Sunday. The estimated cost for full repairs has been put at £2.6m. The railway, which is only operating between Kidderminster and Bewdley was damaged by heavy rain in 40 places in June. It said it still had "quite a bit" of the track work to do. Last month, officials said the appeal to raise money for repairs had reached £415,000 from public donations. A spokesman said: "The public appeal is still open and the money is still coming in. "It's been absolutely astonishing and almost overwhelming the public support we've had. "That is going to go a long way towards bridging the gap between what we've got so far and what we will finally need."
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-27225422	Paxman's most memorable Newsnight encounters In his 25 years in the Newsnight hot seat, Jeremy Paxman has earned a reputation as one of the most fearless and feared interviewers in the game. His status is such that the phrase to be "paxoed" has entered the media lexicon, meaning a journalistic "going over" to be avoided by hapless politicians. However, many of Westminster's toughest and wiliest operators have succumbed. The journalist has been no respecter of standing or affiliation, giving an equally rough ride to interviewees, whether they were Conservative or Labour, prime ministers, masters of the universe or junior officials. Some hardened politicians reportedly refused to appear on the programme when he was presenting while others donned their tin hats and became regular sparring partners. Perhaps more than any other, Michael Howard's appearance on Newsnight in 1997 has entered broadcasting and political folklore. In the middle of a Tory leadership contest, Mr Howard was asked about his relationship with the former head of the Prison Service, Derek Lewis, whom he had sacked in 1995 after a series of escapes by IRA prisoners. The Newsnight host famously put the same question 12 times to the former home secretary without appearing to get a satisfactory answer. He later played down what many immediately hailed as a moment of journalistic genius, suggesting that he could not think of anything else to ask him as the interview progressed. The BBC had well-documented run-ins with the Labour government in the lead-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, with much probing about the relationship between Tony Blair and George Bush. In a 2003 edition, Jeremy Paxman took a different tack and appeared to take the prime minister genuinely by surprise when he asked him whether he and the US president had prayed together. The same question has been posed several times since then but it was Paxman who asked it first. Like Mr Blair, William Hague is regarded as one of the most talented media performers of his generation but that did not protect him when he was put on the spot in 2009 about Tory donor Lord Ashcroft's tax status. As before, the Newsnight host deployed the tactic of asking the same question, or variations on the same question, on multiple occasions and the then shadow foreign secretary seemed taken aback by this. Some politicians have literally had their careers made or broken by their appearances on Newsnight. Junior Treasury minister and rising Conservative star Chloe Smith was dispatched to appear on the programme in 2012 to talk about a proposed delay to a rise in fuel duty. What followed was painful to watch as the minister struggled to appear on top of her brief and give the appearance that she was privy to what was going on in the upper echelons of her department. Chancellor George Osborne was criticised for not going on the programme himself and allowing Ms Smith to take the fire. Although remaining magnanimous about the encounter, Ms Smith was moved to another job in a reshuffle that year and has since left the government. The Newsnight host has not always had it his own way, of course, and some of his most memorable encounters have taken place when his subjects have fought back. Media magnate Conrad Black famously chided Jeremy Paxman as a "gullible, priggish, English fool" when questioned about his (Black's) conviction for fraud and subsequent imprisonment. And many felt the legendary interviewer finally met his match when he came up against Russell Brand last year. His joust with the comedian and provocateur, in which Russell Brand mused on the point of voting and the need for a popular revolution, became an instant hit on social media. The Newsnight host took his interviewee to task for not being "arsed" to vote but had to admit afterwards that he had also failed to do so on one recent occasion.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-29036154	Spanish judge orders Ashya King's parents' release A judge in Spain has ordered the immediate release from prison of Ashya King's parents. The decision came after the Crown Prosecution Service decided to withdraw a European arrest warrant enabling the detention of Brett and Naghemeh King. Prime Minister David Cameron welcomed the moves to reunite the family. Mr and Mrs King were arrested in Spain on Saturday, after taking their son out of hospital in Southampton last week against medical advice. Prosecutors earlier said they will face no further action and should be reunited with their son. A CPS spokesman said it had "urgently reviewed the case" and found "insufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction for any criminal offence". "We have therefore decided to stop the criminal proceedings," he said. In a tweet, Mr Cameron said: "I welcome the prosecution against #AshyaKing's parents being dropped. "It's important this little boy gets treatment & the love of his family." The CPS outlined its plans at a High Court hearing, which was brought forward by the president of the court's family division, to discuss Ashya being a ward of court. A wardship order had been granted by a judge on Friday after an application from Portsmouth City Council. In a statement, prosecutors said the risk to Ashya's life "was not as great or immediate as had been originally thought". It read: "Mr and Mrs King did take certain steps to safeguard the health of Ashya, for example it appears they had ordered specialist foods to care for Ashya, and had managed to charge the food pump using their car battery. "We continue to work with the UK courts and Spanish authorities to progress matters as quickly as possible." Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has described as "very unfortunate" the taking of five-year-old Ashya's parents into custody. "There've clearly been misunderstandings along the way, but right now we want to focus on getting the right treatment for Ashya," he said. "I hope we have a good resolution in place where they can get good independent advice that they trust." Mr Hunt said a cancer specialist was being sent to Spain to offer advice on Ashya's case. Mr and Mrs King are being held in a prison on the outskirts of Madrid, while their son is in hospital in Malaga. 'Secure Ashya's safety' Hampshire's police commissioner Simon Hayes said the CPS had made the "correct decision". However, he explained he wanted assurance "as to the quality of the information given by Southampton General Hospital to Hampshire Constabulary". "This is the time to analyse decisions that were made," he said. "What is important is that the Ashya's family can continue with their quest to get the medical support that he requires." A spokesman for University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust said it was pleased that Ashya's parents would be released, but insisted it had "no option but to call the police" because it did not know the Kings' intentions. "The police asked us to make statements about his clinical condition and need of medical care and we stand by the accuracy of the information we gave them," he said. "No hospital should be deterred from raising the alarm when they have doubts about the safety of a child." Earlier, Hampshire's chief constable had described Ashya's situation as "not right". In a letter to all authorities involved in the case, Andy Marsh said the arrest warrant was only applied for in order to assist the search for him. "Our intent was to secure his safety not to deny him family support at this particularly challenging time in his life," he wrote. Donna Jones, leader of Portsmouth City Council, said she was "clear the council was correct in its actions" to make a temporary wardship application in the case. "This resulted in a court order that directed Ashya should be taken to the nearest appropriate hospital," she said. More than 200,000 people have signed an online petition demanding Ashya be reunited with his parents. The petition was delivered to Downing Street by friends of the King family. But in a new video on YouTube Ashya's brother Naveed, said: "The fight is not over." He thanked Mr Clegg and Mr Cameron for getting involved, and to people for "spending so many hours on social media spreading the word". Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg suggested earlier that the full force of the law had not been appropriate in this case. Correction 3 September: This article was amended to clarify the hearing on Tuesday was brought forward by the president of the High Court Family Division and not Portsmouth City Council. Ashya King - timeline of events Friday 29 August Police reveal Ashya was removed from Southampton General Hospital by his parents against medical advice. They warn a battery-operated tube used to feed him is likely to have expired. Saturday 30 August A European arrest warrant is issued for Brett and Naghemeh King. At 22:00 police say Ashya has been found in Spain. His parents are arrested. Sunday 31 August Police defend their decision to issue an arrest warrant. Ashya's parents attend court in Velez Malaga, saying they want what is best for their son. Monday 1 September Relatives of Ashya say the decision to arrest his parents was "cruel". A judge in Madrid rules Mr and Mrs King must stay in custody. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) says the case is under "immediate review". Tuesday 2 September The CPS says it is taking steps to withdraw the arrest warrant.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34569887	Moldova ex-PM Vlad Filat held over $1bn bank scam A court has extended the detention of Moldova's former Prime Minister Vlad Filat for 30 days as his possible role in a $1bn banking scam is investigated. His liberal PLDM party - in Moldova's ruling coalition - condemned the move as "purely political" and "a violation of his rights". He was arrested on Thursday, suspected of involvement in the disappearance of $1bn (£646m) from three Moldovan banks. The scandal has thrown Moldova into economic and political chaos. In recent weeks thousands of people have protested in the centre of Moldova's capital Chisinau, demanding that the government and top civil servants resign. The missing money is equivalent to an eighth of the ex-Soviet republic's entire GDP. Moldova is one of Europe's poorest countries. The scandal caused a rapid fall in the value of the national currency, the leu, hitting Moldovans' living standards. Mr Filat, leader of the PLDM, was initially detained for 72 hours, accused of theft from the state-run Banca de Economii. Earlier parliament had stripped him of immunity from prosecution. He denies wrongdoing. Anti-government protesters welcomed his detention. One of their leaders, Renato Usaty, called it "our first victory". Moldova's central bank has withdrawn the operating licences of Banca de Economii and two other banks - the private Banca Sociala and Unibank. The scandal erupted in April, when the central bank found that the three banks had lent $1bn to unidentified beneficiaries. The trail points to a UK-registered company, Fortuna United, which is a limited partnership made up of two Seychelles companies. Fortuna United is named in a leaked report, by the New York-based corporate investigative agency Kroll, as the firm that is ultimately owed the entire proceeds of the Moldovan fraud. Businessman Ilan Shor, a former chairman of Banca de Economii, has told prosecutors that Mr Filat received payments from the bank, Moldova's Infotag news agency reports. Mr Shor denies involvement in a scheme to siphon off money from the banks.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-41930457	Blackburn: The town that fails to elect Asian women Despite having one of the largest Asian populations in England and Wales, politicians say Blackburn has never elected an Asian woman to its council. Areas with a similar demographic have managed it, so why hasn't this town? "I was told to look like a Muslim. I was a woman with a stigma, I'd left a forced marriage. "Comments were also made about my sexuality, there were other much worse things said." Saima Afzal stood as a Labour candidate in different Blackburn wards in 1999, 2000 and 2001 - coming second each time. The former Assistant Police and Crime Commissioner for Lancashire claims some Asian men in the community were unsupportive. And 15 years on, it seems little has changed - Blackburn with Darwen Council is yet to have an Asian woman represent one of its wards. The authority's leader Mohammed Khan believes it is because they have "other priorities". "Their jobs, their house and caring responsibility," explains the Labour councillor of 25 years. "We do so much to encourage them to come forward, we give them training and tell them how the system works. "But this is not paid, it's a voluntary job. It's their choice, we can't force them to come into the council." Blackburn saw an influx of Pakistani and Indian immigrants move to the area in the 1960s, many of whom went to work in the textile mills at a time the town was known for its booming cotton industry. Fast forward 50 years and the borough now has the 11th largest proportion of Asian residents out of 174 local authority areas in England and Wales. At the 2011 census, nearly a third of its 147,500 residents were recorded as Asian, of which half were women. Yet the demographics are not fully reflected by the area's political make-up. Of the 39 men elected to represent Blackburn, 19 are Asian men; there are no Asian women councillors. "When I stood, it was to raise issues that women face," says 46-year-old Ms Afzal, who is standing again in May's local elections. "We should be able to work and have a full education. I felt the [issues] weren't prevalent at the time and we needed to raise them." But the town's MP Kate Hollern believes it is "more difficult" for Asian women from traditional families to get involved in politics. "Asian women play a prominent role in many local organisations - all of which feed into the decision-making process of the area. "It may be however that the structures of elected politics, with frequent evening and weekend meetings, make it difficult for women who remain generally the main carers in families, to get more involved." But is it really as simple as a difference in culture which traditionally casts men as the dominant breadwinner and decision-maker, while the women focus on family and home? Some political parties would disagree. They say they have been trying for years to change the landscape in Blackburn by fielding Asian female candidates in local elections. But their attitude for change has so far not been matched at the polls. You might also be interested in: Malcolm Doherty, who was on the council from 1980 to 2012, claims that during his tenure he detected an "anti-woman feeling" and "the men [in Asian wards] wouldn't vote for them". The former Labour councillor said: "It was quite strong at that time, they didn't want [Asian] women councillors. I could never understand it. "It was very difficult, we tried to get them [elected] in Asian wards and then to wards which weren't Asian, but weren't successful. "Saima stood and she was a very good candidate. It was a sad loss she wasn't elected." Blackburn, neighbouring Darwen and parts of Turton joined in 1998 to form a unitary authority, which is currently Labour-run with 48 male and 16 female councillors. While Darwen and Turton has a Middle Eastern female councillor of Jordanian descent, it has no representation from the Asian community, male or female. It is in stark contrast to similar towns not far from Blackburn, such as Oldham, Rochdale and Bury, where at least one Asian woman has been elected to the council. The nearby Chorley authority has two - Hasina Khan and her daughter, Zara, 23. The former became interested in politics in 2003 after she had "absolutely had enough" of the monotony of "cooking, cleaning and school runs". "Blackburn has this biradari [tribal/clan network] system more like the Pakistani politics back home, which is of course male-dominated and where the heads of families are men who make most decisions. "This is one of the main reasons why there are no Asian female councillors." Encouraged by her MP Lindsay Hoyle to go out canvassing, she joined Labour before standing as a candidate - going on in 2006 to become the first Asian female councillor in Lancashire outside the unitary authorities. She accepts women have a "caring responsibility" in their culture, but said when she stood the support from her family, in "particular the men, [was] excellent". "The electorate [in Chorley] was 99% non-Asian, there was no tribal system here to try block me." She describes hitting a brick wall when trying to recruit other Asian women to stand. "The biggest hindrance is family themselves, fathers, brothers, husbands. They say 'what's the community going to say?' and 'politics isn't for women, they should be looking after the home'." Political activist Farzana Afzal, who is based in Manchester, says some Asian women are "too occupied in their house work, children and household duties", while others face a language barrier. "The women who've come from abroad, they don't watch BBC News or mainstream channels because they can't follow it. They watch Pakistani channels about politics over there." The knock-on effect, according to teenagers in the town, is that there are no female role models in Blackburn. At the West End Girls group - set up to help youngsters develop leadership skills - Taybah, 15, thinks Asian women are "not being represented". "I think culture is potentially holding them back," adds Huma, 15. "It's a full time job, Asian women are attached to their families. "The idea isn't put into your mind when you're young [to be in politics]." Conservative group leader John Slater believes the "cultural issue... seems to be a trait in Blackburn". "I'm quite sad about it, the opportunities are there but they're not being taken up," he says. Parliament is currently at its most diverse with 52 of the 650 MPs elected from ethnic minorities. Of those, 26 were women - representing just 4% of all MPs. With those figures, "it is therefore no surprise that Asian women at the grassroots level of politics do not think [it] is an arena for them," says Rushanara Ali, Labour MP for Bethnal Green and Bow. She believes there should be more government help to encourage ethnic minorities to get into local politics. The mantle is being taken up in cities where there are large Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities such as Birmingham, Leicester, Manchester and Bradford, where there are up to eight Asian women on their councils. But unsociable hours and commitments to constituents could still prevent Asian women in towns like Blackburn from getting involved, says Dr Victoria Honeyman, British politics lecturer at the University of Leeds. "This all eats into family time and, again, as the caring responsibilities tend to fall unevenly on women, particularly in traditional family units as is common in Asian communities, it can create additional barriers to women engaging in politics. "The local elections will be the next opportunity for Asian women to challenge the status quo through the ballot box."
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49322050	Staffing shortages at the prison where financier Jeffrey Epstein was found dead left gaps in his supervision, said the union for the facility's employees. The justice department and the FBI have both launched investigations into the cause and circumstances of his death in New York. Epstein, 66, was facing sex-trafficking and conspiracy charges, which carried jail sentences of up to 45 years. A post mortem examination was performed on Sunday. New York City's chief medical examiner, Barbara Sampson, said more information was needed before the cause of death was determined. A private pathologist observed the examination at the request of Epstein's representatives, Dr Sampson added. Epstein's body was found in his cell early Saturday morning. Guards at New York's Metropolitan Correctional Center had been forced to work overtime to make up for the staffing shortages, according to the union representing the prison guards. A hiring freeze by the Trump administration has left thousands of staff vacancies across the Bureau of Prisons, creating "dangerous conditions" for both staff and inmates, said Eric Young, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Council of Prison Locals in a statement. The remaining officers are regularly forced to work 70- and 80-hour work weeks, Mr Young said. He also described a tactic to address the shortages called "augmentation", which allows teachers, nurses, clerical workers and other support staff to fill in for correctional officers. "The low pay, understaffing, augmentation, and mandatory overtime have created an environment inside our prisons where something like this is even possible," he added. One of the corrections officers was reportedly on his fifth straight day of overtime shifts, while another guard had been forced to work overtime, Serene Gregg, president of the AFGE Local 3148, told the Washington Post newspaper. "If it wasn't Mr Epstein, it would have been somebody else, because of the conditions at that institution," she told the newspaper. "It was only a matter of time for it to happen. It was inevitable. Our staff is severely overworked." Ms Gregg said she has long complained about the work conditions at the facility. The guards failed to follow several protocols leading up to Epstein's death, according to the New York Times. Epstein, who had been placed on suicide watch after an apparent suicide attempt last month, was supposed to have a cellmate and checked in on by a guard every 30 minutes. Mr Epstein was reportedly left alone early on Saturday after his cellmate was transferred. On Monday French government ministers also called for an investigation into Epstein, saying a US probe into the accused child sex trafficker had revealed links between Epstein and France. What happens to the case against him? Epstein - a convicted paedophile - was arrested on 6 July on new sex-trafficking charges. The indictment alleged that he paid underage girls to perform sex acts at his Manhattan and Florida mansions between 2002 and 2005. According to the charges - which Epstein denied - the girls, some as young as 14, were given hundreds of dollars for sex acts. Hundreds of pages of court documents unsealed on Friday - one day before Epstein's death - included new details of the sexual abuse claims, including allegations by a woman that she was forced to have sex with Epstein's powerful friends. The documents shift the focus from Epstein to some of his high-profile associates, namely Ghislaine Maxwell, his former girlfriend. Virginia Giuffre, an alleged victim of Epstein, claims Ms Maxwell recruited her as a masseuse for the hedge fund manager at age 15. In the same documents, Ms Giuffre alleges that Ms Maxwell introduced her to Britain's Prince Andrew, and encouraged her to have sex with him. Buckingham Palace has said that "any suggestion of impropriety with underage minors is categorically untrue". The allegations were struck from the court's record in 2015. Ms Maxwell has also denied wrongdoing. Without Epstein to stand trial, legal experts told CBS News that federal prosecutors were likely to dismiss the case against him. Lisa Bloom, an attorney for several women who claim they were abused by Epstein, told CBS that she planned to file civil litigation against Epstein's estate. US Attorney General William Barr said on Monday: "Mr Epstein's death raises serious questions that must be answered". He also called for a "thorough" investigation. What questions remain? The death of the high-profile financier spurred a flurry of unsubstantiated conspiracy theories online. But without the results from the post-mortem examination, questions still loom regarding the precise cause of death. A city official told the New York Times that Dr Sampson was "confident" the cause of death is suicide by hanging, but she was awaiting further information from law enforcement. Revelations that Epstein was left unsupervised after an apparent suicide attempt last month have also raised questions. Who is Jeffrey Epstein? Born and raised in New York, Epstein worked as a maths and physics teacher in the 1970s before moving into finance, creating his own firm: J Epstein and Co. The company reportedly managed assets of clients worth more than $1bn (£800m). Epstein soon began spending his fortune - including on a mansion in Florida, a ranch in New Mexico, and reputedly the largest private home in New York. But the specifics of Epstein's work - including his client list - remained largely shrouded in secrecy. Reports of Epstein's actual wealth varied, with his Virgin Islands-based firm generating no public records. He was better known for his famous circle of friends and associates. Epstein was tied to US President Donald Trump, former President Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, actor Kevin Spacey and high-profile lawyer Alan Dershowitz. He first came under scrutiny from law enforcement in 2005, when the parents of a 14-year-old girl told police in Florida that Epstein had molested their daughter at his Palm Beach home. A police search of the property found photos of girls throughout the property. But prosecutors forged a deal with the financier in 2008 and Epstein avoided federal charges - which could have seen him face life in prison. Instead, he received an 18-month prison sentence, during which he was able to go on "work release" to his office for 12 hours a day, six days a week. He was released on probation after 13 months.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-30949922	The two leading candidates in Zambia's presidential election are in a tight race, according to partial results from the election commission. With nearly three-quarters of the 150 constituencies having reported results, the governing Patriotic Front (PF) candidate, Edgar Lungu, was on 48.8%. Hakainde Hichilema of the opposition United Party for National Development was on 46.8%. Final results are expected to be released later on Friday. The vote was caused by the death in office of Zambia's then president, Michael Sata, last October. The winner will serve the remainder of Mr Sata's term, leading up to elections in 2016. Both main parties requested a meeting on Friday morning with the electoral commission to discuss the vote. Those talks have taken place but there has been no public comment so far by those involved.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-19894140	India President Pranab Mukherjee no longer 'His Excellency' India's President Pranab Mukherjee has cleared a new set of protocols by which he will no longer be addressed as "His Excellency" within the country. The president felt this was "something that needs to be reformed" as he is an elected leader in a republic, his press secretary Venu Rajamony told the BBC. Under the new rules, Mr Mukherjee will be referred to as "Mr President". He would be called Excellency only when he interacts with foreign leaders "as is customary international practice". Mr Mukherjee was elected as the Indian President in July. "In the Indian constitution everyone is equal under the law, and so the president felt the protocols needed a fresh look," Mr Rajamony said. "This was a routine review and reform of the protocols by the new president," he added. Mr Mukherjee has also asked his office to organise all his functions within the Rashtrapati Bhavan [Presidential Palace] to avoid the "inconvenience caused to the public during his movement within the city and in order to reduce the burden on police and other agencies", a statement on the president's website said.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-19885602	Conservative conference: Michael Gove criticises teaching unions Teaching unions are "holding back" children by taking industrial action, the education secretary has said. Michael Gove attacked members of the National Union of Teachers and NASUWT, who recently voted to take action short of going on strike. The dispute is over pay, pensions and conditions. Speaking at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, Mr Gove said union leaders shouldn't let their "ideology hold back our children". In a speech to activists he said he had friends in the teaching unions and that being a teacher was "the highest calling any of us can be called for". But he singled out union general secretaries who he said warned him not to identify successful schools because it made teachers from other schools "feel uncomfortable". "How can we succeed as a country when every time we find success and celebrate it there are those who say 'no, someone might feel uncomfortable'?" the education secretary asked the Conservative conference. "What I feel uncomfortable about is the soft bigotry of low expectations." Alongside a traditional conference season swipe at the teachers' unions - "don't let your ideology hold back our children" - Michael Gove's speech had a much less traditional underlying message. He talked of the "dark secret" at the heart of English education - that it wrote off far too many children far too early, with the poorest most likely to be left behind. He referred to a recent OECD report that the UK has among the most socially segregated education systems in the developed world. The education secretary said that a system in which only an elite progressed was "economic madness". The most successful international education systems made sure that few failed to make the grade. The education secretary borrowed an old phrase from George Bush - the "soft bigotry of low expectations" - but his message revealed a subtle shift towards a new education system which could compete in a fast-changing, skill-hungry global economy. NASUWT and the NUT represent nine out of 10 teachers in England and Wales. Members from both unions have voted to work only to what it says in their contracts. This involves action such as refusing to cover for absent staff members and not invigilating exams. In his speech Mr Gove accused union general secretaries of telling teachers not to "devote themselves to children". "I have a simple message to those union general secretaries. Don't let your ideology hold back our children," he said. "At the moment the general secretaries of some of their unions are making it very difficult. The general secretaries are ordering - ordering - their members not to cover classes where another teacher might be ill or away at a relative's funeral," he added. The two unions recently launched joint action because of their "serious concerns... about the way the present government is undermining the education system". In a joint statement the general secretaries of both unions listed unacceptable and excessive workload pressures, changes to pensions, pay freezes and the "privatisation and academisation of schools" as the reasons for taking industrial action. Responding to the education secretary's speech, Christine Blower, general secretary of of the National Union of Teachers, said: "Michael Gove does not have a monopoly of concern that all children and young people should have high aspiration and the very best teaching and support to achieve. In the NUT we believe this is best done in schools which are well supported by local authorities. "The secretary of state continues to be obsessed with school structures despite there being no evidence to show that academies in themselves improve educational achievement." Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT teachers' union, said: "This attack on teachers taking lawful industrial action in defence of their statutory contractual rights and entitlements will be greeted with deep concern by the profession. "Michael Gove appears to want to return schools to a past where teachers spent their days standing at photocopiers or undertaking bureaucratic form filling, rather than concentrating on teaching and learning."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19603538	Mitt Romney: US Egypt statement was 'inappropriate' Mitt Romney has defended his criticism of President Barack Obama's handling of Egyptian protests in an interview with US network ABC News. Mr Romney described as "inappropriate" a US embassy response to an anti-Islam film which sparked protests. He has been criticised by pundits and Democrats for attacking the Obama administration on Tuesday before the situation in Egypt and Libya became clear. Mr Romney repeated his attack on Wednesday as events unfolded despite a lack of firm support from his Republican party.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-24985779	Paris gun attacks: Liberation and Societe Generale hit - 18 November 2013 - From the section Europe A manhunt is continuing in Paris after a gunman attacked offices of the newspaper Liberation and fired outside the HQ of the Societe Generale bank. A photographer, 23, was critically hurt at Liberation. The gunman later forced a motorist to drive him to the Champs Elysees before allowing him to go. Police are looking for the same man who broke into the Paris offices of the 24-hour news channel BFMTV on Friday. Police have now been stationed outside all the main media offices in Paris. At a news conference, investigators held up two images, one of the suspect in a street and another taken from BFMTV surveillance cameras on Friday. Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said the "most likely possibility" was that a lone gunman was behind the three attacks and the hijacking. He said the suspect had not yet been identified and the motive was still unclear. The man is said to be between 35 and 45 years old, between 1.7m and 1.8m tall (5ft 6" and 5ft 10"), with stubble and greying hair. Mr Molins said the suspect was wearing a black vest, a cap and white-soled green shoes. The BBC's Christian Fraser in Paris says the gunman had walked into BFMTV on Friday morning and emptied the chamber of his gun in the reception area. "Next time, I will not miss you," the man had said to an editor he threatened. Our correspondent says that, for a time on Monday, a police helicopter hung over the Champs Elysees amid fears the gunman might be heading towards the Eiffel Tower, but it is speculated that he might have gone into the metro. People were encouraged to stay indoors. Police said the suspect was calm and assured, and each time has walked away from the scene of his attacks. French media say the suspect told the motorist he hijacked that he was armed with grenades. President Francois Hollande, who is in Israel, said the priority was "to stop an individual who had tried to kill and could try to kill again". 'Ran for cover' At 10:15 local time (09:15 GMT) on Monday, the gunman entered the Paris offices of Liberation, near the Place de la Republique in the east of the city, and opened fire. He injured a photographer in the chest and stomach before escaping. Liberation said three spent cartridges had been found. The gunman did not say anything during the attack, Liberation reported. Some two hours later, the bank Societe Generale confirmed that a man opened fire outside its headquarters in the western business district of La Defense. No-one was injured, the bank said. One witness of the bank shooting told Le Figaro that he heard a large bang and saw a man wearing a khaki coat and a cap and carrying a shotgun. The gunman's second shot caused panic and the man then disappeared down some stairs on to a street, the witness said. Another witness, Pierre-Albert Garcias, said: "We thought it was an explosion at first, it didn't sound like gunshots. "I turned around and the man was in front of me, 10 metres away. He was actually reloading his gun. So we all ran for cover, we got down on our stomachs behind a wall." Police say the gunman then hijacked a car in Nanterre, close to La Defense, and forced the driver to take him to the Champs Elysees, where he was dropped near the metro station George V. Liberation later said the photographer underwent surgery and was being kept in intensive care. The victim - who has not been named - was said to be a freelance assistant photographer who had just arrived at the newspaper office to work on a fashion photo shoot. Police sealed off the area around Liberation's offices. Interior Minister Manuel Valls has visited the scene, along with Culture Minister Aurelie Filippetti and the Mayor of Paris Bertrand Delanoe. Mr Valls said: "As long as this person is still on the loose and we do not know the motives, this represents a threat. We must move fast." Liberation's publisher Nicolas Demorand said: "In a democracy, when someone enters a newspaper office with a gun, this is very, very serious, whatever the person's mental state." He added that the shooting had left the newspaper's staff traumatised.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/7858316.stm	The Turbine Hall installation will be Balka's first UK public commission Polish artist Miroslaw Balka has been commissioned by London's Tate Modern gallery to fill its Turbine Hall. Balka will be the tenth artist to display their work in the hall when the exhibition opens in October. Comprising installation, sculpture and video, Balka's work explore themes of personal history and experience. Two hundred yellow and blue bunk bed frames currently fill the hall, as part of French artist Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster's installation. Balka was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1958, and he lives and works in Warsaw and Otwock. This will be his first public commission in the UK. His previous works include Oasis (C.D.F.) created using materials which have a particular personal resonance, such as milk, wooden planks from his childhood home and pine needles salvaged from the tree that grew outside his window. Balka's Oasis (C.D.F.) is currently on display at Tate Modern The work suggests a domestic setting in which the daily rituals of human existence - eating and sleeping, love and death - are played out. Vicente Todoli, director of Tate Modern said: "As one of the most significant contemporary artists of his generation, he has been described as a 'master poet'. "We look forward to seeing what he will create for the unique space at Tate Modern in October." More than 20 million people have come to view the nine installations since The Unilever Series began in 2000. Works have included a series of giant slides by the Belgian-born artist Carsten Holler, and British artist Anish Kapoor's giant red Marsyas sculpture. Balka's installation will be open to the public from 19 October to 5 April 2010.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-18518092	Bird of prey tackle Helston college's seagulls - 20 June 2012 - From the section Cornwall Birds of prey are being used at a school in west Cornwall to deal with increasing attacks by seagulls. Students at Helston Community College say the gulls are a menace and follow them around during breaks, hoping to steal their food. Harris Hawks are being flown around the school's grounds once a week to scare the gulls away. The school said it had tried a number of measures to try to scare off the gulls but nothing seemed to work. Maintenance manager, Richard Coode, said: "The seagulls are quite vicious. They come down and attack and take whatever they want. "They won't stop until they get what they want. There haven't been any bad incidents, but the kids have had some scratches from the seagulls pecking at them." Teachers said they responded by making sure that rubbish was picked up quickly and even put fake owls on the roofs. Student Jessica Sneddon said: "It's mainly on the field at lunchtime. If you put your food down next to you, you will get a load of them coming down attacking for the food." The school is hopeful it may have found a solution in the form of Richy Hicks who trains and owns Harris Hawks. Mr Hicks said: "With the amount of gulls that are here it can take up to three years to slowly move them out. "It's moving them slowly but they are eventually going. They are getting the message."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8785000/8785348.stm	Two more of the suspected Russian spies in the US have admitted they are living in the country under a false identity. Michael Zotolli and Patricia Mills have revealed that their real names are Mikhail Kutzik and Natalia Pereverzeva. Moscow correspondent Rupert Wingfield-Hayes describes how Russia has reacted to the alleged conspiracy. Get in touch with Today via or text us on 84844.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/8210410.stm	A police dog has been hailed as a hero after finding a County Fermanagh pensioner who had been missing for several hours. Tach, a German Shepherd, tracked down the 80-year-old man who had fallen in fields near his Newtownbutler home. The man, who has Alzheimer's disease, was suffering from mild hypothermia when he was found at about midnight last Friday. Chief Inspector Graham Dodds said the dog had saved the pensioner's life. The police helicopter and officers had been looking without success for this man," he said. "He was located in a ditch covered by brambles so couldn't be seen. "If Tash hadn't found this poor gentleman, I believe he would be dead."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4170625.stm	By Nick Assinder Political Correspondent, BBC News website Tony Blair's big speech will be looked back on as the performance that kicked off the election campaign. That poll may still be about 16 weeks away, but there can be little doubt left that the campaign is now in full swing. Mr Blair looked towards the next election The prime minister used his speech to a selected audience in the south east to set out his broad brush election manifesto. There was a detailed account of the government's past record, with a major emphasis on the economy and public services. There was an attempt to draw the line under the gossip surrounding his rift with Chancellor Gordon Brown. And there was an insistence on the importance of the party continuing to operate as unremittingly "New" Labour - although that may continue to irritate his chancellor. There was little in terms of concrete proposals or what might form manifesto pledges, although the prime minister talked about a "New Labour manifesto that will be aimed at all sections of society". His was more a speech designed to remind people, and some in his own party, precisely what New Labour stood for, and to leave them in no doubt there would not be any shrinking away from that approach. And, for some, that means showing that New Labour actually does stand for something - that it is, as he said, more than "an electoral device". He set out a broad programme aimed to appeal to both middle England voters and to more traditional lower income old Labour supporters. To that end he set out a broad programme aimed to appeal to both middle England voters who switched to the party in 1997 and stuck with it, possibly through some gritted teeth, in 2001, and to more traditional lower income old Labour supporters. In a key section, he declared: "In our third term we can achieve an unprecedented widening of opportunity and prosperity. "For the first time ever a whole generation growing up with unbroken economic stability. Every family - not just the fortunate few - knowing their children will have an inheritance at adulthood. "Every pupil in every secondary school guaranteed a place in university or a quality apprenticeship. Every adult - including those who missed out at school - able to get the skills then need to advance. "Home ownership extended to its highest ever level and to families who have never before been able to afford it. "The highest ever level of employment with everyone in work guaranteed a decent wage and decent conditions". Under what is to be the general election slogan "Britain is working", the prime minister time and again insisted the future direction would be unremittingly New Labour. That might get under the skin of Mr Brown, but he also heaped praise on him as the most successful post-war chancellor Britain has had. Probably the greatest ideological divide between the two men, in so far as there is one, is about the degree of private finance allowed into the public services. An unremittingly "New" Labour manifesto, as the prime minister is happy to make plain, will stress the importance of that - the belief patients and parents, for example, want a choice of good services before they start worrying about who has provided them. Gordon Brown has long been seen as Tony Blair's successor The chancellor is said to be far more sceptical about private finance, although there is no suggestion he opposes it in principle. With an election looming the next big speech from Gordon Brown will be closely examined for any signs of divisions and, in particular, the use of that little three letter word. But for now, all eyes have been focused on the next general election. And for many in Westminster, Mr Blair's performance has only succeeded in hardening the belief that will be on 5 May.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9689000/9689480.stm	The chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland, Stephen Hester, has decided not to take his £1m bonus. Labour's business spokesman Chuka Umunna told the Today programme that the government should have intervened to stop Mr Hester's bonus. "This was an example where the government has been going around saying to the British public - look, share holders need to take a more active role, in reigning in excess, taking an active role in the running of their companies," he said. "And here is a prime example of where the government is a shareholder, and has failed to do so." Get in touch with Today via or text us on 84844.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3144069.stm	The Cat in the Hat, the children's favourite created by the late Dr Seuss, has won the right to is name on the internet. The name has been handed back to the estate of Dr Seuss by a United Nations copyright agency after a 'copycat' site appeared using the name thecatinthehat.com. The site's creator, Chris Saunders, who lives in St Kitts and Nevis, had earlier agreed to return the name but the handover stalled when the site's registrar declined to de-register it. An arbitrator for WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organisation, said the site had been set up in bad faith and the name should be returned immediately. Pirate video CDs seized in Malaysia Malaysian authorities have seized more than 300,000 pirated video CDs during raids in the north of the country. The video CDs were about to be sold overseas through a mail-order business, according to the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry. The CDs were worth more than 1.6 million ringgits (£262,000). Nine people were arrested and will face fines of up to 10,000 ringgit (£1,640) for each of the pirated CDs. The raids were part of a government crackdown launched in May which is so far reported to have seized three million CDs and closed down several copying plants. UB40 picked for rugby anthem England's official team anthem for the World Cup in Australia this autumn will be sung by reggae act UB40. The Birmingham band have already recorded their version of Swing Low, which will be released on 13 October, five days before England's crunch World Cup clash against South Africa in Perth. UB40, with United Colours of Sound, will perform Swing Low prior to England's World Cup warm-up Test against France at Twickenham on 6 September. They will be back at Twickenham 11 days later, when the video of their single will be shown at England's official World Cup send-off dinner. Verdi's Aida wows baking crowd A performance of Verdi's famous opera Aida designed by director Franco Zeferelli played in Verona on Sunday in near 100f heat. The performance, at the 2,000-year-old Arena di Verona, was led by tenor Salvatore Licitra and included hundreds of actors and singers, surrounded by 14 sphinxes and other elaborate props. Despite the heat many of the audience dressed in traditional formal wear. The opera, one of the most famous, has traditionally been perfumed at the arena every year since 1913.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/4154458.stm	Captain Ricky Ponting admitted he thought he had cost Australia the game after being caught behind with 24 balls remaining in the Old Trafford Test. Ponting made a brilliant 156 but had to watch final pair Brett Lee and Glenn McGrath hold on for the last four overs to secure the draw. Ponting said: "I worked really hard but I thought I'd cocked it up at the end. "It was a big game in the series and it was a big result for us after being out-played in the first few days." McGrath and Lee held on against Andrew Flintoff and Steve Harmison to deny England what seemed like a certain victory and keep the five-match series level at 1-1. Ponting said: "Brett and Glenn showed a lot of character to get us through. "It's a bit of relief, I guess. We knew if we applied ourselves during the day we had a good chance of hanging in there and saving the game. "There was a lot of finger-crossing in the dressing-room but we're alive in the series and ready for the next one." Last-gasp hero Lee was delighted to have survived the last onslaught, particularly having taken Australia so close to an unlikely win at Edgbaston. He said: "It's been very nerve-wracking - I'm not sure if I can keep going through this sort of thing. "There's been so much going on in the last two Tests. It just went our way on this occasion - we were pretty happy to get away with a draw. "But I've been working hard (on my batting) and I've been on at Ricky to move me up the order." The series now moves on to Trent Bridge with Australia facing some tricky selection dilemmas. Matthew Hayden, Damien Martyn and Adam Gilchrist are still struggling for form with the bat and Jason Gillespie's three wickets in the series so far have come at a cost of 100 runs each. But it would represent a big gamble by the selectors to thrust uncapped Brad Hodge and Shaun Tait into the side with the series so finaely poised. "We need to find a way of bowling out England cheaper and scoring a few more runs," Lee added.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9715000/9715286.stm	The health and social care watchdog, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has denied that it failed to take sufficient action after undercover filming showed an 80-year-old woman being assaulted by a care worker, which will be broadcast for the first time on BBC Panorama tonight. The footage came to light after the woman's daughter hid a camera in her room at the Ash Court Care Centre in Kentish Town. Jill Finney, deputy chief executive of the Care Quality Commission, said that a report written by the regulator following an inspection of the home "made clear it was a safeguarding incident" whereby there was a case of abuse. She told the Today programme's John Humphrys that "concealed abuse very hard to find", adding that the priority of the CQC was "to look after those still receiving care in the home". Mrs. Finney insisted that the watchdog acted appropriately and interviewed more than 30 patients and staff at the home after the incident was brought to its attention. But Judy Downey, head of the Relatives & Residents Association, said that the issue was that about 70% of people in care have dementia so they cannot speak up for themselves and don't have relatives to look out for them. She went on to say that Maria Worrell's daughter, Jane, who secretly filmed the abuse, "had no idea the Commission existed" and went to her local authority instead. She went on to say that the report by the CQC was "negligent" and implied that it was one rogue worker when in fact there were four people involved. Get in touch with Today via or text us on 84844.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/highlands_and_islands/6170069.stm	The company behind the UK's largest onshore wind farm project - proposed for the Hebridean island of Lewis - has unveiled revised plans for the scheme. The proposed turbines on Lewis would be 140m (460ft) high The reworked proposal comprises 181 wind turbines compared with the 234 which were originally planned. As a result, the wind farm's generating capacity would also have to be reduced from 702 megawatts (MW) to 652MW. The £500m proposed development has been vigorously opposed by conservation groups and anti-wind farm campaigners. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is concerned about the number of birds which could be killed by flying into turbines and says it would be willing to take the matter to Europe if necessary. The original proposal was supported by the Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (Western Isles Council) on the understanding that the developer, Lewis Wind Power, would look again at the positions of 25 proposed wind turbines. The council backed the plan despite receiving more than 4,000 objections. The revised proposal, submitted to the Scottish Executive on Tuesday, deletes 21 of these 25 turbines and removes a further 32 to reduce the predicted impact of the development on birds. The wind farm would cut through a peatland which is protected under EU conservation law. Stuart Housden, director of RSPB Scotland, said the development was of "enormous concern". Mr Housden said the RSPB had not yet had time to study the revised proposal, but said it "remains a large, industrial-scale development". He added: "It is hard to imagine that all this can be delivered without having some significant level of impact on such an important environmental area." Golden eagles could be among the birds at threat, says the RSPB Catriona Campbell, who chairs anti-wind farm group Moorland Without Turbines, said: "The fact that the consultation period is going to take in the Christmas and New Year break appears cynical, and we'll be calling for an extension. "People at this time of year are extremely busy with family. And public offices where the technical documents are available tend to be shut over this period." David Hodkinson, Lewis Wind Power director, said the developers understood this concern: "When submitting the revised proposal we recognised that the Christmas period would affect people's ability to respond within the statutory 28 day period, so we have requested an extended consultation period that will last until 29 January." Lewis Wind Power predicts that some 400 jobs would be created during the manufacturing phase, with more once the wind farm is operational. Communities will also receive payments, some of which can be exchanged for a stake in the wind farm. "We have a range of economic challenges here," said Calum Ian McIver, head of economic development for the council. "The project has to stay at a certain scale to deliver the benefits to the local community, to deliver manufacturing to the local Arnish plant and to allow the interconnector to come in." The wind farm's course would take it through protected areas The interconnector is a cable capable of transferring power from the wind farm to the mainland. It is vital to the council's vision of turning Lewis into a centre for alternative energy. But a large power station is needed to justify building it. "The interconnector is going to be key to getting to the wind and tidal wave resources," Mr McIver told BBC News, "This is the next wave - what people are referring to as blue power." Alasdair Morrison, MSP for the Western Isles said he had "no doubt that the proposals will play an important role in the future prosperity of the Outer Hebrides." He said: "It is a well-recognised and indisputable fact that the Outer Hebrides has the best renewable resources in the European Union. "I am committed to ensuring that our communities are at the forefront of the renewable energy revolution." The Arnish manufacturing plant on Lewis - which would stand to pick up contracts for turbine components - was this month hit by the collapse of a tenant company, leaving substantial debts.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8365990.stm	Mr Obama said a decision would be announced within "several weeks" President Barack Obama says he is "very close" to deciding whether to send more troops to Afghanistan and will announce his decision within "several weeks". Mr Obama also told CNN in China his new strategy would emphasise an "endgame". The top US military commander in Afghanistan, Gen Stanley McChrystal, wants at least 40,000 more US troops. Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has arrived in Kabul to attend the inauguration of President Hamid Karzai after a fraud-marred poll. Her visit is a clear sign that the US and its Nato allies have no choice but to work with Mr Karzai and he knows it, the BBC's State Department correspondent Kim Ghattas says. Kim Ghattas, BBC News, Kabul President Karzai will see Hillary Clinton's presence here as a ringing endorsement of his second term as leader. But for Washington it is a qualified endorsement. A US official travelling with the secretary of state said the electoral process in Afghanistan had produced this result and Washington had to deal with the facts on the ground. But he also said Mrs Clinton would make clear to the Afghan president that the US and its allies expect him to do better in the coming years. She adds that both Mr Obama and Mrs Clinton have made very public statements about the need to fight corruption. Mrs Clinton has also warned civilian aid will not continue to flow to Afghanistan unless these issues are addressed. She will make those points when she has dinner with Mr Karzai on Wednesday evening before his inauguration, our correspondent says. Mr Obama said he did not want his successor as president to inherit the Afghan conflict, adding that a "multi-year occupation" would not serve US interests. The US president made his comments during his trip to Asia, in interviews with NBC News, CNN and CBS News. He pledged to make clear to Americans the reasoning behind his new strategy and its costs. "The American people will have a lot of clarity about what we're doing, how we're going to succeed, how much this thing is going to cost, what kind of burden does this place on our young men and women in uniform and, most importantly, what's the end game on this thing," he said. In the wake of the political upheaval that surrounded President Karzai's disputed re-election, Mr Obama also expressed concerns about the Afghan government's ability to be an "effective partner". "I'm less concerned about any individual than I am with a government as a whole that is having difficulty providing basic services to its people in a way that confers legitimacy on them," Mr Obama said. "We also have to make sure that we've got an effective partner in Afghanistan. And that's something that we are examining very closely and presenting some very clear benchmarks for the Afghan government." An ABC News/Washington Post poll suggests 44% of US adults believe the Afghan war is worth fighting, the lowest proportion since polls began in 2007. The US currently has about 68,000 troops in Afghanistan, contributing to a coalition force of more than 100,000.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/tayside_and_central/5241552.stm	Children who have diabetes from infancy could face an insulin-free future, according to research by a Dundee University scientist. Patients with a genetic diabetes could swap insulin for tablets The study found that patients with a particular type of genetic diabetes, diagnosed in early infancy, could swap insulin injection for tablets. Dr Ewan Pearson worked closely on the study while he was at the Peninsula Medical School in Devon. He said the sulphonylurea treatment did not work for Type 1 diabetes patients. However, the switch to tablets worked for 90% of those who were diagnosed with diabetes before the age of six months as a result of a change in the Kir6.2 gene. Dr Pearson said the tablets targeted the area affected by the genetic change and helped restore the secretion of insulin in response to food. Ann-Marie Davies noticed marked changes in her baby when he was able to change from insulin injections to tablets. Matthew had been treated with insulin since he was diagnosed with a very high blood sugar when he was two months old. She said: "It has been a fantastic change and he is so much happier. His blood sugars are so much better and he loves his food." Dr Pearson, who is now a clinical lecturer at Dundee University, said it was rare to find such an excellent response to any treatment. He said: "The striking finding was not just that patients could stop insulin but in every case the overall blood sugar was lower without patients having problems with too low blood sugar." Prof Andrew Hattersley, of the Peninsula Medical School, said: "This research shows that genetics really do make a difference - knowing the cause of this diabetes helped us know what type of tablet might work. "This finding is in contrast to that for most patients with Type 1 diabetes, who need lifelong insulin therapy. "But what we want now is to test more people who were diagnosed before they were six months old to see if their treatment can be successfully altered." The study was funded by the Wellcome Trust and has been is published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_4040000/newsid_4043200/4043251.stm	Dr Who, the longest running science fiction programme on British television, is back on our screens. David Tennant stars as the 900-year-old Time Lord, who spends much of his time saving the Earth from alien menaces. Students look at the acronym TARDIS and the difference between acronyms and abbreviations. - Identify an abbreviation or acronym - Learn the difference between the two types - Add to existing knowledge of both types Read out this description of the Tardis to the class. Explain that Tardis is an acronym - an abbreviation that can be said as a word e.g: Nato (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation). Explain the difference between an acronym and an abbreviation: Abbreviation - the first letter or letters of each important word placed together e.g: RAC (Royal Automobile Club). Ask the students to come up with other suggestions for what the letters in Tardis stand for. E.g. Terrific adventures really deep in space. Give out copies of this abbreviations and acronyms worksheet. The class find meanings for the abbreviations and acronyms on the worksheet and sort them into the two types. Answers for the worksheet: - Automobile Association - Royal Air Force - Video Cassette Recorder - Random Access Memory - British Broadcasting Corporation - Radio Detection And Ranging - Independent Television - United Arab Emirates - Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome - British Airways - United Nations - World Wide Web - Frequently Asked Questions - Irish Republican Army - Royal Ulster Constabulary - Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation Moxx of Balhoon Students imagine they are a script-writer for Dr Who. In groups, they outline one episode by answering the five W questions which underpin creative writing: Dr Who, Dr What, Dr Where, Dr When and Dr Why. Who appears in your episode apart from the Doctor? Aliens? Friends of the Doctor? What happens in your episode? Where does the action take place? On another planet? What is the planet's name? When does it take place? Which era of history does the doctor travel to? Why does the Doctor go there? Is he on a mission to save the Earth? Students may also like to answer this question: How will the episode end? Will the Doctor save the Earth? Students should read through their work and add as many acronyms and abbreviations as possible. Can they abbreviate the name of their planet? Is it an acronym? What do the letters stand for. The Doctor comes from the planet Gallifrey. If this was an acronym, what would it stand for? Flying saucers and (The Doctor can remain ever young because he has two hearts. When his body gets worn out he can "regenerate" and change his appearance.) Another good source for examining abbreviations and acronyms is the list of past stories on the right hand side of this page. Students report back on their worksheet answers. They present their Dr Who episode outlines to the class for feedback, explaining any abbreviations and acronyms. Recap on differences between the two types. The world's longest abbreviation (from the Guinness Book of Words) is from the Russian language: Which means (in English): Laboratory for Shuttering, Reinforcement, Concrete and Ferroconcrete Operations for Composite-monolithic and Monolithic Constructions of the Department of Technology of Building Assembly Operations of the Scientific Research Institute of the Organization for Building Mechanization and Technical Aid of the Academy of Building and Architecture of the USSR. For hundreds more news-based lessons, click on Teachers on the left hand side of this page.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/music/newsid_7480000/7480679.stm	By Frances Cronin Newsbeat entertainment reporter Lily Allen has completed recording sessions for her second album. The singer told Newsbeat she is yet to name the follow up to Alright Still but she is happy with the new record. She told Newsbeat: "Iím pretty much sure itís finished and Iíve got a meeting on Tuesday with the label, Iím really happy." The singer also admitted that despite the pressure to repeat the success of her debut, she is not worried about what her record company think of it. She added: "As much as I love them theyíre just people who give you a loan. Iím not scared of my label." Away from her recording sessions, Lily also said she has been working with Klaxons singer Jamie Reynolds on a new song. The pair told Newsbeat they took time out to go into the studio together a couple of weeks ago. Lily said: "We had our session and enlightened each other. We did a cover of Joe Jacksonís Steppin' Out. Jamie added: "And that wonderful song that weíre yet to finish." He went on: "It was just for a bit of enjoyment. I donít even know if itíll even exist yet. Itís a big work in progress." Meanwhile, Klaxons are also working on their follow up to their Mercury prize winning debut Myths Of The Near Future. Of the recording sessions Jamie said they had a hard first session. "Weíve put a bit of work and weíre getting somewhere near a flow," he explained. "Itís going alright, we go in on Tuesday to do the second session on it. Weíve got another two weeks to hopefully come up with something."
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-17865440	Extracts from Chen Guangcheng video In a video of Chen Guangcheng, which has appeared on the internet, the high-profile activist makes three key demands directly to Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, while describing the harsh conditions of his detention. "Dear Premier Wen - With great difficulty, I finally escaped. All the rumours and claims on the internet about violence against me and my wife...I tell you that they are all true. "The truth is even worse than what has been spread online. Premier Wen, I formally make the following three requests of you." Here are some key extracts from the video setting out his three demands, and naming officials he says should be bought to justice: Punish officials who beat his family "Firstly, [I hope] you will personally look into this case. Appoint an investigation team for a thorough investigation to reveal the truth. "Who sent out the order for 70-80 county public security and party cadres to enter my house and violently beat us up and harm us without any legal documentation? None of them were wearing uniform, and they forbade us from seeking medical care after being injured in the violence. "Over a dozen men broke into our house and violently beat up my wife. They pushed her to the ground, covered her in a duvet and beat her up for hours. They also beat me up violently. "He [one senior party official] announced several times that: 'We simply don't need to care about the law; we don't need to care about what's written in the law; we don't need any legal process. What can you do?'" "I asked them who they are, if not the police. They said: 'We are sent by the Party to do things for the Party.' "This year, after the intervention and publicity from kind netizens, there were hundreds of guards at peak time, which created a full blockade [of Chen's home]. "The team outside are spread around my house, on four corners and on the roads and then there are people at the entrance of each road leading towards my house. "There are people hired to patrol around in cars all the time. The scale of the patrol can be as far as 5km [3 miles] away from my village. "I know that there are up to 100 county security officials who conducted illegal persecution... I demand a thorough investigation of them." Ensure the safety of his family ''I may be free but my worries are for my family - my wife, my child, my mother. Perhaps because of my leaving, they may become the target of more brutal abuse.'' "For so long my family have been suffering from these persecutions but now I have gone, they [government officials] might take revenge [on my family] out of madness. "The orbital bone of my wife's left eye was broken by them. It still shows when you touch it. Her back was injured when they beat her up in the house covered by a duvet... and they inhumanely forbade her from getting medical care after the injury. "My [elderly] mother was pushed over to the ground by a village party cadre on her own birthday. She fell on her back and her head hit the door. She cried heavily. She said: 'You're doing this because you're young.' They said: 'That's right. The young can do it. You're old and can't defeat us.' So shameless, so cruel and inhumane - so unjust. "My child, who is just a few years old, is followed by three people every day when going to school, and searched. Everything must be taken out from the school bag, and each page in the books is checked through. "I call for the friends online to continue your attention and increase your level of care, in order to get to know their safety situations. "I call for the Chinese government to ensure the safety of my family members, from the perspective of protecting the dignity of law and the interests of people." Corruption must be punished "The decision-makers are worried that their crimes will be exposed, that is why they don't want to resolve [this] "I remember in August, when they conducted Cultural Revolution style criticisms on me, they said: "You said in the video that 30 million Yuan [$4.7m] was spent [on watching or controlling Chen]. Do you know that this is a 2008 figure. Now it's more than twice the sum! "Many people who are hired [to guard Chen] said: 'We're given very little money, the majority is all taken by others.' This is indeed a great opportunity for them to get rich. "Therefore, I ask Premier Wen to launch investigations into this corruption. The taxpayers' money must not be used by illegal local cadres for harming people and harming the image of our Party. "Premier Wen, people cannot understand all these illegal acts. Has it been local officials who disobey the law, or have they been acting upon orders from the central government? You should give the public a clear answer very soon. "If a thorough investigation is launched and the truth is revealed to the general public, then the result will be clear. But if you continue to ignore it, what will the public think?"
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-39088777	Kim Jong-nam killing: Suspect 'was paid $90 for baby oil prank' An Indonesian woman arrested for the murder of the half-brother of North Korea's leader has said she was given 400 Malaysian ringgit ($90; £72) to carry out a prank. Indonesian embassy officials met Siti Aisyah, 25, on Saturday in the Malaysian capital. She said she was given the cash to smear Kim Jong-nam's face with "baby oil" as part of a reality show joke. Tests show Mr Kim was killed with the highly toxic nerve agent VX. It is classified as a weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations. Mr Kim died last week after two women accosted him briefly in a check-in hall at Kuala Lumpur international airport. The airport has been swept for toxic chemicals by a forensic team, the fire department and the Atomic Energy Licensing Board. There is widespread suspicion that North Korea was behind the attack, which it strongly denies. A Vietnamese woman and a North Korean man have also been arrested in connection with the killing. The Vietnamese foreign ministry confirmed that the Vietnamese national being held was Doan Thi Huong, born in 1988, saying she had told officials she thought she was taking part in a television prank. At least seven other suspects are wanted by police. After a 30-minute meeting with Siti Aisyah on Saturday, Indonesian Deputy Ambassador Andreano Erwin said: "She only said in general that somebody asked her to do this activity. She only said in general she met with some people who looked Japanese or Korean. "According to her, that person gave her 400 ringgits to do this activity... She only said she was given a kind of oil, like baby oil." The officials said they did not see any physical signs that the suspect had been affected by the chemical. Malaysia's police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said on Friday that the presence of the nerve agent had been detected in swabs taken from Mr Kim's eyes and face. Mr Kim had sought medical help at the airport, saying someone had splashed or sprayed him with liquid. He then had a seizure and died on the way to hospital. What is the deadly VX nerve agent? - The most potent of the known chemical warfare agents, it is a clear, amber-coloured, oily liquid which is tasteless and odourless - Works by penetrating the skin and disrupting the transmission of nerve impulses - a drop on the skin can kill in minutes. Lower doses can cause eye pain, blurred vision, drowsiness and vomiting - It can be disseminated in a spray or vapour when used as a chemical weapon, or used to contaminate water, food, and agricultural products - VX can be absorbed into the body by inhalation, ingestion, skin contact, or eye contact - Clothing can carry VX for about 30 minutes after contact with the vapour, which can expose other people - Banned by the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention Who was Kim Jong-nam? The well-travelled and multilingual oldest son of late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, he was once considered a potential future leader. He has lived abroad for years and was bypassed in favour of his half-brother, Kim Jong-un. He had been travelling on a passport under the name Kim Chol. North Korea has yet to confirm that the deceased was actually Kim Jong-nam. For many years, it was believed Kim Jong-nam was being groomed to succeed his father as the next leader. But that appears to have come to an end in 2001 when Kim was caught sneaking into Japan on a fake passport. He later became one of the regime's most high-profile critics, openly questioning the authoritarian policies and dynastic succession his grandfather Kim Il-sung began crafting in 1948.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4447385.stm	The leading Arab satellite television station, al-Jazeera, launches a new channel that will broadcast conferences live without editing or commentary. Al-Jazeera also plans to launch an English-language channel A station spokesman told the BBC the channel, al-Jazeera Live, is the first of its kind in the Arab world. He said that it will cover conferences and focusing on political, social and cultural issues. Al-Jazeera also plans to launch an English-language news station, a documentary and a children's channel. Al-Jazeera's Jihad Ballout compared the station to the American channel, C-Span, which shows the workings of the US Congress live. Vague on programming But BBC world media correspondent Sebastian Usher said Mr Ballout was vague about what exactly the new station would be showing. The channel will broadcas al-Jazeera's own Television Production Festival, which opens in Qatar on 18 April. Some Arab media analysts have suggested that this is the main reason for launching the new channel. Undoubtedly, our correspondent says, al-Jazeera Live is likely to cause fewer ripples than the English-language news station that's due to be launched by the end of this year. All this comes as the Qatari government - which supports al-Jazeera financially - pursues plans to privatise the station.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-36985697	The puppy rescuers of Alexandria "No one can tell you that we are a nation without hope." Words from a viral Facebook post in praise of Egyptian animal lovers who acted to save a puppy that was trapped under large stone boulders for more than three weeks. The puppy had reportedly been abandoned to a slow lingering death by its owners. But a group of volunteers banded together to mobilise a rescue mission which hundreds of thousands followed on social media. The story begins in early July when Mariem Taha, a 36-year-old resident of Egypt's port city Alexandria, began to hear the unsettling sound of whimpering when she was at a cafe on the famous sea front corniche. "It was very upsetting sound so I asked the cafe owner what it was, " Taha told BBC Trending, "He said that on the previous day some people had a come with a puppy and the puppy had fallen in between the gaps of some stone boulders. The people then abandoned the puppy. The whimpering was very upsetting so I decided to go in search of the puppy. "The first three days I could hear the puppy but I couldn't see her. So I wasn't sure where to throw food for her, and she may have been scared. By the third day, she was familiar with my voice so she appeared in the gaps. I couldn't reach for her but I could feed her. I decided to name her Babsy Rock." Taha returned daily to feed Babsy Rock but couldn't work out a way to rescue her. So she turned to a Facebook group called 'Save Innocent Souls'. The group was known to be frequented by animal welfare activists. A post requesting aid was met with several people offering to help. The progress of the rescue was documented on social media and this gallery has been viewed more than 300,000 times online on the photo sharing site IMGUR. After persistent lobbying, the local authority sent a crane to aid the rescue. And Babsy Rock was finally freed having spent a total of around 25 days under the rocks. The rescuers told Mariem of Dr Mahmoud Abdelmaksoud, a local vet known to animal rescuers, who did a check-up on Babsy Rock. "Dr Abdelmaksoud is an incredible man, a hero. Many volunteers call him to check up on the animals they have rescued and he offers his services for free," says Mau Hamada, who is the founder of one of the animal rescue groups in Alexandria. Hers is called Animal Zone and she says that they are completely volunteer based, and accept no donations. "Social media was crucial in the rescue of Babsy Rock. Mariem's posts on Facebook mobilised a lot of us volunteers and many people pitched in with the rescue. A lot of information is shared on digital platforms so that we can do our work," Hamada told Trending, "There are dozens of people in Alexandria helping to rescue animals, they either work in self-organised groups like us or individually." Campaigners have often been critical of Egypt's record on animal welfare. Mau Hamada says that there a range of factors which can result in the mistreatment of animals; "the fear of stray animals, sadistic individuals and some people that say that dogs are not a welcome part of Islam, although they are in the minority." But there was a happy ending for Babsy Rock who has been adopted by Mariem Taha. And how is she doing now? "She's very naughty," laughs Taha. NEXT STORY: The Nigerian man making Africans laugh
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36189698	South Korea Olympic chair Cho Yang-ho resigns The organiser of South Korea's 2018 Winter Olympics, Cho Yang-ho, has offered to resign. Mr Cho said he wanted to focus on "urgent matters" with his business group, which includes the struggling Hanjin Shipping carrier, the Yonhap news agency reports. The agency said Mr Cho, who took on the role in 2014, was nearing the end of his two-year term. The Games are due to take place in Pyeongchang in February 2018. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said in March this year it was confident South Korea's preparations were "moving in the right direction". Mr Cho said he had "truly put forward my very best efforts to work with every member of the organizing committee to prepare a successful Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in 2018." He said he would "continue to support Pyeongchang through to the Games in 2018".
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-essex-49151699	Large fire breaks out at Shoeburyness industrial estate About 50 firefighters tackled a large blaze at an industrial estate in Essex. Plumes of black smoke from the fire at a building on Towerfield Road, Shoeburyness, were seen for miles. Essex County Fire and Rescue Service advised people living and working nearby to keep doors and windows closed. Police said no-one was hurt in the fire, which started shortly before 11:00 BST and was brought under control by about 13:30. A spokesman said the fierce heat caused the roof of the building to collapse, meaning firefighters had not been able to enter. A platform was used to spray water from above to dampen hotspots within the roof. Witness James Matthews said the fire was at a polystyrene factory on the estate. "It just literally went up - it was like through the roof, through the windows - everything." He added: "The smoke stinks - they're toxic fumes - it's really heavy in the air." He said Essex Police was at the scene and had blocked off Towerfield Road. At 16:45 Essex Fire Service confirmed the incident had been scaled down, but firefighters were still spraying water on the building to cool hotspots. A full investigation will take place on Tuesday.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-49088969	Police officers are to be issued an emergency antidote to allow them to treat drug users who have overdosed on heroin. Forty West Midlands Police officers have been trained to use naloxone nasal sprays. Naloxone can also be used to treat overdoses of methadone, morphine and fentanyl. A former addict said his life was saved on two occasions when he was given the drug by medics. Carl Price, from voluntary organisation Change Grow Live which has provided the training, said: "Without me having that naloxone when I did, I wouldn't be here to talk about it." It comes as a report for Police and Crime Commissioner David Jamieson found someone dies from drug poisoning every three days in the West Midlands. Mr Jamieson said "Police officers are often the first on the scene when there is an overdose. "This initiative is an important symbol in showing that first and foremost all emergency services are there to protect life." Tony Mercer from Public Heath England said there is "good evidence" naloxone helps prevent opiate overdose deaths. "The new nasal naloxone is more acceptable than the current injection to people who might first come across an overdose, like the police, making it easier to reach more people who might benefit from its use," he said. Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, and sign up for local news updates direct to your phone.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39561822	Shell has admitted for the first time it dealt with a convicted money-launderer when negotiating access to a vast oil field in Nigeria. It comes after emails were published showing Shell negotiated with Dan Etete, who was later convicted of money laundering in a separate case. Shell and an Italian oil company paid $1.3bn (£1bn) to the Nigerian government for access to the field. Investigators claim $1.1bn was passed to a firm controlled by Mr Etete. Shell and the Italian firm ENI agreed a deal with the Nigerian government for the rights to exploit OPL 245, a prime oil block off the coast of the Niger Delta. The government passed on $1.1bn of the money to a company called Malabu, which was controlled by Mr Etete, according to Italian prosecutors. Documents filed by the Italian prosecutors claim that $466m of that sum was then laundered through bureau de change and passed on to the then president, Goodluck Jonathan, and members of his government. When questioned in the past, Shell has claimed that it only paid money to the Nigerian government, which took the form of a sum to settle the long-running legal dispute which had raged over the ownership of OPL 245. But a spokesman has now said Shell had engaged with Malabu and Etete before signing that deal. "Over the course of several years, Shell made repeated attempts to fully establish and understand Malabu's ownership structure, including the exact role of Mr Etete in Malabu," he said. "Over time it became clear to us that Etete was involved in Malabu and that the only way to resolve the impasse through a negotiated settlement was to engage with Etete and Malabu, whether we liked it or not. This was consistent with the Federal Government of Nigeria's (FGN) position. "From the complex multi-party negotiations that followed, we knew the FGN would compensate Malabu to settle its claim on the block. We believe that the settlement was a fully legal transaction with the FGN," he added. 'Changed its tune' The change comes after Global Witness and Finance Uncovered, two anti-corruption charities, published emails seen by the BBC which showed that Shell representatives were negotiating with Mr Etete a year before the deal was signed. One of the emails was copied to Shell's chief executive at the time, Peter Voser, showing knowledge of Mr Etete's involvement went right to the top at Shell. Rachel Owens, a campaigner at Global Witness, said: "Shell have always said that they only paid the Nigerian government. Today Shell has changed its tune." At the time Shell struck the deal for OPL 245, it was under a deferred prosecution agreement with the Department of Justice in the US, settling a case under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for $30m. Under the terms of its agreement, it had to toughen up internal controls and stay in line with the US' tough anti-corruption laws. Representatives of Peter Voser declined to comment. ENI said there was no credible evidence any of its staff were involved in wrongdoing. A spokesperson for Goodluck Jonathan told the BBC that no charges or indictments have been brought or secured against the former president relating to this transaction and described the allegations as a "false narrative". The BBC is still awaiting comment from Dan Etete, but he has previously denied any wrongdoing.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-48894651	Influential Brazilian musician João Gilberto has died aged 88. The singer and composer was known best as a pioneer of the bossa nova genre, which found international popularity in the 1960s. Reports say Gilberto died at home in Rio de Janeiro after a period of illness. His son confirmed the news of his death in a Saturday Facebook post. "His fight was noble, he tried to maintain dignity," Marcelo Gilberto said. Born in the north-east state of Bahia in 1931, Gilberto began singing aged 18. His release of the record Chega de Saudade in the late 1950s was considered a game-changer for Brazilian music. Gilberto's style - mixing traditional and modern musical influences - inspired bossa nova, or new trend, music and many other artists after him. In 1964, he famously collaborated with America saxophone player Stan Getz. Their album sold millions of copies and won international praise, including a US Grammy for Album of the year. A pioneer in his field By Leonardo Rocha, BBC News Americas Editor João Gilberto introduced bossa nova to the world in 1958: he created a new beat, with his unique guitar style, mixing traditional samba music with modern jazz influences. His music depicted a period of huge optimism in Brazil: an urban, industrialised country that was building a new capital and dreaming of better times. His versions of songs like Quiet Nights and The Girl from Ipanema became standards in world music. João Gilberto, a musician I loved & giant of Brazilian bossa nova music, died today. His collaboration with American saxophonist Stan Getz & the amazing voice of Astrud Gilberto on “Getz/Gilberto” is an album you can’t stop listening to on a summer night.https://t.co/UgACW9fviS— Piper Perabo (@PiperPerabo) July 6, 2019 For the past decade, João Gilberto lived alone in Rio, struggling with mental health and financial issues. Bernardo Araujo, a music journalist for Brazilian newspaper Globo, told AFP news agency last year his influence was "incalculable". "He was the principal voice of the best known Brazilian style in the world and a revolutionary without even really meaning to be," Araujo said. The influential musician had not been seen in public for several years. The cause of his death has not yet been officially announced.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6705329.stm	By Alastair Leithead BBC News, Afghanistan Thousands have been returned from Iran since April The queues of refugees start to pour over the border from first thing in the morning - as they have been doing for the last month. Ninety thousand people have so far been forcibly returned to Afghanistan from Iran since 21 April, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Every hour or so another bus arrives on the Iranian side, the people are unloaded, carrying the few possessions they had when they were arrested. A policeman meets them on the Afghanistan side, and they join a long line of people waiting to pick up the few pieces of charity an aid agency has gathered for them. They get water, biscuits and a bundle of clothes. They can also make a free phone call to relatives to let them know where they are. Then they get a free 120km (75mile) bus trip from the border post to the city of Herat where they are left to start all over again in a country where they used to live. In the gathered crowd waiting to tell their stories I see a young man, a tear rolling down his cheek. Iran has never deported so many people in such a short space of time "My wife and children are left there, even though I asked the authorities to let us go together," he said, a reference number scrawled on his hand in thick black ink. "I didn't even have time to get my wages from my employer. Now that they deported me who will look after my children? If someone throws them on the street who will give them shelter? This is cruelty." Among the lines of men was a 12-year-old boy who said he had been deported on his own. And passions are high. An older man, emphasising his point by striking his fist into his hand, says he has lived in Iran for 28 years and now he is back in Afghanistan, he cannot even afford the bus fare to Kabul, and doubts there is any work there anyway. "We are Muslims and they are Muslims as well, so why have they done this to us? We don't have any one to look after us." Iran received millions of refugees during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and the later civil war. It has been deporting refugees for some time, but never on this scale - never so many in such a short space of time. Josep Zapater is from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which under its remit can do little to help most of the returnees - only the vulnerable such as the old, the young and families. While many of the single men were living in Iran illegally, almost 22,000 of those deported have been families. "This wasn't happening last year," Mr Zapater explained. "Also there are the human rights concerns that we have seen at the border like separated families, some cases of maltreatment. "The process definitely needs to be sorted out in a more humane manner." An Afghan delegation visited Iran earlier this month and they returned saying the Iranian government had promised to suspend forced expulsions, but as they delivered their report hundreds more refugees continued to be deported. And the Iranian director general of the Bureau for Aliens and Foreign Immigrant Affairs, Ahmad Hosseini, defended their decision. Iran is doing a great deal to help development in Herat "We are determined once and for all to resolve the problem of illegal immigrants in Iran and this doesn't mean only Afghans but any other nationalities who have illegal immigrants here," he said. "The money we were supposed to spend on reconstruction for our own country has been spent on refugees. Today when we count the cost, it is $7bn a year, or $6 per Afghan every day." In Herat the arrival of tens of thousands of unemployed men is starting to have a real impact on the city and the whole region. Each morning they queue up for daily work, but there is little around. "I had my passport but they just tore it up" one man said. "What kind of law is that?" Iran is doing a great deal to help development in Afghanistan, particularly in Herat, but there are complaints so many desperate people arriving in a short time maybe undoing efforts to stabilise and assist the people.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-16289546	Street light cuts: Labour call for safety review Labour is calling for an urgent review of the impact of cuts to street lighting on women's safety. Several councils have reduced their lighting - or turned it off altogether at certain times - to save money. Labour's Stella Creasy said it was "breathtakingly complacent" of the government to allow this to happen without understanding the effects. Ministers said any plan to cut lighting should be taken locally and only after consultation with the public. Labour cited six county councils - Hertfordshire, Northamptonshire, Norfolk, Essex, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire - that it said were scaling back on lighting. A number of other local authorities, including Kirklees in West Yorkshire, and Gwynedd have also said recently that they planned to follow suit.'More accidents' By 2012, up to 80% of street lights in Hertfordshire could be switched off between midnight and 05:00. Citing "worrying stories" from towns like Stevenage and Welwyn Hatfield, shadow home affairs minister Ms Creasy said the move was already having a negative impact on communities. End Quote Sharon Taylor Labour councillor People who stay at home at night will feel less safe in their homes” "We are already hearing stories where the lights have been cut off after midnight that there have been more accidents, there is more crime and people are more frightened because the streets are so dark," she told the BBC News Channel. "We are simply saying to the government 'look at these figures, look at what is actually happening' and conduct a proper review. Local authorities are under a lot of financial pressure. That is why the government needs to step in." While reducing overnight lighting could save councils a "couple of thousand pounds here or there", she suggested it may cost the country more in the long run in terms of dealing with accidents and crime.'Inappropriate' Sharon Taylor, a Labour councillor in Stevenage, said the move was "entirely inappropriate" for the town as it had many shift workers and a busy night-time economy. "Residential areas will be completely dark from midnight until 5am," she said. "People who stay at home at night will feel less safe in their homes." Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles has said in the past that cutting lighting overnight could be a "sensible" environmental measure but it must be done at a "reasonable time" and there must be local consultation. In a statement, the Department for Communities and Local Government said: "Street lighting plays an important role in road safety, as well as ensuring the personal safety of pedestrians. There may be some roads where lights could be dimmed in the very early hours, saving taxpayers' money and reducing carbon emissions. "This should be a local decision by elected local councillors, reflecting local circumstances and the views of local residents - especially in relation to any concerns about crime."'Pragmatic approach' Councils are having to find savings in their operations as they face 28% cuts in government funding over four years. End Quote Peter Box Local Government Association Provided it is done in consultation with the police and local communities, reducing some street lighting can save taxpayers' money without reducing public safety” Derbyshire County Council have said they could save an estimated £400,000 a year by switching off 40% of their total lighting overnight. The council says 70% of residents who responded to an initial consultation supported the move. "We are not talking about plunging the county into darkness," deputy leader Simon Spencer said. "We are going to take a pragmatic approach to this." The Local Government Association, which represents more than 400 councils in England and Wales, said cutting lighting could save money "without reducing public safety" but the police and local residents needed to be consulted. "At these times of severe financial pressure all councils are looking for ways to make savings without impacting on frontline services such as child protection, adult social care, collecting bins and filling potholes," the LGA's Peter Box said. Westminster Council in London said they were taking a different approach by adopting new technology to "dim" lights to 75% of their normal capacity at non-peak periods. They hope the system, which will take four years to instal, could save them up to £8m over a twenty year period in lower energy and maintenance costs. "It makes no sense to be wasting money and energy with lights burning brightly at all hours," said Ed Argar, the council's cabinet member for city management. "At a time when other councils are turning lights off, we are investing in keeping them on - but at an appropriate level."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4096102.stm	The second of three radar booms has been deployed on Europe's Mars Express spacecraft - but it is unclear whether the operation has been successful. The antennas are part of the Marsis instrument, which will look beneath the Red Planet's surface for what are expected to be vast reserves of water. If the deployment went smoothly, it should be possible for this search to begin within about a week. Marsis is able to see water up to 5km (3 miles) below the planet's surface. On Tuesday, mission controllers at the European Space Agency's operations centre in Darmstadt, Germany, released the second of two identical, 20m-long (65ft) booms which comprise Marsis' primary antenna. They performed a series of manoeuvres designed to heat the boom evenly in sunlight before reorienting the spacecraft towards Earth so it could begin transmitting data. Controllers should know whether the operation was a success by Thursday. The antenna boom had been folded up inside the spacecraft since launch in June 2003. The command sent from Earth fired a pyrotechnic mechanism on Mar Express that caused the boom to spring out like a "jack-in-the-box". Deployment of the third and final boom in the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (Marsis) instrument is planned for 17 June, but the experiment can operate without it. Marsis could begin collecting data on 21 June, as part of its initial commissioning phase. The first boom was deployed in May, but mission controllers later discovered that it had not completely straightened out. Swinging the orbiter round to warm the boom's cold parts in sunlight sorted out the problem.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19453971	Thalidomide apology insulting, campaigners say The company which invented thalidomide has "insulted" those affected by the drug by issuing an "insincere" apology, campaigners have said. The drug, sold in the 1950s as a cure for morning sickness, was linked to birth defects and withdrawn in 1961. German-based Gruenenthal has issued its first apology in 50 years, but said the drug's possible side-effects "could not be detected" before it was marketed. Ben Ando reports.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7239555.stm	Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan has gone missing before he was due to cross into Afghanistan from Pakistan. Sources have told the BBC that the ambassador, Tariq Azizuddin, was kidnapped in the Khyber tribal agency close to the Afghan border. The Pakistani embassy in Kabul says contact was lost with Mr Azizuddin at around 1045 local time (0645 GMT). Many areas in the border regions between Afghanistan and Pakistan are strongholds of pro-Taleban militants. Mr Azizuddin was going to Kabul from Peshawar by road when he disappeared. The BBC's Alastair Leithead in Afghanistan says that police in Pakistan's Khyber Agency said they believed that Mr Azizuddin had been kidnapped. There were reports on Pakistani television of his car going through a checkpoint without stopping. Hundreds of people have been kidnapped in the dangerous border region in recent years - four Pakistani Red Cross workers went missing in the same area a few days ago. An official of the Khyber agency tribal administration told the BBC that the ambassador went through the Khyber agency without taking a security escort that was waiting for him at the start of the tribal territory. Correspondents say that such escorts are routinely sent with dignitaries and officials when they travel through tribal areas. But some travellers dispense with them because they think it makes their movements more noticeable. Mr Azizuddin is said to have previously travelled to Kabul by road, often without the tribal security escort. The route through the agency is believed to be the shortest and quickest way between Peshawar, the Pakistani border city in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Kabul. Being the main trade route, the Khyber agency road is busy in daylight hours, and is a major route supplying reinforcements and supplies to the US and Nato forces in Afghanistan. The border areas are militant strongholds It is also one of the most protected of all the tribal roads, with a contingent of tribal police posted every 100m. The paramilitary Frontier Corps have a fort along the road. Our correspondent says that while few well known militant groups operate in the area, a local extremist cleric has occasionally created trouble. But he has no links with any militant groups affiliated with the Taleban or al-Qaeda. Security officials told the Reuters news agency that the envoy was due to have changed cars at the border, but did not reach the frontier. The Pakistani foreign office said that it could not confirm or deny that a kidnapping had taken place. Correspondents say the disappearance highlights continuing instability in nuclear-armed Pakistan - a key ally in the US-led "war on terror" - with important parliamentary polls just one week away.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9748000/9748679.stm	Travelodge will meet with landlords and creditors today to ask them to agree to a company voluntary arrangement (CVA), which allows a firm to shrug off some of its debts to continue trading. The hotel chain operates 500 hotels and employs 6000 people, but it is also nearly a billion pounds in debt. Under the deal 50 hotels will be sold, 100 will cut payments to landlords by 25% and 350 of them will be unaffected. Richard Fleming, who is head of restructuring at KPMG which has crafted most of the CVAs on the High Street, spoke to the Today programme's business correspondent Simon Jack about what a CVA could mean for the company. Get in touch with Today via or text us on 84844.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/tees/3973303.stm	Thousands of illegal goods are being crushed in a show of force by the North East Trading Standards Association on Tuesday. Thousands of fake DVDs and CDs have been seized. Officers are using a McAlpine road roller to destroy over 15,000 counterfeit DVDs and CDs. Boxes of power tools which broke safety provisions and had no instruction manuals will also be crushed. Trading standards officers throughout the North East were involved in the seizures over the past 10 months. The association's chairman, and Redcar and Cleveland Council's chief trading standards officer, Jeff Bell, is supervising the event at Haverton Hill in Stockton. He said: "I think it's time the public got wise to counterfeiting and pushed aside this image of Del Boy characters selling a few hooky products, with only the big corporations getting hurt. "Counterfeiting costs local jobs and takes money out of the Exchequer, thus adding a premium to everyone's tax and rate bills. "At one level, the sellers can be grossing £500 a day while living on benefits. "At the other extreme, there's plenty of evidence to show that counterfeiting is funding organised crime. "The detriment caused by this type of unfair and dishonest trading cannot be allowed to carry on."