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Times of India brings the Latest & Top Breaking News on Politics and Current Affairs in India & around the World, Cricket, Sports, Business, Bollywood News and Entertainment, Science, Technology, Health & Fitness news & opinions from leading columnists.

Betting scam: ICC suspends Pakistan's Butt, Asif, Aamer: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 20:26:35 GMT - The International Cricket Council charged Salman Butt, Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif with anti-corruption offences and provisionally suspended them.
CWG-related projects: NDMC transparency lasts a day: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:22:03 GMT - In a move that raises more doubts over expenditure for CWG-related projects, the New Delhi Municipal Council has blocked access to the list of consultants hired by it in the last 5 years and money paid to them.
Hindu-Muslim couple in Punjab gets cover: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 20:34:01 GMT - In a first, inter-religion live-in partners have got security from the Punjab and Haryana High Court after religious heads refused to solemnize their marriage unless they converted to one religion.
Fire at DRI HQ wipes out phone tap records: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:49:00 GMT - A fire at the headquarters of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence might have destroyed sensitive electronic data on financial frauds and records pertaining to tapped conversations, including some politically sensitive cases.
Pay accident victim for future loss of income: SC: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:15:53 GMT - If a person suffers permanent disability in an accident caused by a vehicle, the compensation should take into account not only the victim's present earnings but also future loss of income, the SC has ruled.
High 'dahi handis': A day of injured Govindas | Pics: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 20:05:32 GMT - The rush of injured Govindas, who form human pyramids to reenact what Lord Krishna used to do in his childhood, stunned doctors at public hospitals in Mumbai on Thursday.
Maoists claim to have killed abducted cop: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:56:43 GMT - Sending shock waves across Bihar, Maoists on Thursday claimed to have killed sub-inspector Abhay Yadav, one of the four policemen they had abducted from Lakhisarai district four days ago.
Gujarati only regional language in US census: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 20:28:19 GMT - The famous Gujarati poet Ardeshir F Khabardar wrote, 'Jya vase ek Gujarati tyan sada kal Gujarat' (Where there is even one Gujarati, there is a Gujarat forever). Census data released by the US vindicates the aphorism.
Boy 'pushed' out of train by friends, dies: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 20:24:45 GMT - Police have arrested a teenager and are on the lookout for two others for the alleged murder of their friend, who was pushed out of a train near Burdwan station on Wednesday night.
Dhobi Ghat at Toronto Film Festival: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:30:57 GMT - Pratik Babbar was invited, along with Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao, for the screening of Dhobi Ghat at the Toronto Film Festival.
Aamir and Salman are wonderful: SRK: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:30:00 GMT - So what if SRK isn’t starring in KJo’s new release (he’s not even doing a cameo or a hot item number this time), but he’s there in spirit.
'Sexercise' for that slim figure: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:16:11 GMT - Forget treadmills, long walks and following the Atkins diet, experts suggest having lots of sex as the most effective way to stay in shape. Read on for more...
Bebo says no to love making: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 04:20:23 GMT - The actress has asked Madhur Bhandarkar to rework his script for Heroine on realising that she has to get steamy with five different men for the movie.
Govt to release rotting grains for poor: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:53:01 GMT - Acting on the directive of the Supreme Court, government today decided to release an extra 2.5 million tonnes of wheat and rice to states for distribution among the poor at a BPL price for the next 6 months.
Tweet response takes wing in air industry: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 21:30:00 GMT - For flyers, social networking websites like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube have become the latest and best vehicle to connect with airports and airlines, which have played the role of an indulgent service-provider, so far.
China calls J&K 'India-controlled Kashmir': Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:42:52 GMT - China has denied a report that it has deployed 11,000 soldiers in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and clarified that Beijing will stick to its policy on stapled visas for Indians living in J&K.
God did not create Universe: Stephen Hawking: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:09:42 GMT - God no longer has any place in theories on the creation of the Universe due to a series of developments in physics, British scientist Stephen Hawking said in extracts published Thursday from a new book.
London builders target cash-rich Indians: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:48:47 GMT - As Britain's housing market continues its downward spiral due to recession, London's biggest builders are targeting cash-rich investors from India and other emerging economies to stay afloat.

Usa News

Feud With Palin in Background of Alaska Upset: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:43:46 GMT - Sarah Palin reveled in the primary upset of Senator Lisa Murkowski, but tensions began well before.
White House Memo: For President and Predecessor, a Chill Returns: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 07:00:56 GMT - Relations are, at best, awkward between President Obama and George W. Bush.
A Celebratory Road Trip for Education Secretary: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 07:00:56 GMT - Arne Duncan’s bus tour from New York to Maine is billed as a way to honor teachers.
Foreclosures Could Pose Trouble on Election Day: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 07:00:56 GMT - Advocacy groups and election officials fear that the high rate of foreclosures will confuse many about their eligibility to vote.
Leaders Call for Peace as Mideast Talks Begin: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:31:58 GMT - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority appeared together with President Obama.
Israeli Peace Effort Rests on Netanyahu: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:36:35 GMT - The Israeli prime minister believes that only someone like himself, with his hawkish credentials, has the will and support to produce lasting peace with the Palestinians.
U.S. Adds Legal Pressure on Pakistani Taliban: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 06:30:59 GMT - The Pakistani Taliban, an Al Qaeda-linked group, is accused of playing a role in the failed Times Square bombing and an attack on a C.I.A. base in Afghanistan.
F.C.C. Seeks More Input on Wireless Internet Rules: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 04:44:06 GMT - The F.C.C.’s decision to seek more comments on preserving an open and competitive Internet precludes any agency action before the midterm elections.
Financial Crisis Panel Lends Sympathetic Ear to Lehman’s Ex-Chief: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 04:50:58 GMT - Without federal help, Lehman was not able to wind down operations in an orderly manner, which aggravated the global crisis, the former chief executive said.
Number of Illegal Immigrants in U.S. Fell, Study Says: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 06:40:27 GMT - The decline in 2009, to about 11.1 million, was the first clear drop in two decades, according to a report based on census data.
National Brief | Midwest: Ohio: Disgraced Ex-Congressman Back on Ballot: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 07:40:23 GMT - James A. Traficant, a former Democratic congressman who served time in prison, will run again for a House seat as an independent.
National Brief | South: Louisiana: Judge Refuses to Toss Suit on Drilling Ban: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 07:40:23 GMT - A judge who overturned the six-month moratorium on deepwater oil drilling has rejected the government’s bid to have the challenge thrown out.
Paladino Rides on Anger in G.O.P. Governor Race: Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:59:47 GMT - Carl P. Paladino is connecting with voters’ anger and worrying Rick A. Lazio’s supporters.
In Wisconsin, an Incumbent Holds Tight: Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:26:21 GMT - Senator Russ Feingold’s tight race suggests that Republicans have a better opportunity to win the Senate than they imagined.
3 Congressmen May Face Further Inquiry: Wed, 01 Sep 2010 05:40:27 GMT - The Office of Congressional Ethics recommended further investigation of John Campbell, Joseph Crowley and Tom Price, who held fund-raisers shortly before votes on financial regulation.
Obama Declares an End to Combat Mission in Iraq: Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:39:07 GMT - In an address from the Oval Office, President Obama said that the nation had met its responsibility to Iraq and would now turn to domestic concerns.
Economic Scene: Tax Cuts That Make a Difference: Wed, 01 Sep 2010 05:00:01 GMT - Republicans and President Obama are open to tax cuts. The question is what kind can put people back to work.
Aspiring Politician to Sue 2 Florida Papers: Wed, 01 Sep 2010 05:40:10 GMT - Jeff Greene, a real estate developer, claims articles in The St. Petersburg Times and The Miami Herald cost him his bid for the United States Senate.
President’s Office Takes On New Neutral Tones, but Keeps Its Familiar Shape: Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:10:03 GMT - The new look of the Oval Office is angular and modern — it evokes the feel of a den — and tends toward browns and taupe, rather than the gold and yellow tones favored by its previous occupant.
Scholarships Are Focus of Questions on Ethics: Wed, 01 Sep 2010 05:40:27 GMT - A Texas congresswoman will repay thousands of dollars, after acknowledging that she gave awards to four of her relatives and a staff member’s two children.
Appeals Court Backs Away From War Powers Ruling: Wed, 01 Sep 2010 05:50:05 GMT - Lurking just beneath the surface of a ruling over the detention of a Guantánamo prisoner was a sharp disagreement over the scope and limits of presidential power.
Staff Losses and Dissent May Hurt Crisis Panel: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 02:40:45 GMT - The group examining the causes of the financial crisis hopes to produce a report by Dec. 15 that will influence future policies, but squabbles and turnover are hampering its efforts.
Rules Tighten for Oil Regulators to Avoid Favoritism to Drillers: Wed, 01 Sep 2010 05:50:04 GMT - A new policy in response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is an attempt to cool the cozy relationship between government and the oil companies.
Nobel Winners Sign Letter Backing Obama Space Plan: Wed, 01 Sep 2010 05:50:05 GMT - The letter expresses support for the president’s proposed strategy for NASA and criticizes cuts contained in a NASA authorization bill now before the House.
News Analysis: Trying to Buck Odds, Obama Takes On 3 Big Mideast Tasks: Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:17:27 GMT - President Obama is looking for simultaneous progress on Iraq, Iran and Israeli-Palestinian peace, a triple play that has eluded his predecessors for decades.
Lawyers for Lehman Are Seeking Records From Hedge Funds and Goldman: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 02:36:43 GMT - The estate of Lehman Brothers Holdings has subpoenaed records from big hedge funds and Goldman Sachs as it seeks to recover money lost in Lehman’s collapse.
More Banks in Trouble, but Profits Are Rising: Wed, 01 Sep 2010 05:10:36 GMT - The banking sector posted a record $21.6 billion in profit in the quarter, but the list of problem banks increased, the F.D.I.C. reported.
China Illegally Subsidized Aluminum Products, U.S. Rules: Wed, 01 Sep 2010 05:14:40 GMT - The Commerce Department declined, however, to rule on claims that China’s undervalued currency amounted to an unlawful subsidy.
Homeowner’s Fight Involves Flag Tied to Tea Party: Wed, 01 Sep 2010 04:27:46 GMT - A man who was asked to remove a flag used by Tea Party supporters from his roof says the flag is not a political statement.
New Stickers Will Go Beyond M.P.G. in Rating Cars: Tue, 31 Aug 2010 05:10:06 GMT - The Obama administration is planning the biggest change in three decades to the window stickers in new cars.
Egg Farms Violated Safety Rules: Tue, 31 Aug 2010 16:13:19 GMT - Inspections, the F.D.A. said, found barns infested with flies, maggots and rodents, as well as overflowing manure pits.
National Briefing | Washington: E.P.A. Turns Down Request to Ban Lead Bullets: Tue, 31 Aug 2010 05:30:42 GMT - The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday said it does not have the legal authority to ban lead bullets.
Making Soldiers Fit to Fight, Without the Situps: Tue, 31 Aug 2010 15:58:56 GMT - The goal of a new training program is to reduce injuries and better prepare recruits for the rigors of combat.
Petraeus Finishes Rules for Afghan Transition: Tue, 31 Aug 2010 16:16:17 GMT - New guidelines for turning some security duties over to Afghan forces call for allied troops to step back from calmer areas.
In Singling Out Murkowski, Tea Party Chose Wisely: Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:15:06 GMT - The Tea Party has now played a role in defeating two Republican incumbents.
Political Points Podcast: Israel and Iraq: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 23:11:52 GMT - Times reporters discuss diplomacy and the midterm elections in this week's podcast.
Tea Party Rolls in Delaware: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 21:45:24 GMT - The Tea Party Express will sponsor as much as $250,000 in advertisements for a conservative upstart in Delaware's Republican primary for Senate.
Obama to Focus Again on the Economy: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 20:49:15 GMT - White House news conference is scheduled for next Friday, the first since late May.
13 Seconds of Silence in Debate: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:04:14 GMT - Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona and her Democratic challenger exchanged sharp words in a debate. But it was 13 seconds or so of silence that is being talked about more than anything else.

Germany News

Nachrichten-Magazin aus Deutschland - Your news guide across Germany

Festival-Tipp: Das Budapester Herbstfestival: Thu, 2 Sep 2010 13:45:37 CEST - Treffpunkt der neuen, zeitgenössischen Kunst in Budapest

Kunst, Kunst und noch mehr Kunst das hat Budapest auch in diesem Herbst wieder zu bieten, wenn zwischen dem 8. und 17. Oktober 2010 das inzwischen schon 19. Budapester Herbstfestival, 1992 aus den Budapester Kunstwochen hervorgegangen, in die Donau-Metropole lockt.
STUDIE ZU 20 JAHREN EINHEIT: ZIEL NOCH NICHT ERREICHT: Wed, 1 Sep 2010 17:42:29 CEST - Die Sicht der Bürger auf die deutsche Einheit ist nach 20 Jahren gespalten

40 Prozent meinen, dass Ost und West zusammengewachsen sind und sehen nur noch kleine Unterschiede. 56 Prozent stellen immer noch große Unterschiede fest oder glauben, dass es diese noch in 50 Jahren gibt. Das gehört zu den Ergebnissen der Studie Sozialreport 2010 - Die deutsche Vereinigung - 1990 bis 2010 - Positionen der Bürgerinnen und Bürger, die in Berlin vom Sozial- und Wohlfahrtsverband Volkssolidarität vorgestellt wurde.
Glühlampen-Ausstieg geht am 1. September weiter: Wed, 25 Aug 2010 08:52:00 CEST - Energietipp des Monats: Jetzt auf Energiesparlampen umsteigen

Am 1. September 2010 geht der Glühlampen-Ausstieg in die zweite Runde. Dann ist auch der Verkauf von herkömmlichen Glühbirnen mit einer Leistung von über 75 Watt verboten. Für Verbraucher ist dies ein guter Zeitpunkt, um auf Energiesparlampen umzusteigen.
Vorschau auf das 177. Oktoberfest in München mit aktuellen Videos: Tue, 24 Aug 2010 19:32:59 CEST - Größtes Bierfest der Welt feiert in 2010 200 Jahre Jubiliäum

Im Jahr 2010 feiert die Landeshauptstadt München ein besonderes Jubiläum: 200 Jahre Oktoberfest.
iPhone-App Bier 1.2: 2400 Biersorten mit Standortsuche: Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:52:39 CEST - Für Schluckspechte jetzt 2.400 Biersorten auf dem iPhone

Das liebste Getränk der Deutschen ist der Gerstensaft. Zahlreiche Brauereien arbeiten nach dem deutschen Reinheitsgebot am perfekten Bier. Wer sich für die unterschiedlichen Biersorten interessiert, holt sich am besten die Bier-App auf's iPhone. Sie kennt in der neuen Version 1.2 bereits 2.400 Biersorten, zeigt den Standort der Brauereien in der Google Map und kann per Fingerzeig ein neues Bier melden, das noch in der Liste fehlt.
Kinderbetreuung durch Minijobber: Fri, 20 Aug 2010 13:29:38 CEST - Steuervorteile nutzen: Minijobber als Kinderbetreuer

Im August beginnt für über 700.0001 Erstklässler die Schule. Viele berufstätige Eltern brauchen jetzt eine Hilfe, die ihr Kind von der Schule abholt oder bei den Hausaufgaben betreut. Wer einen Minijobber im Privathaushalt beschäftigt, kann die Kosten bei der Steuer geltend machen.
Führerschein mit 17 unter Begleitung ab 2011 geplant: Thu, 12 Aug 2010 11:34:55 CEST - Führerschein mit 17: Vom Modell zum Gesetz

Was als Modell begonnen hat, soll zum 1. Januar 2011 als Gesetz gelten: "Begleitetes Fahren mit 17". Das Bundeskabinett stimmte einem entsprechenden Änderungsentwurf des Straßenverkehrsgesetzes zu. Denn die "Probe am Steuer" hat das Unfallrisiko von Anfängerinnen und Anfängern deutlich gesenkt.
Brot und Spiele im 21. Jahrhundert: Mon, 2 Aug 2010 11:17:10 CEST - Brezn und Spiele

Ein Kommentar von Andrea Limmer

Die These von der Brezn ist wirklich gut. Kein Wunder, sie ist einfach und wurde ausgesprochen lebhaft ausgesprochen von einem der letzten Weisen der 80er, in einem Tempel der Freiheit, dem Biergarten.
Meeting the World A Tribute to 200 Years Oktoberfest: Mon, 2 Aug 2010 06:08:00 CEST - Eine Hommage an das Oktoberfest in München

Zum 200. Jubiläum des Oktoberfests zeigt das Amerika Haus bei freiem Eintritt eine Auswahl von Fotos des amerikanischen Fotografen Marden Smith, der seit einigen Jahren die Besucher des Oktoberfests fotografiert.
Deutsche Bank mit DWS und andere deutsche Multikonzerne investieren Gelder in Streubombenhersteller: Fri, 30 Jul 2010 18:22:36 CEST - Leistung die Leiden schafft Die Deutsche Bank und ihr Investment in völkerrechtswidrige Waffen

Aktuelle Recherchen von Nichtregierungsorganisationen haben umfassende Geschäftsbeziehungen der Deutschen Bank zu Herstellern kontroverser und völkerrechtswidriger Waffen aufgedeckt.

UK News

Latest news and features from guardian.co.uk, the world's leading liberal voice

News of the World faces fresh phone hacking charge

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 20:27:02 GMT 2010-09-02T22:19:55Z -

• Calls for judicial inquiry after reporter is suspended
• Latest phone hacking allegation dates from earlier this year
• Four targets poised to sue police over failure to warn them

The government tonight came under pressure to set up a judicial inquiry into the phone hacking scandal at the News of the World after the paper confirmed that it has suspended a journalist while it investigates new allegations of the unlawful interception of voicemail.

The prime minister's media adviser, Andy Coulson, has denied a report in the New York Times which claimed he freely discussed the use of unlawful news-gathering techniques when he was editing the paper and "actively encouraged" a named reporter to engage in illegal interception of voicemail messages. Coulson has always denied knowing of any illegal activity by his journalists.

Scotland Yard, too, found itself in the firing line after the New York Times quoted unnamed detectives alleging they had cut short their investigation because of their close relationship with the News of the World. A group of four public figures, including former deputy prime minister John Prescott, is poised to sue police over a failure to warn them they had been targeted by the private investigator at the centre of the scandal, Glenn Mulcaire.

The Guardian has learned that the Metropolitan police commissioner at the time of the original investigation, Sir Ian Blair, was among those whose names were found in material seized from Mulcaire, raising questions about whether officers who were directly involved in the investigation had discovered that they, too, had been targets of the newspaper. It is understood Blair was assured at the time that his phone had not been hacked.

The former Labour minister Tom Watson today called on the government to set up an inquiry into the relationship between Scotland Yard and Rupert Murdoch's News Group, which publishes the News of the World. In a letter which was addressed to the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, in the absence of the prime minister, who is on paternity leave, Watson wrote: "The testimony given to the New York Times is that the police did not share all the relevant information with the Crown Prosecution Service, and that, if they had done, the CPS would have reached a different conclusion. These are clear grounds for a judicial inquiry.

"I think that information should be made available to the people concerned."

Amid signs of unease among the Tories' coalition partners at the new allegations about Coulson, a Lib Dem member of the Commons culture select committee has also called for an inquiry.

Adrian Sanders, MP for Torbay, said: "For the sake of justice a judicial inquiry would, along the lines of the Hutton inquiry, put this to bed once and for all."

At the end of the original police inquiry, in January 2007, Mulcaire and the News of the World's royal reporter, Clive Goodman, were jailed for illegally intercepting the voicemail messages of eight people. The Guardian last year revealed that the scandal involved other journalists at the paper and numerous other victims.

The News of the World today confirmed one of its reporters is currently suspended after his phone number was allegedly identified as the source of an unauthorised attempt earlier this year to access the voicemail of a public figure. The Guardian understands the suspended reporter has worked at the News of the World since January 2005, specialising in celebrity scoops. His name has not appeared in the paper since April. The reporter today did not return phone calls.

The paper's managing editor, Bill Akass, said it was still investigating the allegation. The Press Complaints Commission said it had been aware of the allegation since June but had chosen not to investigate because it was the subject of legal action by the alleged victim. In May the PCC's chair, Lady Buscombe, told Radio 4's Today programme: "If there was a whiff of any continuing activity in this regard, we would be on it like a ton of bricks. I can absolutely assure you of that."

Scotland Yard is facing legal action from four people whose names were found in material seized from Mulcaire in 2006 and who were not warned by police that they were potential victims. The former deputy prime minister, John Prescott, has written to them asking for an explanation for the failure. His solicitor, Dominic Crossley, said: "Absent a sufficient response, he will be beginning proceedings."

Prescott said tonight: "It's vital that the Met comes clean and reveals who and how many people were targeted by this rogue newspaper. We need to know the full truth."

The former Europe minister Chris Bryant, whose name and phone number were found in Mulcaire's possession and who was targeted by tabloid journalists, separately is preparing for a similar judicial review of the police conduct of the case.

Bryant is involved in a joint action with an investigative journalist, Brendan Montague, and one of Scotland Yard's former deputy assistant commissioners, Brian Paddick, whose name was found in Mulcaire's records but who was never warned by his own former colleagues.

Their solicitor, Tamsin Allen of Bindman, plans to ask the court to order Scotland Yard to hand over a list of all those who have been identified as potential victims. She said: "According to the rules, the claim and the pre-action letter should be served on anyone with a legitimate interest in the outcome. We say that that includes all of the people who are effected in the same way as our clients."

According to paperwork in the possession of the CPS and seen by the Guardian, Scotland Yard made repeated requests to prosecutors to "ring-fence" the evidence in order to conceal the names of "sensitive" victims. The paperwork also shows that, after studying phone records, the police found that "a vast number of unique voicemail numbers belonging to high profile individuals (politicians, celebrities) have been identified as being accessed without authority" but the officer in charge, Andy Hayman, subsequently claimed that they had found "only a handful" of victims, a claim which has been repeated by senior Yard officials in recent press briefings.

The lead Labour member on the Metropolitan Police Authority, Joanne McCart ney, tonight wrote to the Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, asking for details of senior officers whose voicemail may have been intercepted by Mulcaire. "It is vital that the public can be confident the Met is investigating crime without fear or favour," she wrote.

Today it emerged another senior Scotland Yard officer at the time, Michael Fuller, was also on the list of names found in the private investigator's possession.

Scotland Yard has previously admitted that police officers as well as government, military and royal figures were among those who were warned they were potential victims, but they have refused to identify the individuals or even to say how many they warned.

Scotland Yard today dismissed the claims about them. "The Met does not consider the issues raised by the New York Times accurately reflect how the investigation was conducted," a spokesman said.

Other legal actions are also being launched. Sky TV football commentator Andy Gray, the former MP George Galloway, and Max Clifford's former assistant, Nicola Phillips, have all separately issued proceedings for invasion of privacy. And Mark Lewis, a solicitor who handled an earlier legal action, is suing Scotland Yard and the Press Complaints Commission in relation to remarks made in a speech made by Lady Buscombe last year. The PCC has formally apologised, but the case continues.

Others who are known to have had their voicemail accessed – but who were not identified in the original court case – include Prince William, Prince Harry, the then culturesecretary Tessa Jowell, Boris Johnson, the then-editor of the Sun Rebekah Brooks, Andy Coulson himself as editor of the News of the World, and the former England football manager Steve McClaren.

Nick Davies

Nicholas Watt

Vikram Dodd

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Maths prodigy, now 15, heads for Cambridge

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 20:50:44 GMT 2010-09-02T20:50:44Z -

Arran Fernandez, who hit headlines in 2001 for his mathematical prowess, set to become university's youngest student since 1773

At 15, most teenagers are struggling to get their heads around the algebra and equations of maths GCSE. Not Arran Fernandez.

Next month, he will become the youngest student at Cambridge University for 237 years – aged 15 and three months.

Arran, an only child who has been home schooled, will study maths at Cambridge, the youngest to attend the university since William Pitt the Younger was offered a place as a 14-year-old in 1773.

Arran first made headlines in 2001, aged five, when he gained the highest grade in the foundation maths paper. At the time he said he was considering becoming a lorry driver.

He has now decided he wants to be a research mathematician and find a solution to the Riemann hypothesis – the unsolved theory about the patterns of prime numbers that has baffled mathematicians for 150 years.

Fernandez will live with his father, Neil, in rented accommodation. He said he would miss his mother, Hilde, who will stay at the family home in Surrey and see her son at weekends and in university holidays.

The teenager plans to join the university's bird watching society and develop his interest in English literature.

"I'm excited about starting the course and advancing my knowledge of maths," he said. "It isn't the youngest bit that is so important to me – I am more interested in going to Cambridge than comparing myself with other people who go there."

He was not upset that he would be barred from the bar at the college that has offered him a place – Fitzwilliam College.

"I don't feel like I'm missing out on much. Even if I was 18, I wouldn't want to go out drinking," he said.

His parents said they were very proud of their son, who scored an A* in maths GCSE aged seven and has just achieved top grades in maths, further maths and physics A-level.

He will join the likes of Isaac Newton, who also studied at Cambridge, and Stephen Hawking, who like Newton was Lucasian Professor of Mathematics there. But he will also be following the path of other child prodigies, some of whom have come to regret being separated from their peer group and starting university so early.

Sufiah Yusof achieved a place at St Hilda's College, Oxford University, in 1997, to study maths at the age of 13. But In 2001, she ran away after taking her final exam for the academic year. She was discovered working as a waitress in a Bournemouth internet cafe two weeks later, but refused to return home. She claimed her parents had made life difficult for her and lived with a foster family instead. She never finished her course.

In March 2008, a reporter for the News of the World found her advertising as a prostitute under the name Shilpa Lee. She is now said to be working as a social worker.

In 1985, Ruth Lawrence became Oxford University's youngest-ever maths graduate at 13. She had been tutored by her father. She is now a maths professor in Israel, married with two children and has said she would not want to do the same to her son.

Paul Chirico, a senior tutor at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, said Arran had achieved the conditions of his offer to read maths. "Fitzwilliam considers all applications to the college very carefully, regardless of background. Arran was assessed as part of this well-established process and his considerable academic potential was recognised." Children cannot live in student accommodation, because the university cannot carry out criminal record checks on all the other undergraduates.

Jessica Shepherd

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Hospitals warned over doses of drugs given to babies

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:56:14 GMT 2010-09-02T19:56:14Z -

The National Patient Safety Agency issues alert following death of baby girl given too high amount of dextrose

Hospitals have been told to take care when giving infants intravenous doses of fluids or drugs, after a baby girl died after a glucose overdose at Great Ormond Street children's hospital in London.

The National Patient Safety Agency has drawn the NHS's attention to the risk of newborn babies accidentally receiving large amounts of such substances.

It follows the death in 2009 of Poppy Davies, who was just a few weeks old when she was given far more dextrose than was intended to help her regain energy after an operation. There have been five other similar "near misses" involving newborns since 2003, the NPSA said today when issuing one of its periodic rapid response reports (RRRs). The alerts instruct the NHS to improve the safety surrounding a particular drug or procedure after concerns have been raised.

Doctors and nurses should be careful to check that the correct dose is being given and that syringe pumps used to administer medication are used properly, it says.

Peter Walsh, chief executive of patient safety group Action against Medical Accidents, said: "Problems with the administration of drugs is known to be one of the most common accidents causing serious harm in healthcare. With neonates the risks are obviously even higher and the consequences more likely to be very serious, so it is essential that every precaution is taken to avoid perfectly avoidable tragedies such as this. Credit should go to the coroner for raising the alarm to the NPSA."

But the NHS's poor record in implementing previous RRRs meant hospitals might not take the action recommended by the NPSA, he added. He said the Care Quality Commission, the NHS regulator for England, should ensure that alerts were acted upon. "Unless someone takes action to ensure these well intentioned alerts are actually implemented, there will be further tragedies like this," he said.

Denis Campbell

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Hugh Muir's diary

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 23:14:13 GMT 2010-09-02T23:14:13Z -

The Journey is fine, Tony. A bigger problem is the destination

• So the Journey is well under way and what a Journey it is: the fastest selling political memoir in British political history, it is said. But many of the passengers are disgruntled. Saddening, says Andy Burnham. The "memoirs of a certified delusional", according to Michael Meacher. "Low grade soap opera," protests Diane Abbott. And the biggest problem for many is the driver – does he even know where he is going? "To assuage Nationalist opinion and under pressure from the Irish, I also ordered an inquiry into the Bloody Sunday shootings in 1972, when British troops had opened fire on protesters in Belfast, killing a number of people," he says on page 165 of the memoir. But as passengers remember it, Bloody Sunday occurred in Derry, more than 70 miles away, and at the other end of the province. No wonder they're unhappy.

• What about the timing? Was it the whole intention, as some have claimed, to lob a stinkbomb into the ongoing leadership campaign? Not at all, says Alastair Campbell. "The date was set before the leadership timetable." But unless we are to believe that someone messed up big time, the rumours will persist. Right now, we understand, a secret panel of judges convened by the Literary Review is considering those passages of prose that might be deemed worthy of a Bad Sex Award when the gongs are handed out in December. The timing, they tell us, puts Blair very much in contention. How could he not be? "On that night of the 12th May, 1994, I needed that love Cherie gave me, selfishly. I devoured it to give me strength," recalls the former prime minister. "I was an animal following my instinct, knowing I would need every ounce of emotional power to cope with what lay ahead. I was exhilarated, afraid and determined in roughly equal quantities." He always was a winner. Now he can be again. Go Tony!

✒ And now that his book is here, there and everywhere, how should we view Peter Mandelson's account of the New Labour years? Should we adopt Alastair Campbell's view of the Mandy book, as told to BBC radio. "An ego trip," he said sorrowfully. "And a bit sad."

✒ The times are sad, and with that in mind here is an instant media opportunity courtesy of the Daily Mail. "We are urgently looking for a woman who has had multiple miscarriages and still has not had a baby, following on from the sad news about Ffion Hague," said a missive sent to PRs and media types from a toiler on the paper yesterday. "We can pay you for taking part, and happy to mention any supportive organisations. We would need to talk to, and photograph you, today so can you email me ASAP." Yes, there's no time to lose. Let them share your pain.

• And as MPs prepare to return to Westminster next week, evidence that they are becoming ever more inquisitive. Figures reveal that in the 2010-11 session of parliament to date, MPs have tabled 12,080 questions for written answer. That, says blogger John Slinger, means a cost to the taxpayer of £1.9m using the accepted formula of £154 per question. In the previous year MPs tabled 25,467 written questions. So this year it has taken members just two months to reach 50% of the total racked up throughout the entire preceding parliamentary session. Neil Hamilton should have stuck around. The trend might have made him rich.

✒ Still he is the past, we look to the future – and in particular, the bright future that beckons for the unnamed Ed Miliband volunteer who called Barrow-in-Furness yesterday to drum up support for his Labour leadership candidate. "You're a Labour party member aren't you, John," the canvasser said confidently. "Yes I am," replied John Woodcock, the local MP.

• Finally, with a profile to raise and a book to promote, he is here, there and everywhere; the sprinter Usain Bolt musing on love, life, football and anything else interviewers care to ask of him. What are you currently working on, asked 5 Live's Richard Bacon. "Running faster," said Usain. You don't say!

Hugh Muir

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William Hague: Private life, public judgments | Editorial

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 23:05:21 GMT 2010-09-02T23:05:21Z -

The very possibility of bisexuality can sometimes run into the same disbelief that Queen Victoria is said to have shown towards lesbianism

It has to be said that something is awry when rumours about a politician's sexuality leave him feeling forced to publicise the miscarriages his wife has suffered. Quite what that something is, however, is harder to pinpoint than it would have been in the past. William Hague made his extraordinary statement on Wednesday despite serving in a government alongside openly gay ministers. Homosexuality is not the bar to office that it once was, and yet gay politicians face a distinctive pressure to declare themselves as such.

While suggestions that the foreign secretary is anything other than straight are no more than gossip, in a truly tolerant society there would be nothing to gossip about. To see that there still is, consider the case of Crispin Blunt, the prisons minister who last week let the press know he was leaving his wife to "come to terms" with being gay. While it may indeed be OK to be gay in public life, it is not done to be unsure about it. The very possibility of bisexuality can sometimes run into the same disbelief that Queen Victoria is said to have shown towards lesbianism. In this warped context the harrowing experience of marital miscarriage can be offered up to counter allegations of sleeping with men, whereas it should be no more material than it would be in the case of an affair with a woman.

All sorts of people are coy in discussing who tugs on their heartstrings. But from Ron Davies' "moment of madness" 12 years ago to David Laws' resignation this spring, politicians of all stripes have paid a price for being anything less than upfront about any attraction they feel towards the same sex. That price is perhaps especially high for those cut from conservative cloth. This is less a point about the top of today's Conservative party, which David Cameron has gone to some lengths to lead towards tolerance, than about those parts of society where old prejudices still lurk. Homophobia has touched all wings of politics over the decades, but it is most easy to find on the right. Fusty assumptions that liberals first challenged two generations ago have only faced serious challenge within reactionary circles during the last few years. Some of the mud hurled Mr Hague's way seems to trace back to his own constituency association, while Mr Blunt's local party is reportedly "unhappy" that he had dared to keep his private feelings private. While the slow tide towards tolerance appears irreversible, Mr Cameron's own vote against fair access to IVF for would-be lesbian mothers is another reminder that it has a way to go.

The prime minister was nonetheless standing solidly with his foreign secretary yesterday, just as he stood alongside Mr Blunt, whose welcome political survival is a heartening reminder of how times have progressed. It has often been said that sex itself is less politically poisonous than all the connected questions of finance, probity or supposed security risks, and that is doubly true today. The only possible public interest question in connection with Mr Hague is whether any hypothetical feelings he harboured for his aide Chris Myers prompted him to appoint him as a special adviser. Even if this did happen, it is not certain that any rule would have been broken, since such rules as there are state that advisers are "exempt from the general requirement that civil servants should be appointed on merit".

Just as MPs were once able to appoint their spouses as secretaries, ministers recruiting advisers are still unaccountable for their choice. As we report today, the coalition is placing political staffers into supposedly apolitical official roles, perhaps to avoid taking flak for creating more of the unpopular special adviser posts. That is the wrong response, but so is a kneejerk bar on all political appointees. In order to work with an apolitical bureaucracy, ministers need to be able make a few appointments of their own. They ought, however, to be answerable for these. Making them so would help to prevent private lives from being dragged into the public mire.

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Social class affects white pupils' exam results more than those of ethnic minorities – study

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 23:05:20 GMT 2010-09-02T23:05:20Z -

Poverty affects grades less among non-white children with social divide noticeable from primary school

A child's social class is more likely to determine how well they perform in school if they are white than if they come from an ethnic minority, researchers have discovered.

The gap between the proportion of working-class pupils and middle-class pupils who achieve five A* to C grades at GCSE is largest among white pupils, academics found.

They analysed official data showing thousands of teenagers' grades between 2003 and 2007. Some 31% of white pupils on free school meals – a key indicator of poverty – achieve five A* to Cs, compared with 63% of white pupils not eligible for free school meals, they found.

This gap between social classes – of 32 percentage points – is far higher for white pupils than for other ethnic groups.

For Bangladeshi pupils, the gap is seven percentage points, while for Chinese pupils it is just five percentage points, the researchers discovered.

The study – Ethnicity and class: GCSE performance – will be presented to the British Educational Research Association conference at Warwick University tomorrow.

It argues that one of the reasons why class determines how white pupils perform at school is that white working-class parents may have lower expectations of their children than working-class parents from other ethnic groups.

The researchers, from the Institute of Education and Queen Mary, both part of the University of London, also found that Chinese pupils from families in routine and manual jobs perform better than white pupils from managerial and professional backgrounds. They also discovered that African and Bangladeshi girls had vastly improved their GCSE grades in the last few years.

Professor Ramesh Kapadia, who led the study, said this may be linked to "cultural aspirations and expectations, as well as parental support for education. This appears to have been the case for Indian and Chinese pupils for many years," he said.

A separate study has found that a similar pattern can be identified for children in primary schools: social class is more likely to determine how well a pupil will perform if that child is white than if they are from other ethnic groups.

Researchers from the University of Warwick analysed the scores of pupils living in the south London borough of Lambeth. White children from well-off homes were the top-performing ethnic group at the age of 11, while white pupils eligible for free school meals had among the worst test results.

Professor Steve Strand, who will present the findings to the British Educational Research Association's conference today, said the effects of poverty are "much less pronounced for most minority ethnic groups".

"Those from low socio-economic backgrounds seem to be much more resilient to the impact of disadvantage than their white British peers," he said.

However, he added that well-off white children may do particularly well because their parents might be "a bit more savvy about ensuring that they go to schools with similar pupils".

"More recent immigrant groups, such as the Portuguese, Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities often see education as the way out of the poverty they have come from. By contrast, if you've been in a white working-class family for three generations, with high unemployment, you don't necessarily believe that education is going to change that.

"All of these factors may combine to make the effect of socio-economic status remarkably strong for white British kids."

Meanwhile, headteachers' leaders have warned secondary schools to consider axing subjects that few pupils take to cope with imminent budget cuts.

The Association of School and College Leaders told the Times Educational Supplement that A-levels in foreign languages, for example, could be scrapped. Last week, French dropped out of the top 10 most popular GCSEs for the first time. "Languages in some schools will be vulnerable," he said. "We are already worried about them and this could speed up the decline."

Jessica Shepherd

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Letters: Tomlinson inquest needs a senior judge

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 23:05:18 GMT 2010-09-02T23:05:18Z -

How convenient for the Crown Prosecution Service that the General Medical Council's damning indictment of Dr Freddy Patel's conduct of postmortems didn't come out before it took its predictable decision not to proceed with any prosecution over the death of Ian Tomlinson (Report, 31 August). Now the CPS has abandoned the matter, the inquest takes on enhanced significance. The City of London coroner's decision to appoint Dr Patel means the postmortem evidence is so muddled that the inquest may not even be able to do its most basic task and determine how Ian Tomlinson died. But the inquest has a wider remit. It has to view the issue more widely than can be done by the Metropolitan police's internal disciplinary focus on PC Simon Harwood. It also has to assess the belated review of its own inadequate investigation that the Independent Police Complaints Commission has been required to produce, without allowing the IPCC to delay further. To achieve this Kenneth Clarke must replace the City of London coroner with a suitably qualified judge to conduct the inquest with due impartiality and appreciation of the needs of Ian Tomlinson's family and the wider issues of justice and accountability.

Mary Pimm & Nik Wood

London

• The CPS has said that it is not possible to prosecute any police officer over the death of Ian Tomlinson. The reason for this is that a man who is suspended from duty as a forensic pathologist, and has now been found guilty of misconduct, disagrees with two professional pathologists about the cause of death. That decision must now be reconsidered.

Chris Wade-Evans

London

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School lotteries fail to help poorer pupils

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 23:01:14 GMT 2010-09-02T23:01:14Z -

Middle-class families still dominate best schools despite attempts to close class gap

Middle-class families monopolise the best schools even when a lottery is used to allocate places, according to a study published today.

Lotteries have been seen by some educationists as a way of reducing deep-seated class divisions in the school system. The highest-performing schools tend to cluster in the wealthiest neighbourhoods; if places are allocated according to how near a family lives to a school – rather than by a lottery – children from the poorest areas miss out.

Lotteries are said to be used to distribute places in at least one school in up to a third of councils across England. In Brighton and Hove, all pupils have been assigned secondary school places in this way for the past two years.

But researchers have found lotteries alone fail to give poor children a higher chance of attending a top school, and marginally narrow the likelihood they will win a place at a high-performing school.

Their study analysed how far Brighton and Hove's lottery admissions system had improved the chances of poor pupils attending top schools, and who the main winners and losers were when places were allocated randomly.

The researchers, from the Institute of Education, University of London and the University of Bristol, analysed which schools thousands of pupils attended before and after the lottery system was implemented. The study is being presented to the British Educational Research Association conference today.

Brighton and Hove council does not allocate places entirely randomly. Parents can apply to any school, but priority is given to those who live within a designated catchment area. First, a lottery is used to decide who gets a place within a catchment area. A second lottery is used for any spare places that are not filled by those within a school's catchment area. But there are few spare places for children outside the catchment area of the best schools, so the lottery does not help the poorest, the academics found.

Pupils on free school meals – a key indicator of poverty – were "slightly" more likely to be at school with other pupils on free school meals under Brighton's lottery system than under the previous system that allocated places to families living nearest the school to which they have applied, the academics discovered.

They also found that when places were assigned through a lottery, the brightest pupils, as well as the poorest, lost out. Pupils with high scores were less likely to attend a high-performing school than they would otherwise.

Rebecca Allen, senior lecturer in the economics of education at the Institute of Education and one of the main authors, said Brighton's lottery system would just lead to families relocating to the catchment areas of the best schools. House prices would adjust and keep the poorest families out of these neighbourhoods.

"It seems unlikely the reforms will substantially lower social segregation across schools even in the long run," Allen said.

"Differences in the quality of housing stock across areas of Brighton are deeply entrenched and the boundaries of the new catchment areas mean that families living in the most deprived neighbourhoods have little chance of accessing the most popular schools in the centre of the city."

The study, on the early impact of Brighton and Hove's school admissions reforms, will be published by the Centre for Market and Public Organisation at the University of Bristol.

Currently a pupil eligible for free school meals is 30% more likely to attend a school with exam results – well below the national average than an otherwise identical child from a better-off family.

Jessica Shepherd

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Andy Coulson's government job under renewed attack

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 21:00:23 GMT 2010-09-02T21:11:29Z -

PM under pressure to sack director of communications following new allegations in New York Times over unlawful phone hacking

David Cameron was tonight facing renewed pressure to sack Andy Coulson as the Downing Street director of communications in the face of new allegations in the New York Times that he discussed unlawful phone tapping.

In a sign that this could strain the coalition government, a senior Liberal Democrat MP said police should be prepared to summon Coulson for questioning if the new evidence merits further investigation.

Adrian Sanders, a member of the Commons culture select committee which has investigated the phone tapping allegations, said: "If the allegations in the New York Times are substantiated there is a real case for the police to investigate. Under police investigation they may be able to get more information out of Mr Coulson than we were in a select committee. I think he would feel the need to elaborate a little more than he did in our committee."

Labour and the Lib Dems intensified the pressure on Coulson after the New York Times published fresh evidence which directly linked the prime minister's senior aide to phone tapping while editor of the News of the World. Coulson, who denies the latest allegations, told the Commons culture select committee last year: "I have never had any involvement in it at all."

But Labour called for Coulson to be sacked. Chris Bryant, the shadow Europe minister who is embarking on a judicial review of the police's conduct amid evidence that his phone was hacked, said he found it hard to believe Coulson did not know about the tapping.

In a Guardian article today, Bryant writes: "It ... seems extraordinary that Andy Coulson is still the prime minister's director of communications and planning. He has already admitted that under his watch News International paid police officers for information ... I find it hard to believe that he didn't know how his scoops were being sourced.

"The most worrying aspect of all this is that unless the police take proper action these illegal practices will carry on. And unless David Cameron sacks Coulson he will be openly condoning some of the dirtiest politics in Britain."

Ed Miliband, the Labour leadership contender, said that the prime minister faced a test of judgment. "These are potentially very serious allegations made against a top Downing Street official by a newspaper that is well respected around the world. This report in the New York Timesalleges a much more systematic abuse of people's privacy during Andy Coulson's tenure as a Sunday newspaper editor than was previously thought.

" This is a test of David Cameron's judgment. It is the prime minister's responsibility to ensure the integrity of the office with which he has been entrusted, and it is David Cameron's responsibility nowto give people a final answer on the Coulson saga: are these allegations true?"

"David Cameron must establish the truth and if the allegations are accurate then it is impossible to see how Andy Coulson can continue to act as a senior Downing Street adviser, with the integrity demanded of someone in that position. Either way, the prime minister should now take full responsibility for bringing the damaging Coulson saga to an end."

Sanders highlighted Lib Dem unease over Coulson who is the immediate boss in the Downing Street press office to Nick Clegg's former deputy prime minister's chief of staff Lena Pietsch. Sanders said Cameron would have to consider Coulson's future if the police decide to question him.

"If the police were to call him in for questioning that is a matter the prime minister would seriously have to consider. If the allegations are true they are so serious and so fundamental to how the press operates in this country that it becomes indefensible."

Downing Street is confident that the latest allegations pose no threat to Coulson who strenuously denies that he knew about the phone tapping.

Nicholas Watt

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Police and dirty politics | Chris Bryant

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 21:00:19 GMT 2010-09-02T21:00:19Z -

The latest phone hacking revelations make the story even more shocking. David Cameron must sack Andy Coulson

With the allegations in the New York Times linking Andy Coulson to phone hacking while he was editor of the News of the World, it is becoming clearer day by day that the sticky carpet of British journalism – with honourable exceptions – is in profound need of a good steam-clean.

It was pretty shocking when I asked Coulson and Rebekah Wade (then the Sun's editor) during a select committee investigation on media intrusion in March 2003 whether they had ever paid a police officer for information – and Wade replied that they had, and Coulson added that he would do so again, adding, weasel-like, "within the law". It's shocking because it must be an offence to suborn a police officer, and the chequebook-enticed leaking from police investigations has all too often compromised them so seriously that no prosecution has been possible.

It was even more alarming when we discovered that Glenn Mulcaire had hacked his way into the messages of the princes. He went to prison, and although Coulson denied all knowledge of it, he resigned as editor. All along, the line of News International (the newspapers' owner) has been that this was just one bad apple, but the clear evidence is that it was a far more sustained campaign.

Two things remain truly disturbing. First, the Metropolitan police have manifestly failed to pursue their investigations with anything like the full vigour of the law. Last summer I wrote to them on the offchance that, as a Labour MP, I might have been another target of Mulcaire's illegal activities. The police reply in December confirmed that they had indeed secured material relating to me from Mulcaire and that it might be worth my while contacting my phone company, who then confirmed that there had been several attempts to access information on my phone in 2003.

What is astounding is that the police had not thought to mention this to me beforehand. Nor, as I understand it, have they informed many, if any, of the thousands of others who may have been targeted by Mulcaire and the News of the World. So despite having evidence that the tapping and hacking may have been far more extensive than Coulson or Mulcaire admit, the police have only investigated further or prosecuted in relation to a tiny proportion of those almost certainly affected. It is as if they have decided it's not on to tackle the royal family but that the rest of society is fair game.

Yet surely it is the job of the police to protect all victims of illegal hacking, and it would be wholly wrong to allow any consideration about the power of News International to prevent the full force of the law being brought to bear. After all, it seems as if we are talking about more than 3,000 people. We rightly balk at the idea of the security services tapping MPs, but it seems that dozens of MPs were among Mulcaire's targets, along with many celebrities and journalists.

Second, it seems extraordinary that Coulson is still the prime minister's director of communications. He has admitted that under his watch News International paid police officers for information. For all we know this was a regular habit. The New York Times claims that during his time he freely discussed Mulcaire-style "investigations" with his journalists and that these unlawful news-gathering techniques were pervasive. Coulson denies this, and has asserted this to parliament. I find it hard to believe he didn't know how his scoops were being sourced.

The most worrying aspect of all this is that unless the police take proper action, these illegal practices will carry on. And unless David Cameron sacks Coulson, he will be openly condoning some of the dirtiest politics in Britain.

Chris Bryant

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Northern Ireland police query £12m cost of work on 'past atrocities'

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 20:58:14 GMT 2010-09-02T20:58:14Z -

Deputy Chief Constable says force wants to spend money on 'here and now', but with unsolved murders and families who feel cases have been overlooked, justice issue is difficult to resolve

Investigating past atrocities is costing police in Northern Ireland £12m a year, driven by the need to supply 31 inquests with redacted documents and support a historical enquiries team looking into more than 3,000 unresolved killings.

Deputy Chief Constable Judith Gillespie told the policing board in Belfast today: "£12m spent on policing the past is not £12m spent on policing the here and now. We would much rather spend our policing budget on policing the here and now, but we understand there are emotive issues."

According to Gillespie the historical enquiries team alone costs the police service £6m a year. At the same time the service is faced with freezing recruitment and promotions because of the need to make savings. Some building projects have had to be suspended and police are seeking criminal justice reform to reduce the red tape.

The Democratic Unionist board member Jonathan Bell said: "The right to life, currently, and in the future – is it being affected by the amount of police resources going into policing and looking at the human rights aspects of the past?"

While most nationalist parties have supported demands for inquiries into long past events, the government wants to reduce the cost of such efforts.

David Cameron has pledged that there would never again be such an open-ended and costly inquiry again as Lord Saville's Bloody Sunday tribunal into the shootings of 30 January 1972, which cost £195m and took 12 years to complete.

But with many unsolved murders, and families in Northern Ireland who feel their cases have been overlooked, the justice issue is proving difficult to resolve.

South Africa dealt with crimes of the apartheid era by establishing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which examined events occurring between 1960 and 1994. A similar commission was recommended last year by Lord Eames and Denis Bradley, who examined how Northern Ireland should deal with the legacy of the Troubles.

If implemented the commission for Northern Ireland would take the place of the historical enquiries team and any ongoing investigations by the police ombudsman, Al Hutchinson.

A group of MPs who examined the proposals stated that Northern Ireland still had not reached consensus on the need for, or value of, a legacy commission.

The Northern Ireland affairs committee found that neither victims nor members of paramilitary organisations were willing to sign up to the idea of a truth and reconciliation process. The committee warned that Northern Ireland could become overburdened with organisations addressing the Troubles.

Hutchinson was in the audience at today's policing board meeting. In the past he has called for an alternative way of resolving the outstanding issues of the conflict. His report last month on the Claudy bombs in Derry, on 31 July 1972, said that talks between the Catholic church, the police and the government had led to a priest, suspected of involvement in the attack, being moved to the Irish Republic. No action, however, was ever taken against the priest, Father James Chesney, who died in 1980.

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Met asked to reveal what it knew about NoW hacking of officers' phones

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 20:55:52 GMT 2010-09-02T20:55:52Z -

Labour wants assurances that the inquiry into the scandal was not weakened

Scotland Yard was tonight under fresh pressure to reveal what it knew about attempts by the News of the World to hack the phones of senior police officers.

Concern over the extent of the News of the World's hacking of the phones of prominent people increased after it was revealed that the name of Brian Paddick, the former deputy assistant commissioner, was found on documents belonging to Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator jailed for stealing secrets from mobile phone voice messages.

Joanne McCartney, Labour's lead member on the Metropolitan Police Authority demanded the force provide more answers about its investigations into the scandal, which critics have claimed was too limited.

In a letter to the Met commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson she wrote: "Did the News of the World, private investigators or reporters working for the newspaper or for News International ever hack into the phones or access the voicemails of senior police officers?" McCartney's letter states: "It is vital that the public can be confident the Met is investigating crime without fear or favour."

Paddick is seeking a judicial review of the force's alleged failure to tell him his name had been found in the list of public figures. Another name on the list was the former commissioner Sir Ian Blair. Also on the list was Michael Fuller, then a senior officer at the Met who later became the first ethnic minority chief constable, when he led the Kent force.

Privately figures on the police authority are concerned whether the Met felt under any pressure over their investigation because senior officers's name were found on documents belonging to the private investigator. Criticism of the Met's investigation includes the fact the force seemed to accept that the hacking was limited just to one reporter, with senior executives unaware of the practice.

The letter to Stephenson asks: "Can you confirm how many people you believe may have had their phones hacked? Can you confirm how many have been informed of this fact by the MPS [Met police]?

"Can you confirm when these people were informed, given that phone records are only kept for so long? Can you also reassure me that MPS officers investigating these allegations did not come under any internal pressure to weaken their investigation?"

Labour's letter follows a New York Times piece which made further allegations about the scandal. The article alleged that a Met press officer tried to stress the force's long-term relationship with News International to investigating officers.

A senior official in the criminal justice system with knowledge of the case said the chances of fresh prosecutions were minimal, despite the latest revelations. They said phone records and other documentation covering alleged hacking dating back several years would no longer exist.

The piece in the New York Times quoted a former News of the World reporter, Sean Hoare, who said Andy Coulson, the former editor, was aware of the practice. Coulson is now David Cameron's director of communications.

Hoare's statement is expected to be of interest to Scotland Yard. But the fact he was sacked because of drink and drug problems means his credibility in front of a jury could be fatally undermined, even if he was prepared to confess his own involvement in criminal activity.

An official said: "Unless someone was involved, that admitted their involvement and there was corroboration, there is no chance of prosecution."

Vikram Dodd

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Fertility study on mice eggs raise hope for older mothers

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 20:32:00 GMT 2010-09-02T20:33:56Z -

UK research identifying loss of key protein in mice eggs is seen as a breakthrough that may help prevent birth defects

Scientists have made a breakthrough in understanding why older women become less fertile, suffer a miscarriage or have a baby with Down's syndrome.

The discovery could ultimately lead to treatments that would increase the chances of a successful pregnancy for growing numbers of would-be mothers in their late 30s and early 40s.

Researchers led by Dr Mary Herbert, an expert in reproductive biology at Newcastle University's Institute for Ageing and Health, have identified why some older women produce abnormal eggs, according to findings published in the journal Current Biology.

It has been known for a long time that would-be mothers who are nearing the end of their fertility are at higher risk than usual of having eggs that are affected by chromosomal abnormalities, but the underlying cause has been unclear.

The new study has identified problems arising from a woman's declining stock of proteins called Cohesins, which act as binding agents to hold chromosomes together by keeping them inside a ring. They are vital to ensure that chromosomes split evenly when cells divide.

Women's supplies of Cohesins fall as they age, Herbert and her colleagues discovered. Tests on eggs taken from both young and old mice indicated that the amount of Cohesins in women's bodies declines after their mid-30s.

When that happens it means that chromosomes are less tightly held together and they are therefore more likely to result in defective eggs, which can cause problems such as miscarriage and Down's syndrome.

Every cell in the human body, apart from eggs and sperm, contains two copies of each of the body's 23 chromosomes. Sperm and eggs must lose one copy each as they prepare for fertilisation. That process involves a complicated form of cell division.

This problem is compounded with eggs, because the attachments that hold chromosomes together have to be maintained by Cohesins until the egg divides just before ovulation.

When Herbert's team studied chromosomes during division in the egg, they found that the lower levels of Cohesin in eggs in older females led to some chromosomes becoming trapped and unable to divide properly.

"Reproductive fitness in women declines dramatically from the mid-30s onwards. Our findings point to Cohesin being a major culprit in this", said Herbert. More work was needed to understand why Cohesin declines over women's reproductive years, and such knowledge could lead to ways being developed to stop that loss from occurring.

Dr Peter Bowen-Simpkins, the medical director of the London Women's Clinic network of private fertility clinics and spokesman for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said the study was "very exciting" and could lead to real improvements in older women's chances of having children.

"This breakthrough could mean the difference between success and failure – them having a baby or not – for the fast-growing number of women who are trying to conceive after their late 30s," he added.

Denis Campbell

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From bully Brown to St Gordon: former PM sets out his plans for the future

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:59:22 GMT 2010-09-02T20:00:48Z -

Gordon Brown ignores the controversy over Tony Blair's memoir and attempts to reshape his image, with announcement of several charitable projects

He has been accused of blackmail, and described as "cursed" and having "zero" emotional intelligence in print by Tony Blair in a week in which his personality has been put under the microscope. But Gordon Brown's policy of dignified silence over the publication of his predecessor's memoirs did not last long.

In a statement tonight Brown broke his self-imposed embargo to set out his plans for the future. He chose not to claim back credit for the plans to make the Bank of England independent, nor did he attempt to stick the knife into Blair or defend those friends who took a drubbing in the book. Instead, he attempted to rebrand himself from bully Brown to Saint Gordon, by setting out how he and his wife Sarah intend to contribute to public life.

The former prime minister announced he is to embark on a number of charitable projects and will set up an Office of Gordon and Sarah Brown to co-ordinate his work, paid for by a string of speaking engagements. He has joined Blair on the books of the Washington Speakers Bureau, an agency for influential orators that also represents Sir John Major, Madeleine Albright and George Bush. He will remain in parliament, representing his Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath constituency. The speaking role has been cleared by the advisory committee on business appointments.

Brown has spent the summer finalising his book on global economic affairs – which, like Blair's book, will not be ghostwritten – and visiting local schools, businesses and charities. He announced three new appointments he has accepted: convenor of the Global Campaign for Education's panel on Education for All, in partnership with Queen Rania of Jordan; working on a new programme to bring the internet to Africa; and joining the board of the World Wide Web Foundation, launched by Sir Tim Berners Lee to extend the global reach of the web.

The statement said: "Each of these positions are pro bono and Mr Brown will not accept any remuneration. He will continue to write on global issues, as he has been doing recently with articles on the desperate plight of those in Pakistan and Niger. To facilitate their ongoing public policy work, the Office of Gordon and Sarah Brown has been set up to employ a number of staff to work on the projects they are committed to.

"Gordon and Sarah have always made clear they are determined to continue to make their contribution to public life and these latest initiatives are a sign of Gordon's priorities for the future."

Polly Curtis

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Child grooming case mother warns it could happen to any family

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:34:40 GMT 2010-09-02T19:34:40Z -

Speaking after nine men are convicted of exploiting daughter, 14, parents praise police, CPS and charity for support

The mother of a teenage girl who was groomed by a group of predatory men, plied with drugs and alcohol and forced to have sex with several men against her will, has warned that the same thing "could happen to any family".

Manchester crown court jailed nine men last month for abusing the woman's daughter, Ellie – not her real name – when she was 14. The perpetrators were convicted of sexual activity with a child, controlling a child prostitute, facilitating child prostitution and paying for sexual services with a child and were jailed for between six months and seven years.

Speaking for the first time since the convictions, the girl's mother, Sally, praised Greater Manchester police and the Crown Prosecution Service for supporting the family and securing the prosecution. She said that a charity called the Coalition for the Removal of Pimping , from which the family had received invaluable support, was supporting hundreds of families in similar situations.

Ellie went missing twice from her home in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, in February 2008. When officers spoke to her in Rusholme, Manchester, she told them she had been sexually exploited by a number of men while she was missing.

Over a series of separate hearings and trials, Manchester crown court heard how Asad Hassan had targeted Ellie in Rochdale town centre. He took her to a nightclub, where she was plied with vodka and taken to a flat with two other men, Mohammed Basharat and Mohammed Atif. They were all later convicted of sexually exploiting her.

A few days later she travelled to Manchester, where she met another man, Aftab Khan, who also gave her alcohol and drugs before forcing her to have sex with several men for money.

The girl's family are articulate middle-class professionals, who have older children. "What happened to us as a family is beyond anything we could have imagined or anticipated," Sally told the Guardian. "It is completely off the scale of ordinary experience. People talk about problems with teenagers growing up but what happened to our daughter is so extreme we could never have been prepared for anything like this, which is one of the things that makes it so hard to deal with.

"This can happen to anyone, to any family, any child, from any social background and any race or gender."

The first sign anything was amiss was when her daughter became secretive, Sally said. "One of the hardest things was being taken seriously in the early days because of an assumption that this was a normal teenage rebellion."

They noticed mood changes and secrecy and mobile phone numbers on pieces of paper. "We'd received phone calls for her from males we didn't recognise and sometimes the number was withheld. There were lots of worrying things that didn't quite add up and make sense." The family later found discarded mobile phone sim cards in her bedroom.

When they asked their daughter about the men, she was dismissive of their concerns.

"This is a very typical way in which men groom young girls," Sally said. "They target adolescent girls who may appear mature physically but are emotionally immature."

Ellie was smoking and using cannabis and vodka; her parents could not understand how she was paying for it. She became increasingly disconnected from her family. "We felt like we lost our relationship with her and we couldn't talk to her about things. She was closed down emotionally but we would talk about ordinary day-to-day things and it became very superficial."

They contacted social services, but the initial opinion was that Ellie was not particularly at risk. "There is a great deal of emphasis on children's rights, competence and autonomy," Sally said. "With this kind of grooming, the child is very much out of control as they are being controlled by somebody else and the power is always with the predator."

Eventually the couple persuaded social services to hold a child protection meeting about their daughter, from which they were to be excluded from "which was absurd as we'd approached them with the information." There was a shift in their attitude, as her parents fought for her. "Their attitude changed and they became allies attempting to find ways of protecting her. However, the system we are working within failed her."

"It was a nightmare, a complete nightmare," Sally said of the two occasions her daughter went missing from home. On the second occasion she went missing, Ellie was gone for 12 days, during which her family were frantic. "I can't describe how frightening it is to know your child is missing and you don't know whether they are alive or dead."

During this time, Sally searched Manchester's red-light district late at night while her husband waited at home by the phone.

Eventually Ellie escaped her abusers by flagging down a passing couple in the street, later going to the police and giving evidence at two separate trials. A third took place without her testimony as medical experts said she was not able to continue.

Superintendent Paul Savill, who led the inquiry, said the issue was about the vulnerability of adolescents.

"Khan was, in my mind, on the lookout for vulnerable girls," he said. "While these girls are available he will approach them and play on these vulnerabilities and ply them with gifts." As a result of the abuse, Savill described how the child's self-esteem plummets and they become trapped in a cycle of exploitation.

He said Ellie had been treated like a commodity; beaten, threatened and sexually exploited. "These men took advantage of her vulnerability with no regard for her wellbeing."

Sally said that, although the perpetrators were all Asian, it was not a racial issue. "I think there is a cultural issue here, but a more accurate reflection is the mainstreaming of pornography and the objectification of women and young girls."

Barnardo's is calling for all local authorities to take action on child sexual exploitation, including undertaking a risk assessment, providing or funding specialist support in sexual exploitation services and ensuring those working with children and young people are trained to recognise the signs and take action if they think a young person is at risk.

Ellie, who is now 17, said in a statement: "These people exploit young girls, introduce them to prostitution, feed them drugs and alcohol and tell them they love them. I know this because it has happened to me and it has changed my life enormously. I just hope that people will be more aware of this now and will be able to prevent this from happening to other vulnerable young girls."

Rachel Loise, a parent support officer at Crop, said: "This violent sexual exploitation not only ruins the lives of the children and young people; the effects on the whole family are devastating – on both parents and siblings. And this can happen to any child from any family."

Helen Carter

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Blair's job was done by 1997: to numb Labour, and to enshrine Thatcherism | Simon Jenkins

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:30:13 GMT 2010-09-02T19:30:13Z -

In Downing Street, Blair never fulfilled his early promise and let Brown in. Now he can only emit a long wail of impotence

Who said books are dead? Did he blog or tweet, video or iPad? No, Tony Blair wanted to get a message across, so he wrote a book. He smeared the black stuff on trees, stitched it together and made people go out to buy it. Good for him.

Blair's mildly engaging stream of auto-eroticism shows him memoirising much as he ruled. He uses the first person singular a million times. He stages everything. He fixes on a theme and controls the narrative. The intention is to smother an Iraq apologia in endless quotables on Gordon Brown and his emotional idiocy and general hopelessness. It is cruel, but has worked a dream.

Blair was a politician of great talent, and a miserable prime minister. The service he did his country was considerable, but it was done by the time he took office in 1997. It was to anaesthetise the Labour party while he turned it into a vehicle to make him electable and his newly espoused Thatcherism irreversible, much as Attlee had made welfarism irreversible in 1945. The British left is still in denial on the subject.

When the Social Democratic party was formed in 1981, an ambitious young Blair abused them as "middle-aged, middle-class erstwhile Labour", with only "lingering social consciences [to] prevent them voting Tory". When, a year later, Anthony Blair fought Beaconsfield, he was for CND, against Trident and for withdrawal from Europe. (None of this is in his memoir.)

When Blair arrived in parliament in 1983, he was eloquent in defence of clause IV renationalisation: "not a question of reinterpreting it … but a question of giving effect to it". There should be no curb on trade union rights, and privatisation should be abandoned "here, now and for ever". When Nigel Lawson cut income tax to 40%, Blair demanded Labour increase it to 60%.

By the end of the 80s, ambition had worked a wondrous change. Blair abandoned nuclear disarmament and subscribed to the EU. As employment spokesman, he declared that Thatcher's union laws should stay. He did a U-turn on privatisation. Unlike Neil Kinnock, John Smith and Brown, Blair saw himself as classless and placeless, at ease in Thatcher's world. He travelled to the US with Brown and, like De Tocqueville, returned mesmerised, in particular by Clinton's use of political charisma.

When he became leader, Blair's self-styled "project" dared not speak its Thatcherite name, but it understood that success could lie only in capturing the middle ground, in the "electoral necessity of bourgeois ascendancy". New Labour should hang loose, talking about right and wrong, individual choice, community not state. Blair himself was unashamedly rightwing, espousing the nuclear deterrent and telling a police conference that "if we dare not speak the language of punishment then we deny the real world".

Such idealism in a prince, as Machiavelli pointed out, was useless without power. Blair's memoir is as its self-regarding best in recounting how he re-engineered the Labour party so it could never again undermine its leader, as it had Gaitskell, Wilson and Callaghan. Where previous prime ministers had struggled to bend a monolithic party to their will, Blair set out to smash it.

In 1996 Blair wrote that unions should have "no special or privileged place" in his party. "We will not be held to ransom by the unions. We will stand up to strikes," he assured the Sun, and he meant it. The bloc vote should go; the party conference should lose power over the manifesto; the national executive should be divorced from the shadow cabinet; even the holy of holies, clause IV, should evaporate.

The party was torn to shreds as Blair scored victory after victory against "old Labour". He turned a 19th-century movement into a 21st-century presidential machine, puffed up with candyfloss vacuities such as "traditional values in a changed world". Blair's appetite for cliche was, and is, gargantuan.

Blair never criticised Thatcher. In 1995 he lauded her as "a radical, not a Tory". He told the New York Times that Labour would be "unelectable" if it dismantled Thatcherism, one of the things "the 1980s got right". The lady returned the compliment, remarking during the 1997 election that he was "a man who won't let Britain down". She was the first VIP – before any Labour figure – whom Blair invited to Downing Street. He was obsessed by her good opinion, like Odysseus panting at the sirens' call but blocking his colleagues' ears.

In office Blair was a true fundamentalist. He adored Thatcher's policies on law and order, refusing penal reform. He carried privatisation far beyond what she had tolerated, fuelled by his affection for high finance and private wealth. He mimicked Thatcher's belligerence in foreign affairs, loving to be thought "not wobbly". Even his "regrets" have a Thatcherite tinge: the foxhunting ban and freedom of information.

The left's refusal to accept what Blair did to Labour is reminiscent of the Whig acceptance of reform in the 1830s. When Britain is experiencing radical change, it prefers to look the other way. Blair's conversion was so deft that his party bought the Thatcher ticket hook, line and sinker, but on the strict understanding that it was not mentioned.

Needless to say, little of this is in Blair's book, though he does let slip a tribute to Thatcher's "character, leadership and intelligence" in smashing the unions. One reason must be that, while Blair understood Thatcherism's potency, he was blind to its shortcomings. He grasped the essence of his creed but could not see how to take it forward.

Not for three decades has anyone in Britain charted a proper boundary between the public and private sectors. Blair noted that in 1997 Thatcher's public sector was "largely unreformed" and that, had Attlee returned, "he would have greeted it as an old friend". Yet he did nothing. He could change Labour ruthlessly, but quailed before the gods of public administration. This was despite having turned Downing Street into a furnace of centralised power. He and Brown tipped unprecedented quantities of money into the pockets of public servants, yet the quality of Britain's schools, hospitals and social services remains shocking.

Blair blames much of this failure on Brown, but the failure was Blair's. He left Brown in charge, with his co-architect of madness, Ed Balls – who without apology now thinks himself equipped to run the country. Blair never had the guts to sack either of them. As a result, one of the brightest sparks to cross the political firmament since the war can emit only a long wail of impotence.

Perhaps Blair is right, that Brown was his nemesis, a tragedy collapsed across the path of history. If so, a duo that could have created so much, and yet created so little, is just another might-have-been.

Simon Jenkins

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Michael White's political briefing | Sex, lies and Fleet Street headlines

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:09:26 GMT 2010-09-02T19:17:03Z -

Gay Tory MPs are adamant that the foreign secretary is not, as Lady Thatcher used to say, 'one of us', but it doesn't end there

Reporters who remember William Hague's byelection win in Richmond in 1989 affectionately recall one odd aspect of the campaign. Whatever they asked a Conservative press officer about their precocious bachelor candidate's views on great issues of the day, the jittery answer would usually be: "Did you know, his girlfriend's arriving tomorrow?" Yet gay Tory MPs are adamant that the foreign secretary is not, as Lady Thatcher used to say, "one of us".

Attitudes on sexuality have become much more relaxed since the days of section 28, to the point where having gay MPs is mandatory and David Cameron promises to curb homophobic bullying in the playground. As the "gay spy" narrative falsely imposed on murdered M16 staffer Gareth Williams showed yet again last week, Downing Street is yet to promise similar curbs in Fleet Street.

The media's reluctance to abandon a good sex story, let alone admit error, means it has been chipping away at Hague ever since. Far from being discouraged by his marriage to Ffion Jenkins, a member of his staff, shortly after becoming Tory leader in 1997, the pack took it as a challenge. "No smoke without fire" is a familiar justification for sexual gossip, straight or gay. From John Profumo to David Laws via Cecil Parkinson and David Mellor it is sometimes even true.

In most circumstances Hague's denial, accompanied by distressing revelations of miscarriages, should be regarded as watertight. He used the word "never" in respect of any gay relationships. But people lie about money and sex. So Tory hopes that the Sunday papers will take his word for it may be premature. Meanwhile the justification for stoking fresh headlines has shifted to one of Hague's "judgment".

It is marginally less humbug than the "national security" concerns spuriously invoked in the Profumo affair. Was Hague, 49, right to share a hotel room with a young aide (of either sex) or to appoint a talented friend to a special adviser's post for which his qualifications were not obvious? MPs were divided today. Brilliant but naive, an "intensely private" loner who does not consult enough, was the kinder verdict. Naive but arrogant was the sceptics' take.

Trickier by far was whether it was wise of the Foreign Office to issue an inadequate statement on Tuesday, which led to Hague's self-lacerating second effort 24 hours later. The worldly publicity pimp, Max Clifford, was adamant that Hague's statement was a major error, one which gave TV networks the green light to pursue what had only been a blog-driven tabloid tale.

"Only when it appears on TV does a story become serious with voters," scandal-ravaged MPs tell new colleagues. "Until that happens it is best to say nothing."

But Hague made clear yesterday that he and his wife felt they had endured enough gossip and wanted to take a stand. Honest, but naive was Westminster's prevailing verdict, it will not buttress his wonky reputation for wise judgement in the day job.

The Hagues' reward today was pages of gossipy coverage, mock sympathy over their miscarriages and suggestions he may quit politics. He was making a reported £1m a year before David Cameron lured him back. Downing Street dismisses such talk, but some sympathetic Tory MPs, still nursing bruises from the expenses scandal, do not. If Hague were to retire hurt after David Laws's departure the coalition cabinet's average IQ would be seriously depleted, though not necessarily its stock of common sense.

Michael White

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Chief rabbi challenges Stephen Hawking in row over origins of universe

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:48:19 GMT 2010-09-02T18:48:19Z -

Lord Sacks accuses astrophysicist of logical fallacy in book excluding possibility of supernatural creation

The chief rabbi, Lord Sacks, hit back at Stephen Hawking after the astrophysicist said God did not create the universe.

In his new book, The Grand Design, published next week, Hawking concludes that science excludes the possibility of a deity and that it is unnecessary to "invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going".

But his finding were described by Sacks as an "elementary fallacy" of logic.

Writing in the Times, the chief rabbi said: "There is a difference between science and religion. Science is about explanation. Religion is about interpretation. The Bible simply isn't interested in how the universe came into being."

Sacks also said the mutual hostility between religion and science was one of "the curses of our age" and warned it would be equally damaging to both.

"But there is more to wisdom than science. It cannot tell us why we are here or how we should live. Science masquerading as religion is as unseemly as religion masquerading as science."

In an earlier book, A Brief History of Time, Hawking was apparently more open to the idea of God, suggesting that a scientific understanding of the universe was not incompatible with a creator. "If we discover a complete theory … it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason – for then we should know the mind of God," he wrote.

Riazat Butt

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William Hague furore raises questions over special advisers

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:37:43 GMT 2010-09-02T19:27:52Z -

Senior Whitehall figures concerned that Tory party employees have been given civil service roles

The coalition has quietly appointed a string of party employees to civil service roles – including one aide to the foreign secretary, William Hague – in a move that has raised concerns among senior Whitehall figures, the Guardian has learned.

Hague today said he felt forced to give yesterday's unprecedented personal statement about his marriage to "put the record straight" after intense speculation about his relationship with a special adviser in a row that has cast light on the propriety of political appointments.

Separately, several Conservative party and MP employees have been given civil service roles in the Cabinet Office, Department for Education, Foreign Office and Downing Street, stretching the rules regarding appointments. While special advisers are political appointees who can be hired at the will of ministers, civil servants are supposed to be politically impartial and in the majority of cases go through competitive processes to get a job.

Chloe Dalton, an adviser to Hague in opposition, has been drafted into the Foreign Office as a civil servant. Two speechwriters to David Cameron before the election, Ameetpal Gill and Clare Foges, have paid civil service jobs in Downing Street.

Sam Freedman, who helped devise the Tories' free schools policy in opposition, has been made an adviser on the civil service pay roll in the DfE.

Rishi Saha, an internet expert who is close to Cameron's inner circle and was head of digital strategy for the Conservatives, has been appointed the deputy director of digital communications at the Cabinet Office. The Guardian understands that in at least two, unnamed cases the Cabinet Office conduct and ethics department was asked to vet the appointments and passed them.

A Cabinet Office spokesman said that all civil service appointees must abide by a code dictating that they perform all functions impartially. He added: "Departmental recruitment policies allow individuals to be appointed without open competition on a fixed-term contract where positions need to be filled at short notice. It would be misleading to suggest that there is one particular reason for such appointments. There are a range of specialist skills that may be needed urgently, particularly when a new government is bringing forward a whole new set of policies."

Jonathan Baume, head of the FDA union of senior civil servants, said: "Where we start to have concerns is where you get people with political backgrounds being appointed to civil servant roles. That's when I start to get nervous."

A Downing Street source insisted that Labour made similar appointments when it came to power and said the coalition government was more transparent than its predecessors.

It emerged today that Downing Street failed to include the aide at the centre of the row over Hague's private life in an official list of special advisers published in June. It raises questions about whether Christopher Myers's appointment was official and whether the list, designed to demonstrate how the coalition was cutting back on political appointments, was complete.

Hague's office confirmed the appointment of Myers, who quit yesterday citing the pressure of speculation surrounding his relationship with the foreign secretary, was approved on 24 May. The official list naming all so-called "Spads" and their wage brackets did not include Myers when it was revealed on 10 June. The Cabinet Office said Myers was not included because he had not taken up the post by 10 June 10 despite the appointment being confirmed. Liam Fox became the second secretary of state to appoint a third spad in August.

Hague spoke out as Cameron's office confirmed the prime minister has "100% confidence" in his foreign secretary. Hague said he had made the "very personal statement", in which he denied allegations that he was gay, that his marriage was in trouble and that he had an improper relationship with Myers, to end speculation. The statement revealed that he and his wife Ffion had suffered a series of miscarriages. His admission that he and Myers had shared twin bedrooms during the election campaign drew criticisms from Tory colleagues who questioned his judgment.

Hague told a Foreign Office press conference today: "Yesterday, I made a very personal statement, which was not an easy thing to do. I am not going to expand on that today. My wife and I really felt we had had enough of the circulation of untrue allegations, particularly on the internet, and at some point you have to speak out about that and put the record straight."

Asked about his colleague John Redwood's suggestion that Hague himself now acknowledged he had exercised "poor judgment" in sharing a room with his assistant, Hague said his work "has not missed a beat, and will not miss a beat, at any stage. I have not spent many minutes away from all duties of the foreign secretary."

The Tory peer Lord Tebbit said Hague had been "naive at best, foolish at worst". Redwood wrote on his blog: "Let us hope this is now an end to the matter. Mr Hague himself now seems to believe that it was poor judgment to share a hotel room with an assistant."

Hague was forced to issue the extraordinarily personal and detailed statement under mounting pressure from reports in political blogs and investigations by newspapers over the past few weeks speculating about the appointment of the 25-year old Durham university graduate. Downing Street denied reports Hague was prepared to quit over the furore.

Polly Curtis

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'I hope I rot in hell': father's suicide note after killing wife and daughter

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:35:50 GMT 2010-09-02T18:35:50Z -

Hugh McFall battered wife and 18-year-old daughter to death with mallet before hanging himself

A man who battered his wife and daughter to death with a mallet before hanging himself left a note that said: "I hope I rot in hell", an inquest heard today.

Flower salesman Hugh McFall, 48, was found hanged in his industrial lock-up on 5 February, four hours after the bodies of his wife and daughter were discovered at their home in Oswestry, Shropshire. Susan, 56, and Francesca, 18, died of head injuries, an inquest at Shrewsbury magistrates court into the three deaths was told.

Detective Superintendent Niall Parker told the court that a handwritten note was found near McFall's body, which read: "My world, Frankie and Susan, just ended, I love them so much, nobody can understand. Part of me wants to stay alive just so I can keep thinking about them. The pain is too much … I hope I rot in hell."

And in a 999 call he told an operator: "I've just killed my wife and daughter. I love them so much."

The inquest heard that Susan McFall and her daughter were found lying side by side on a bed in the master bedroom of the bungalow covered in a "considerable amount of blood".

Dr Alexander Kolar, a Home Office pathologist, told the court the women had injuries consistent with having been struck by a rubber mallet recovered from the scene.

Coroner John Ellery recorded a verdict of suicide for McFall and unlawful killing for Mrs McFall and Francesca, known as Frankie.

Following the deaths, detectives seized a computer from the family home. A senior forensic investigator from West Mercia police said internet searches for "HIV testing" and "sexual health clinics" had been carried out on it. The same user had also searched for escort girls, massage parlours and skin complaints.

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British man piloted Congo death crash plane

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:28:51 GMT 2010-09-02T18:28:51Z -

Chris Wilson died along with 19 others when flight from Kinshasa to Bandundu was unable to land last week

The pilot of a plane that crashed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo killing 20 people has been named as a Briton who had worked as an air steward but loved flying so much he trained as a pilot.

Chris Wilson, 39, from Bury, Greater Manchester, died when the twin-engined plane crashed last week near the airstrip in the town of Bandundu.

His family said he had worked for Congolese airline Filair since 2009. They did not learn of his death until Saturday as no identification was found on his body.

Congo, which has suffered decades of civil war and corrupt rule, has one of the world's worst air safety records and is blacklisted by the international aviation authorities. UN spokesman Madnodje Mounoubai said a number of people on the ground had also been killed. There was only one reported survivor on the plane.

The Let L-410 plane took off from the capital Kinshasa and crashed after it was unable to land at Bandundu airport and seemingly ran out of fuel.

Wilson is survived by his parents, Jean and Eric Wilson, from Bury, a twin brother Robert, and three other siblings.

Jean Wilson, 78, told the Bury Times yesterday: "It's such a shock. He loved flying and he worked hard to fulfil his dream of becoming a pilot. He had three jobs at once just to pay for his training. He absolutely adored flying.

"I'm very proud of him for working so hard. He loved life and did everything he could to achieve his dream."

She added: "There have been so many messages from people he has known through the years. We didn't realise so many people cared for him."

Wilson's best friend, Martin Kirkby, said: "It is a tragedy. Chris worked really hard to become a pilot and he died doing what he loved. His passion was always to fly and he was very happy to be doing it."

Wilson joined the Territorial Army after university and was a member of the Royal Green Jackets. He trained in bomb disposal and served in the US and Germany. He worked for Airtours for several years before moving to another airline, BMED, as an air steward. He trained as a pilot while working there.

An air accident investigation into the cause of the crash has been launched. Wilson's family is in contact with the British Consulate about returning his body to the UK so his funeral can take place.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: "We can confirm the death of a British national in the Democratic Republic of Congo on 25 August 2010. We are providing consular assistance to the family at this distressing time."

Helen Carter

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Scottish government to tackle alcohol abuse with price hike

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:24:45 GMT 2010-09-02T18:24:45Z -

Formal plans unveiled to fix minimum price for all alcoholic drinks at 45p per unit, trebling cost of cheapest ciders

The dispute over the need for controls on the cost of alcohol intensified today after the Scottish government unveiled formal plans to fix a minimum price for all alcoholic drinks at 45p per unit.

That would double or treble the cost of the cheapest super-strength ciders sold by major supermarkets, and raise the cost of cheap supermarket vodka by nearly £4 a bottle. Some own-brand whiskies would cost £3.40 more.

Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish health secretary, said a minimum price was essential to help tackle the high death toll and health burden from alcohol abuse in Scotland, which drinks 25% more per head of population than the rest of the UK.

Raising the cost to 45p a unit would immediately save about 50 lives a year, cut hospital admissions by 1,200 a year and mean nearly 23,000 fewer days lost from work in the first year. Within a decade, nearly 225 lives a year would be saved.

"For too long, too many Scots have been drinking themselves into an early grave," she said. "It is no coincidence that as the affordability of alcohol has plummeted in recent decades, alcohol-related deaths, disease, crime and disorder have spiralled. It cannot be right that a man can exceed his weekly recommended alcohol limit for less than £3.50."

The proposal will be added to an alcohol bill going through Holyrood this month and was immediately supported by Dr Harry Burns, Scotland's chief medical officer, and the British Medical Association in Scotland and at UK level. It was lambasted by the drinks industry and opposition politicians at Holyrood.

The Scotch Whisky Association, which represents the producers of Scotland's most valuable single export, said the measure was probably illegal, because it breached competition law, would penalise responsible drinkers and cut whisky sales by nearly 13%.

It would only cut total alcohol consumption by 4.3%, and simply banning supermarkets from selling below cost price would have a similar effect. "The Scottish government's scheme fails to meet the basic tests of EU law and will do little to address alcohol misuse," said Gavin Hewitt, the SWA's chief executive.

Sturgeon has not won cross-party support for minimum pricing in Scotland, but has been heartened by supportive comments from health ministers in successive UK governments, including Andy Burnham and the current UK health secretary, Andrew Lansley.

Last month, David Cameron said the government would look "very sympathetically" at proposals from 12 councils in the Manchester area for minimum pricing, to combat the binge drinking that led many town centres to look like the "wild west" at weekends.

Liam Donaldson, England's chief medical officer, has repeatedly endorsed the proposal and has been pressing for a 50p minimum price. But the Department of Health in London quashed hopes that it would be adopted across England too.

A spokeswoman said ministers were committed to "tough action" on problem drinking. The Home Office was consulting on proposals to ban shops from selling alcohol below cost price, and ministers were reviewing taxation. But more work was needed to understand binge drinkers. "No legislation or initiative will work unless we have a better understanding of what drives people's decisions. It is not clear that national minimum unit pricing is the best way to reduce harm, so we need to look at other options in England."

Jackie Baillie, Labour's shadow health secretary at Holyrood, said the proposal was a "tax on the poor" which would increase revenue for supermarkets by £140m. "The SNP have got this one badly wrong. A minimum price of 45p per unit will make no difference to problem drinks, like Buckfast, but it will punish pensioners and people on low incomes," she said.

Burns, a long-term advocate of price controls on alcohol, said since Scotland had "lead the way" on banning smoking public places, it could now show leadership on pricing.

"Scotland has an unenviable reputation when it comes to alcohol. We are, sadly, world-class when it comes to damaging our health through heavy drinking," he said.

The BMA in London said it too supported the measure across the UK.

"There is strong scientific evidence that increasing price reduces rates of alcohol-related problems, particularly among young people," a BMA spokesman said.

"We have consistently called for a minimum price per unit as part of a raft of measures to tackle alcohol abuse and would urge the other UK governments to follow the example set by Scotland."

Severin Carrell

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Jewish director Julian Schnabel brings Palestine to Venice

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 17:55:40 GMT 2010-09-02T17:55:40Z -

Director talks of 'responsibility' to tell story of Middle East conflict in film Miral, told through eyes of two Palestinian women

The American artist and film-maker Julian Schnabel said he felt a "responsibility" as a Jew to tell the story of Palestine when he opened his new movie at the Venice film festival.

Schnabel's film Miral, competing with 22 others for the Golden Lion award, brought a note of seriousness to an event that sometimes veers towards the frothier side of culture.

Miral is told mainly through the eyes of two Palestinian women, covering 40 years of history from the birth of the state of Israel in 1948 to the failed Oslo peace accord of 1993. Its message is that education is the only hope to bringing any kind of resolution to the conflict.

Yesterday Schnabel said he felt a responsibility to bring the story to the big screen. "Coming from my background, as an American Jewish person whose mother was president of Hadassah [the Women's Zionist Organisation of America] in 1948, I figured I was a pretty good person to try to tell the story of the other side."

Schnabel has admitted not knowing much about the Palestinian people until he read the semi-autobiographical book by Rula Jebreal on which the film is based. "I felt it was my responsibility to confront this issue because, maybe, I've spent most of my life receding from my responsibility as a Jewish person."

He said there was an urgency to his film. "This conflict has to end. Every time a child dies on each side — there's no reason for it."

Miral tells the story of the Dar al-Tifl orphanage in Jerusalem, which was set up by a rich socialite called Hind Husseini in 1948 after she came across 55 orphans in the street. Within six months she had a school for 2,000 children.

The film shows how one of the orphans, Miral, is forced to grow up fast when she falls in love with a Palestinian activist. Miral is played by Slumdog Millionaire's Freida Pinto, and while there have been eyebrows raised at the Indian actor's casting as a Palestinian, Pinto bears an uncanny resemblance to Jebreal, on whom the character of Miral is based. Vanessa Redgrave and Willem Dafoe have small cameo roles.

Schnabel said the values that were instilled in him by his mother were the same as the ones instilled in Jebreal by Hind Husseini. "One of the reasons why I made this film is that it was so obvious to me that there are more similarities between these people than differences."

The debut of Miral was well-timed, coming on the day the US president, Barack Obama, opened a new round of Middle East peace talks.

Meanwhile, Iranian film-maker Jafar Panahi has been forbidden by the authorities from attending the premiere of his new short film Accordion. He was arrested last year and imprisoned for making a film looking at the Iranian elections, but had planned to attend.

Mark Brown

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Damien Hirst faces eight new claims of plagiarism

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 17:40:28 GMT 2010-09-02T19:09:39Z -

List includes In the Name of the Father, Pharmacy, as well as the spin and spot paintings

From formaldehyde-immersed sharks to diamond-encrusted skulls, Damien Hirst has become used to taking flak from traditionalists.

Less than welcome have been the accusations of plagiarism, the latest of which were detailed today with claims that no fewer than 15 works produced over the years by the self-styled enfant terrible have been allegedly "inspired" by others.

While Hirst has previously faced accusations that works including his diamond skull came from the imagination of other artists, the new allegations include his "crucified sheep", medicine cabinets, spin paintings, spot paintings, installation of a ball on an air-jet, his anatomical figure and cancer cell images.

Charles Thomson, the artist and co-founder of the Stuckists, a group campaigning for traditional artistry, collated the number of plagiarism claims relating to Hirst's work for the latest issue of the Jackdaw art magazine.

He came up with 15 examples, with eight said to be new instances of plagiarism. The tally includes the medicine cabinets that Hirst first displayed in 1989, and its development in 1992 - a room-size installation called Pharmacy.

"Joseph Cornell displayed a cabinet with bottles on shelves called Pharmacy in 1943," said Thomson. Nor were Hirst's spin paintings or his installation of a ball on a jet of air original, he said, noting that both were done in the 1960s.

"Hirst puts himself forward as a great artist, but a lot of his work exists only because other artists have come up with original ideas which he has stolen," said Thomson. "Hirst is a plagiarist in a way that would be totally unacceptable in science or literature."

Aggrieved artists include John LeKay, a Briton who says he first thought of nailing a lamb's carcass to wood like a cross in 1987, only to see it reproduced by Hirst. Lekay previously claimed in 2007 that he had been producing jewel-encrusted skulls since 1993, before Hirst did so. Lori Precious, an American, says she first arranged butterfly wings into patterns to suggest stained-glass windows in 1994, years before Hirst.

Imitation may be flattery, but not when Hirst is taking both the financial and artistic credit for their ideas, say Lekay and Precious. LeKay has never sold anything above £3,500, while Hirst's set of three crucified sheep was a reported £5.7m. Precious's butterflies sold for £6,000 against Hirst's version for £4.7m.

While Hirst is one of Britain's richest men, LeKay cannot live off his art. Accusing Hirst of being dishonest about where he gets his ideas, he said: "He should just tell the truth."

Although LeKay recognises that artists have always found inspiration in each other, he says the great ones adapt ideas to create works with their own individual and original stamp.

He said: "Damien sees an idea, tweaks it a little bit, tries to make it more commercial. He's not like an artist inspired by looking inwards. He looks for ideas from other people. It's superficial. Put both [crucified sheep] together and … it's the same thing."

In the 1990s, they were friends and shared exhibitions, which is when Hirst may have seen his sheep. Since then, LeKay has become more interested in Buddhism than material wealth, so he does not plan to seek compensation.

Precious recalled her pain at seeing Hirst's butterflies in a newspaper: "My artist friends and collectors called to tell me they couldn't believe the similarities between Hirst's work and mine, and … at first I too thought it was my work."

Although the patterns are not identical, she said: "It's the same material (butterfly wings) and the same idea (recreations of stained-glass windows)."

Without the funds to pursue legal action, she no longer produces butterfly works.

It emerged in 2000 that Hirst agreed to pay an undisclosed sum to head off legal action for breach of copyright by the designer and makers of a £14.99 toy which bore a resemblance to his celebrated 20ft bronze sculpture, Hymn.

David Lee, the editor of the Jackdaw, says Hirst's compensation was an admission of guilt. "The fact he was willing to fork out the money is an indication that he knew he was plagiarising the guy's work."

Hirst declined to comment.

Dalya Alberge

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Britain and France will not share aircraft carriers, officials say

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 17:36:45 GMT 2010-09-02T17:37:37Z -

Reports that two countries are to combine forces denied as defence secretaries meet to discuss closer military co-operation

British and French officials engaged in high-level defence talks have denied reports the two countries are considering sharing aircraft carriers, but are paving the way for unprecedented military co-operation, according to sources on both sides of the Channel.

Speaking on the eve of talks in Paris between the defence secretary, Liam Fox, and his French counterpart, Hervé Morin, officials said plans were being drawn up in an attempt to save money but maintain capabilities.

"We're in a phase where we must absolutely synchronise our budget cuts so that, in the end, there's no loss in our military capacities," a senior French diplomat told Agence France Presse news agency this week.

But British defence officials, irritated by reports of plans to "combine forces" and "share" ships, are keen to play down the significance of tomorrow's meeting. Morin is expected to be a victim of an imminent French government reshuffle.

"We will be looking at areas of closer co-operation between the two countries. But there are no plans to share carriers," British officials said.

Officials are instead pointing to the significance of the Franco-British summit between David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy, due to be held in England on 5 November. In a keynote address to ambassadors last month, Sarkozy said France was prepared to undertake "concrete" defence projects with Britain. He added: "We will be discussing this with them without taboos in November."

The results of the British government's strategic defence and security review are expected to be announced before the November summit, making it easier for Cameron and Sarkozy to announce specific plans for co-operation.

Recent reports the two countries were planning to share ships, notably aircraft carriers, have provoked a storm of protest. Lord Boyce, the former first sea lord, said: "You cannot co-own an asset. It is totally impracticable and simply won't work."

French military officials have also expressed concerns about the practical problems involved, including different warship design. The countries also have different interests or have taken opposing positions on key international issues, including the Falklands Islands, former French colonies in Africa and the invasion of Iraq.

However, there are many potential areas of defence co-operation, which British and French officials have been working on intensely throughout the summer.

Britain is building two carriers at a cost of £5.2bn which are due to enter service in 2016 and 2018. They are unlikely to fall victim of the defence review, officials say, if only because £2bn has already been spent on them and under the contracts with shipyards and the manufacturers BAE Systems, Babcock International, and the French company Thales, scrapping them would save less than £1bn.

France, which has one aircraft carrier, has delayed until next year a decision on whether to build a second one.

Instead of sharing carriers, Britain and France could ensure more effective co-operation on missions about which the two governments agree, officials say. These could include humanitarian operations such as those off Lebanon four years ago and in the Persian Gulf.

Britain and France could also increase the "interoperability" of their warships, provide surface escorts for each other's carriers, and synchronise nuclear missile submarine patrols, officials say.

Officials point to successful co-operation between the two countries in the past on maritime missions in the Mediterranean, the Adriatic and countering pirates off the Horn of Africa.

Richard Norton-Taylor

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Illegal cab driver guilty of rape

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 17:06:02 GMT 2010-09-02T17:06:36Z -

Minicab driver arrested for taxi touting was linked to 2003 attack on student using DNA evidence

An illegal minicab driver was facing jail today after being convicted of raping a passenger.

Astor Murray, 49, was arrested when he was stopped by police for taxi touting in 2009, six years after attacking the 22-year-old student.

His DNA was checked against unsolved crimes and matched to evidence in the rape in 2003, the Old Bailey heard.

Murray, of Enfield, north London, was found guilty of rape and indecent assault. He was remanded in custody for three weeks for pre-sentence reports. The court heard he was convicted last October of touting.

Murray claimed the sex had been consensual but admitted working for two years as an illegal taxi tout.

The student told the court she had been out with friends when she was approached by Murray at a bus stop in central London. She said: "I was approached by a man who said he was a minicab driver. He offered to take me home for £10."

But Murray pulled into an industrial estate, locked the doors and raped her. In an impact statement, the woman said she was now afraid of going out alone and would take only black cabs. She said: "I have not been able to have a relationship with a man since this happened."

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Sacked beefeater paid compensation by Tower of London

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:54:50 GMT 2010-09-02T17:18:36Z -

Historic Royal Palaces apologises to Mark Sanders-Crook who was dismissed for alleged bullying of first female beefeater

The Tower of London has apologised and paid compensation to a beefeater who was sacked for alleged harassment of the first female yeoman warder in the tower's 1,000-year history.

Mark Sanders-Crook, 44, was dismissed last November after an investigation into allegations of a bullying campaign against Moira Cameron. Two other male beefeaters were investigated following Cameron's complaints.

Sanders-Crook subsequently launched employment tribunal proceedings against Historic Royal Palaces, an independent charity that runs the tower, Hampton Court and other historic sites.

The case was due to be heard by London Central employment tribunal last week but Historic Royal Palaces concluded that the dismissal was unjustified after a review and a subsequent internal appeal.

"We have therefore apologised to Mr Sanders-Crook and reached agreement on an appropriate settlement," it said in a statement.

"The parties are pleased that it has been possible to resolve their dispute and that employment tribunal proceedings have therefore been closed."

Sanders-Crook, a former non-commissioned officer with the Grenadier Guards, now works as a controller for a firm specialising in political and medical evacuation from places such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

"I had always expected to see out the rest of my working life at the Tower of London," he told the Evening Standard. "I've always strongly denied these allegations and I'm still in touch with the other warders who have been very supportive."

Historic Royal Palaces described as speculation reports that Sanders-Crook received a payout of £100,000.

Cameron, 45, qualified to be a yeoman warder – beating five men to the job – in July 2007 after completing the required minimum 22 years in the armed forces.

She described her appointment to work with 34 male colleagues as "magical".

"It's just a wonderful job and I'm very, very lucky to have it," she said at the time. "You wake up in the morning and you know you're going to have a good day."

But she also said that some of her colleagues were less than welcoming: "I've had some comments. I had one chap at the gate one day who said he was completely and utterly against me doing the job. I said to him, 'I would like to thank you for dismissing my 22 years' service in Her Majesty's armed forces.'"

Reports at the time that Cameron's uniform had been defaced and that hostile notes had been left in her locker turned out to be false.

Cameron is still working at the tower. A spokeswoman at Historic Royal Palaces declined to comment when asked whether the allegations of harassment were unfounded. "Lessons will be learned from this case that will ensure we deliver this commitment more effectively in the future," she said.

The tower's yeoman warders date back to 1485, and their nickname, beefeaters, is thought to derive from the daily ration of meat they received.

Mark Tran

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Coalition cuts amount to 'war on equality' says Ken Livingstone

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:45:49 GMT 2010-09-02T16:45:49Z -

Former London mayor publishes report showing women are much more heavily affected by the cuts than men

London mayoral hopeful Ken Livingstone has accused the government of declaring "a war on equality" as he published a report showing that women in London are paying twice as much as men for the government's cuts in public spending.

Livingstone, who is hoping to be selected as the Labour candidate for the 2012 mayoral election in a two-horse race with Oona King, has drawn together evidence that shows women are more heavily affected by cuts in housing benefit and pension changes.

Even if cuts in child benefits and family-related tax credits are discounted, women are paying for 66% of the cuts in London, the report claimed.

The document, A Mayor for Equality, suggest women are more heavily affected by cuts in housing benefit and the switch to the Consumer Price Index for calculating the additional state pension and public sector pensions.

Livingstone also cited planned cuts in public sector jobs, where women represent 65% of the workforce, often in lower paid jobs.

The reality of women's lives would mean they would end up filling more of the gap left if public services are cut, he warned, such as caring roles for children and other family members, he added.

Livingstone has made protecting Londoners from government cuts a key feature of his campaign, as he seeks to tie planned government cuts with Boris Johnson's Conservative mayoralty.

As ballot papers for the mayoral selection begin to arrive at the home of Labour's 35,000 party members and 392,000 London party affiliates, the former London mayor, who was ousted by Boris Johnson after eight years in office, honed his message to women voters in a bid to secure a place at the 2012 mayoral election.

Promising to place equality at the heart of his mayoral programme, Livingstone outlined measures to improve the quality of life for the 3.8 million women living in London, including improving skills and training support through the London Skills Board, giving priority to tackling the growth of the sex industry and trafficking, and supporting a new London Carers Alliance to support London's 600,000 carers.

"Women in London are just over 50% of Londoners but the evidence now shows they will bear the majority of the cuts and higher fares of David Cameron and Boris Johnson," said Livingstone,

"The most cautious estimate shows women are paying for more than two thirds of the housing and pensions cuts. It is clear [the chancellor] George Osborne has not given any regard to the impact on women of his savage budget cuts."

Livingstone gave his backing the Fawcett Society, which filed papers with the high court last month seeking a judicial review of the government's recent emergency budget.

Under equality laws, the government should have assessed whether its budget proposals would increase or reduce inequality between women and men. Despite repeated requests, the Treasury has not provided any evidence that any such an assessment took place.

It emerged last month that Theresa May, the home secretary and equalities minister, had warned the chancellor that cuts in the budget could widen inequality in Britain and ran a "real risk" of breaking the law.

The letter was sent to Osborne on 9 June, less than a fortnight before his emergency budget, and was copied to the prime minister.

Last month Mark Hoban, the Treasury minister, stonewalled questions on BBC Radio 4's Today programme about whether the government had carried out a statutory assessment of the impact of the budget on women, ethnic minorities, disabled people and the elderly.

Livingstone claimed Boris Johnson, who succeeded him as mayor in 2008, has made his own attacks on equality, citing as one example a reduction in the number of women in senior positions at the Greater London authority.

A spokesman for the mayor hit back. "London is now greener, cleaner and safer than when Boris took up the tenure as mayor and he is tirelessly fighting to protect London's financial settlement and crucial transport infrastructure during the worst recession since World War II.

"We now have the lowest murder rate in the capital since 1978 and this year's Annual London Survey tells us that people feel happier and safer with 83% of Londoners satisfied with their city as a place to live which is the highest level recorded under any mayor."

Livingstone's rival in Labour's mayoral selection, Oona King, will unveil her policy on women's equality at an event in Westminster tomorrow evening.

This will include appointing an equalities adviser to work across the GLA, a kite mark for businesses that carry out equal pay audits and a drive to reduce prostitution and sex trafficking in the runup to the Olympics.

King, a former MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, said: "There's a mountain of evidence to show that men and women don't have the same life chances. This problem is worse in London than anywhere in the country, and will worsen further as the Tory cuts start to bite.

"I'm the best candidate to be mayor because I have a track record of delivering for women – my first legislation helped low-paid women, and increased workplace equalities.

"We have to make London's streets and transport safer for women, help pull women and their children out of poverty, improve jobs training, and get more women into jobs as representatives. Boris isn't interested in this."

The results of the mayoral selection will be announced just ahead of the Labour party conference later this month.

Hélène Mulholland

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Energy secretary Chris Huhne warned not to cut subsidies for green electricity

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:36:52 GMT 2010-09-02T18:18:21Z -

Reducing funding for household generation of renewable energy will jeopardise job creation and energy security, Huhne is told

A coalition of green, countryside and housing groups has warned energy secretary Chris Huhne not to cut subsidies for green electricity and heating as part of the government's spending review. The 22 groups, including green energy trade body the Renewable Energy Association, the National Farmers Union and the Federation of Master Builders, said in a letter to Huhne that cutting schemes that subsidise household generation of renewable energy would jeopardise job creation, energy security and greenhouse gas targets.

The move was sparked by comments from the Department of Energy and Climate Change's minister of state, Charles Hendry, who recently said he was "closely reviewing" the £27bn renewable heat incentive (RHI) scheme due to start in April next year to encourage the take-up of green heating devices such as heat pumps, and the £8bn feed-in tariff (FIT) launched in April which pays small-scale generators of green electricity.

"We inherited a situation where we could see who was going to benefit commercially but we couldn't really see how it was going to be paid for and that it would create pretty substantial bills," Hendry told the Telegraph in an article that suggested both schemes could be "slashed". Justine Greening, economic secretary to the Treasury, also recently attended a launch of a report by the right-leaning Policy Exchange thinktank that was highly critical of the FIT and the RHI. "...We will focus on the most cost-effective approaches [to tackle climate change]," said Greening at the event. "In fact, the more you care about climate change, the more value for money counts. We have to make sure every penny saves the maximum emissions possible. And we will put a stop to the last government's obsession with equating high levels of expensive inputs with high impact."

The rate paid for the feed-in tariff is currently due to be reviewed in 2012 and its introduction has caused a solar gold rush in the UK as a record number householders and business installing solar photovoltaic panels to earn the tariff. But the groups behind today's letter are worried such language from senior government figures indicate the FIT and the RHI could be victims of the comprehensive spending review, the results of which are due to be published on 20 October.

"As you know, heat is responsible for 47% of UK emissions and 49% of UK energy demand, so no government serious about climate change or energy security can ignore half the problem," wrote the signatories, including Howard Johns of the Solar Trade Association, William Worsley of the Country Land and Business Association and David Caro of the Federation of Small Businesses. The letter continues: "Costs come down when the industry can plan and invest with confidence, and economies of scale are achieved – that is one of the simple aims of these policy mechanisms."

Ed Miliband, shadow energy secretary and Labour leadership candidate, also warned today of cutting the schemes. "This government promised to be the greenest ever but it is already betraying this promise," he said. " Unless we go ahead with the feed-in tariff and renewable heat incentive as planned, we will never achieve the greening of our energy supplies that we need. Instead of creating uncertainty and delay, the government should reaffirm the commitments made by the previous Labour government."

A spokeswoman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change said accusations that the RHI was going to be "slashed" were speculation. "The government is doing what people would expect any responsible government to do, especially in the current economic climate," she said. "That is looking across all our policies and inherited spend, which includes the not insubstantial costs associated with the proposed renewable heat incentive and the feed-in tariff scheme, to ensure that what is being spent is being spent in the best and most efficient way." Climate minister Greg Barker recently also wrote that feed-in tariffs were "at the heart of our efforts to 'green' Britain".

Labour MP and sustainability adviser for Friends of the Earth, Alan Simpson, said that mixed messages from government would scare off investors: "You have government scaring the living daylights out of local authorities and businesses, but also the investment community who look at long-term signals. So you risk all investment decisions being put on hold, because different ministers are saying 'maybe we will, maybe we won't' – it sends completely the wrong messages."

In a separate development today, M&S became the latest household name to offer solar panels to consumers. Following British Gas's launch of solar photovoltaic products last week, the high street retailer said it had partnered with Scottish and Southern Energy to offer solar photovoltaic panels and solar thermal systems.

Adam Vaughan

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Manchester community reacts with anger as police cleared of violence

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:26:47 GMT 2010-09-02T16:26:47Z -

• Internal inquiry dismisses 18 complaints of undue violence
• Force faces civil action over 2008 street clash

Community groups in a formerly troubled area of Manchester have warned of serious damage to relations with the local police after an investigation cleared officers of undue violence at a street fracas.

But while 18 complaints against officers were dismissed by an internal inquiry supervised by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), the force will still face a civil action from a peace campaigner who witnessed the trouble outside Bridgewater Hall in Manchester in May 2008.

Raymond Bell, whose wife Erinma was described as a "national hero" by Gordon Brown for her work against gang violence, said: "We've waited for justice all this time, and now they are saying that it never happened."

The police said that the inquiry had been bedevilled by a lack of co-operation, because most complainants had refused to speak directly to the force's investigators.

A former chair of the Greater Manchester police authority said today that the delayed and inconclusive findings of the investigation's report, which cited a lack of clear evidence and directly contradictory accounts, "make it feel as though we have gone back 20 years".

The inquiry was conducted by the GMP's internal investigation department, managed at arm's length by the IPCC, following anger at the incident and six arrests.

Police became involved after a report of shots being fired from a car which was then traced to the Bridgewater Hall, as families were leaving a children's talent contest. Officers searching the car were surrounded by large numbers of people and called for back-up.

Accounts then differ completely, with 18 complaints about alleged over-reaction by officers, while police involved denied any abuse. The report admits that it has proved impossible to decide who was telling the truth, with CCTV and other film and photographic evidence lacking or of poor quality.

Naseem Malik, an IPCC commissioner, said: "We cannot absolve individual officers in relation to allegations of using excessive force, nor can we absolve audience members from claims they used violence and deliberate resistance against the officers.

"The simple fact is any independent evidence is of such poor quality that a definitive conclusion cannot be reached. Many of the incidents revolve around the word of an officer against the word of a complainant."

The report also accepts the damage caused by the incident and "unacceptable" delays over whether to prosecute those arrested – charges were eventually dropped – and in the providing of evidence by complainants.

Gabrielle Cox, a former Moss Side councillor and chair of the police authority in the 1980s, said: "It feels like we have gone back 20 years. The Bridgewater Hall incident undermined years of work to improve relationships between the police and the community in Moss Side.

"The report will do nothing to repair those relationships, and is likely to compound the sense of frustration and powerlessness felt by the community. The finding of 'insufficient evidence' seems to damn every enquiry into inappropriate police actions. The system of the police investigating themselves, even if under IPCC management, remains a key barrier to community confidence."

Detective Superintendent Mike Freeman, of GMP's professional standards branch, said: "Our investigation found that the policing operation surrounding this event was very carefully planned to enable it to go ahead peacefully. The problems arose when a member of the public reported that shots had been fired from a car and officers responded to search the car. This attracted a lot of attention from people leaving the event and a number of people complained about the police response."During the course of the investigation the majority of complainants have not been prepared to speak directly to us, causing significant delays and affecting our ability to gather evidence. After investigating all of the information available to us, we have not been able to substantiate any of the complaints."

Martin Wainwright

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France News

FRANCE: Socialist leader accused of hypocrisy over Roma expulsions

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 10:19:43 +0000 - French Socialist leader Martine Aubry, a vocal critic of the government’s policy of closing traveller camps and "repatriating", non-French inhabitants, faces accusations of hypocrisy after ordering camps closed in Lille, where she is mayor.

FRANCE: Friendly fire in Afghanistan injured French soldiers, says inquiry

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 06:51:35 +0000 - France's Defence Ministry said on Wednesday that three French soldiers injured last month in an operation in Afghanistan had in fact been hit by friendly fire, due to "a series of misunderstandings".

FRANCE: Police search home of L'Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 10:42:15 +0000 - French police have searched the home of France's richest woman, the billionaire L'Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, over ongoing allegations a Parisian society photographer took advantage of her to get written into her will.

MEDIA: 'Prison Valley' triumphs at 2010 Web Documentary Award

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 07:31:57 +0000 - The second FRANCE24-Radio France International Web Documentary Award has been won by “Prison Valley”, a powerful production created by French journalists David Dufresne and Philippe Brault.

IRAN: Govt slams media for calling France's first lady a 'prostitute'

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 08:51:45 +0000 - Iran's foreign ministry on Tuesday criticised an Iranian hardline media outlet for calling French first lady Carla Bruni a "prostitute" after she expressed support for an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning.

DIPLOMACY: France, Egypt want Med Union summit to underpin Mideast talks

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 15:13:42 +0000 - The presidents of France and Egypt met on Monday in Paris to discuss how a planned November summit of the Mediterranean Union could contribute to a Middle East peace accord after the resumption of direct Israeli – Palestinian talks.

FRANCE: New probe into minister’s role in Bettencourt scandal

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 15:23:23 +0000 - A French prosecutor has launched a new inquiry into Labour Minister Eric Woerth's role in the tax affairs of a L'Oreal heiress and allegations that he was treated with favouritism in a land deal. Woerth was cleared in the L'Oreal affair in July.

FRANCE: France to tackle student housing crisis with… shipping containers

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 20:42:54 +0000 - Taking inspiration from their Dutch neighbours, French officials have inaugurated 99 refashioned shipping containers in a novel approach to solving the chronic lack of housing for university students.

FRANCE: Socialists wrap up summer conference with stinging attack on Sarkozy

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 17:05:54 +0000 - After years of bitter squabbling and three successive defeats in presidential elections, French Socialists wrapped up their summer conference with a united front and a defiant challenge to President Nicolas Sarkozy.

AUSTRALIA: French “Spiderman” arrested in Sydney after scaling tower

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 11:26:04 +0000 - Famed stuntman Alain Robert climbed his way up another giant skyscraper on Monday. But unlike the fictional Spiderman who expertly evades the police, law enforcement was waiting for Robert at the top and took him in to custody.

25 dead in Mexico military clash with gang members: reports

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:06:09 +0000 -

A clash between soldiers and gang members near Mexico's northern city of Monterrey left 25 dead, local media reported Thursday.

The soldiers had stormed a training camp set up by suspected drug gang members in a northern border region which has seen an escalation of violence in recent months, including the massacre of 72 migrants last week, reports said.

The shootout occurred in the town of General Tervino, in Nuevo Leon state.

It was unclear if there were military victims among 25 killed, a Defense Ministry spokesman told the online edition of El Universal daily.

S.Korean economy grew revised 1.4 pct in Q2: central bank

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 23:46:03 +0000 -

South Korea's economy grew 1.4 percent in the second quarter from three months earlier, slightly less than earlier predicted due to weaker construction investment, the central bank said Friday.

The Bank of Korea revised its gross domestic product figure for April-June from an earlier prediction of a 1.5 percent quarter-on-quarter expansion.

It said Asia's fourth-largest economy grew 7.2 percent last quarter compared to a year earlier, a figure unchanged from the numbers issued in late July.

Beckham targets September 11 return

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 23:46:30 +0000 -

David Beckham, sidelined since March with a torn achilles tendon, is hoping to take the field for the Los Angeles Galaxy against Columbus Crew on September 11.

"The doctors? original date was October 1, but I always kind of said I want to be ready before then," Beckham said in an article posted on the Major League Soccer team's website.

"I?ll keep my fingers crossed and hopefully will play in part of the game here against Columbus. I?ll be on the bench, and hopefully I?ll get on the field for 15-20 minutes. That?s what I?m looking at."

Zeta-Jones 'furious' at late cancer diagnosis for Douglas

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 23:06:19 +0000 -

Actress Catherine Zeta-Jones is "furious" that doctors failed to diagnose her Hollywood veteran husband Michael Douglas's throat cancer earlier, she said in an interview published Thursday.

But Douglas himself, who this week revealed that his cancer was more advanced than previously thought, vowed to overcome the disease, telling People magazine: "I'll beat this."

Douglas, 65, only recently revealed his diagnosis when he returned to the United States from a family holiday. This week he said it was a stage four cancer, but that he had an 80 percent chance of beating it.

Olympic skating champ Lysacek to take a break

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 23:06:25 +0000 -

Olympic gold medallist Evan Lysacek said Thursday he won't compete for the rest of 2010, taking a break from figure skating to focus on other interests.

"The next few months will be very busy for me," Lysacek said. "I will be working with sponsors and charities, including Ronald McDonald House and Ralph Lauren?s Pink Pony Foundation."

The move means Lysacek won't compete in the upcoming Grand Prix season, although he hasn't ruled out the US championships January 22-30 in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Forex

Jamie's Trading Video: 09/02

Thu Sep 02 21:11:00 GMT 2010 Thu Sep 02 21:11:00 GMT 2010 -

Currency Markets Shift Focus to the U.S. Nonfarm Payrolls Report for August

Thu Sep 02 20:59:00 GMT 2010 Thu Sep 02 20:59:00 GMT 2010 -

The spotlight this week will be placed on the U.S. Nonfarm payrolls report for the month of August. Economists are expecting the labor market in the world’s largest economy to plunge 103,000 after payrolls took a free fall of 131,000 in July. With waning fiscal stimulus likely to impede the recovery in the U.S. in conjunction with tight credit conditions, and an uncertain economic outlook, a disappointing NFP report should not be ruled out. In turn, figures less than expected may lead traders to seek safety, which will lead to gains in the greenback and validate further EUR/USD losses. Market participants should not rule out whipsaw price action ahead of the report or a less than usual reaction to the release as some traders are offline going into the holiday weekend.

NFPs Curbs Volatility, May Struggle to Inflate Activity Before Holiday Liqudity Drain

Thu Sep 02 20:12:00 GMT 2010 Thu Sep 02 20:12:00 GMT 2010 -

Oil and Gold Advance in Tandem as Speculative Volatility Recedes Pre-NFP

Thu Sep 02 20:01:00 GMT 2010 Thu Sep 02 20:01:00 GMT 2010 -

It is a common phenomenon for the capital markets. With the approach of heavy event risk like US nonfarm payrolls, speculative liquidity sources will temper their turnover to avoid being caught on the wrong side of a fast moving market.

Forex Strategy Corner: Bollinger Bands Techniques for Trading

Thu Sep 02 20:00:00 GMT 2010 Thu Sep 02 20:00:00 GMT 2010 -

Bollinger Bands have long been one of the most popular technical indicators across financial markets, and many forex traders use them regularly in their day-to-day trading. The key question to ask of any forex analysis technique is nonetheless clear: how effective is the Bollinger Bands indicator as a forex strategy? This article will take a closer look at one key Bollinger Band trading strategy on several forex pairs and explores one way to improve its effectiveness.

Trading Styles

Thu Sep 02 19:35:00 GMT 2010 Thu Sep 02 19:35:00 GMT 2010 -

Student's QuestionI read all the time about "aggressive" in contrast to "conservative" traders. I simply have no idea what I should be! Could you maybe comment on contrasts between these two "types of traders". How should I behave? What brings more profit or what preconditions or situations should I look at to know if I should act aggressive or conservative?

EUR/USD: Trading the Change in U.S. Non-Farm Payrolls

Thu Sep 02 18:35:00 GMT 2010 Thu Sep 02 18:35:00 GMT 2010 -

The U.S. dollar could face increased selling pressures over the next 24 hours of trading as market participants anticipate the labor market to weaken for the third consecutive month in August, and the data is likely to reinforce a dour outlook for the world’s largest economy as private sector spending remains one of the leading drivers of growth.

US Dollar Forex Options Sentiment Points to Pullbacks

Thu Sep 02 16:56:00 GMT 2010 Thu Sep 02 16:56:00 GMT 2010 -

Sharp US Dollar declines have been met with similarly noteworthy shifts in FX Options market sentiment, thwarting calls for USD rallies through short-term trade. In past weeks we wrote plainly in favor of Dollar strength on the combination of overextended futures positioning and sharp correction in FX Options risk reversals. Yet more recently we have seen pullbacks in both and have little option but to shift our short-term bias.

The FX Market has now Entered the Pull of Friday NFPs

Thu Sep 02 16:43:00 GMT 2010 Thu Sep 02 16:43:00 GMT 2010 -

Canadian Dollar May Appreciate Against USD