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Archbishop Desmond Tutu has accused the Anglican church of allowing its "obsession" with homosexuality to come before real action on world poverty.

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"God is weeping" to see such a focus on sexuality and the Church is "quite rightly" seen by many as irrelevant on the issue of poverty, he said.

It may be good to "accept that we agree to differ" on the gay issue, he said.

Archbishop Tutu was addressing a conference of church leaders organised by the Christian charity Tearfund.

The Church says its work on poverty tends to be overlooked.

The Bishop of Ripon and Leeds, John Packer, said that apart from the government, the Church of England was the biggest provider of social services at home.

The Anglican Communion was also a major contributor to international projects such as Make Poverty History and the Millennium Development Goals, he said.

More than 600 Anglicans marched through London in July to draw attention to the increasing danger that the goals - which include eradicating extreme poverty by 2015 - will not be met.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown told them that millions of people owed the Anglican Communion a debt of gratitude for upholding the cause of the poor.

'Totally irrelevant'

Archbishop Tutu told the conference in London that the Anglican Church was ideally placed to tackle poverty because of its presence at the heart of communities in the UK and overseas.

However, he said he sometimes felt ashamed of his fellow Anglicans as they focussed obsessively on trying to resolve their disagreement about homosexuality while 30,000 people died each day because of poverty.

"We really will not be able to win wars against so-called terror as long as there are conditions that make people desperate, and poverty, disease and ignorance are amongst the chief culprits," he said.

"We seem to be engaging in this kind of, almost, past-time [while] there's poverty, hunger, disease, corruption.

"I must imagine that God is weeping, and the world quite rightly should dismiss the Church in those cases as being totally irrelevant."

Archbishop Tutu accused some of his fellow Anglicans of going against the teaching of Jesus in their treatment of homosexual people by "persecuting the already persecuted".

The South African Nobel peace laureate said traditionalists were wrong to suggest that gay people had chosen homosexuality and the dispute had to be kept in proportion.

"It will be good for us obviously, to resolve our differences on this, and maybe accept that we agree to differ," he said.

For the Anglican Communion, that is more easily said than done.

Traditionalists suspect that the call for an end to discussions about homosexuality is designed to allow liberal developments to go unchallenged.

Others, including Bishop John Packer, insist that the Church must have a sexual ethic - a sense of what is right and wrong in sexual behaviour.

Most agree that only by staying united will it continue to exercise real influence on the world stage.


BBC News

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Rescuers in Cairo are continuing their search for survivors after a rockslide crushed dozens of houses in Egypt's capital, killing at least 31 people.

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Dozens of houses in a shanty town in the eastern Duwayqa area were hit by huge boulders and rocks on Saturday.

At least 40 people were injured and dozens are said to be still trapped in the rubble.

A six-storey building below the Muqattam hills had been completely reduced to rubble, residents said.

It was not clear what had triggered the rockfall but local residents were blaming construction work on the hill for causing the disaster.

'Horror'

At least eight boulders - each estimated to weigh about 70 tonnes - fell from the towering cliffs overlooking the district at about 0900 local time (0700 GMT), reports said.

"The power went out, we heard a loud bang like an earthquake and I thought this house had collapsed. I went out, I saw the whole mountain had collapsed," said Hassan Ibrahim Hassan, 80, whose house escaped the destruction.

"It was horror," he said.

Witnesses described seeing hundreds of distraught people gathered around the site of the destruction, saying they had relatives and friends trapped under the rubble.

Some were scrabbling at the rocks with their bare hands.

Rescue teams were forced to wait for the arrival of cranes and heavy lifting equipment to allow them to move the huge rocks, but as night fell the help had not arrived.

A BBC correspondent says there have been previous landslides in the area.


BBC News

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Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has challenged President Robert Mugabe to hold a new election if he is not prepared to share his powers.

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Mr Tsvangirai said he would withdraw from power-sharing talks if a satisfactory deal could not be reached.

Mr Mugabe has said he will form a government without the MDC if they do not agree to a power-sharing deal being mediated by South Africa's president.

Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai both say they won elections earlier this year.

"The issue that we are facing here is that Mugabe must accept to surrender some of his powers for the power-sharing arrangement to work," Mr Tsvangirai told a Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) rally in Gweru, in central Zimbabwe.

Talks deadlocked

At talks mediated by South Africa, the two rivals have agreed that Mr Tsvangirai would be named prime minister while Mr Mugabe remained president, but they cannot agree on how to share powers.

The MDC wants Mr Mugabe to become a ceremonial president, while the ruling Zanu-PF party insists he retain control of the security forces and the powers to appoint and dismiss ministers.

"We would rather have no deal than a bad deal," Mr Tsvangirai said.

He also said he would not bow to pressure from South African President Thabo Mbeki, who has been acting as a mediator in the crisis.

Mr Mbeki is due to return to Zimbabwe's capital Harare on Monday to continue the search for a solution to the political impasse.

The MDC leader gained more votes than Mr Mugabe in March elections but official results show he did not pass the 50% threshold for outright victory.

Mr Tsvangirai pulled out of the June run-off, saying 200 of his supporters had been killed and 200,000 forced from their homes in a campaign of violence led by the army and supporters of the ruling Zanu-PF.

Zanu-PF has denied the claims and accused the MDC of both exaggerating the scale of the violence and being responsible for it.

Mr Mugabe said on Thursday that the opposition MDC had one week to agree a power-sharing deal, or he will form his own government.


BBC News

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Angola's ruling MPLA party is heading for a landslide victory in the country's first parliamentary elections in 16 years, preliminary results show.

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With around half of the votes counted, the MPLA had received 81% of the vote, the electoral commission said.

It said the main opposition party, Unita, had polled 10%.

Unita is demanding a re-run in Luanda, saying the voting in the capital was chaotic. An African observer mission said the elections had been credible.

This poll is seen as a vital step in the oil-rich country's recovery from decades of civil war.

Fourteen parties took part in the elections. Full results are not expected for up to 10 days.

'Bad losers'

Polling was extended after chaos on Friday prevented many people in Luanda province from casting their vote.

Some polling stations opened late and others quickly ran out of ballot papers.

Unita (the Union for the Total Independence of Angola) is now challenging the legality of the poll in the constitutional court.

The party's leader, Isaias Samakuva, said the system in Luanda had collapsed.

Ngola Kabangu, who heads the opposition FNLA party, said the election was extremely flawed.

The MPLA (the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola) has branded Unita "bad losers" and is already claiming victory, the BBC's Louise Redvers in Luanda says.

Population shifts in some provinces due to the long-running civil war have added to Unita's woes, with the MPLA winning majorities in traditionally strong opposition areas, our correspondent says.

Observers from the regional grouping, Southern African Development Community (Sadc), said the vote had been "transparent and credible".

"The Sadc mission congratulates the people of Angola on peaceful, free, transparent and credible elections which reflect the will of the people," John Kunene of the observer mission told the AFP news agency.

Luisa Morgantini, head of the EU observer mission in Angola, blamed "woeful organisation" for the problems and said that a failure to provide voter registration lists at polling stations was a violation of the country's electoral laws.

She added that some election officials had failed to show up at some polling stations, and that there was a shortage of the ink used to mark voters' fingers and prevent multiple voting.

In the lead up to the election, Unita accused the MPLA of intimidating its supporters and dominating state media.

Some eight million voters are registered in the country - more than a quarter of whom live in the capital's overcrowded conditions.

The MPLA has ruled Angola since the country gained independence from Portugal in 1975.


BBC News

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Two explosions have rocked a police station in Afghanistan's southern city of Kandahar, killing at least two policemen, officials say.

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They say about 30 people - including civilians - were injured when two suicide bombers detonated their bombs in quick succession inside the station.

US-led and Afghan forces have been battling Taleban insurgents in the region in recent weeks.

In June, at least 350 rebels were freed during a jailbreak from Kandahar jail.

'General targeted'

"There were two suicide bombers who blew themselves up inside the police headquarters one after another," Ahmad Wali Karzai, head of Kandahar's provincial council, was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.

The bombers targeted a senior border police commander, General Abdul Razaaq, who was injured in the attacks, reports say.

Earlier reports said at least six people had been killed in the blasts.

Police sealed off the area shortly after the explosions.

Kandahar is one of the key battlegrounds of the current rebel insurgency against the Afghan government and troops from Nato and a US-led coalition.

In a separate development, a suicide bomber attacked a Nato convoy in the western city of Herat but caused no casualties, officials say.

The US-led coalition said its forces had killed more than 10 insurgents in an operation in the eastern province of Khost on Saturday.

Afghanistan has seen rising levels of violence in recent months.

There are about 70,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, most of them serving under Nato's command.


BBC News

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The US presidential rivals have begun campaigning in earnest, as a new opinion poll put Republican John McCain ahead of Democrat Barack Obama.

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Fresh from being nominated at their party conventions, the two men are now gearing up for the 4 November poll.

A USA Today-Gallup poll put Mr McCain ahead for the first time in months.

Candidates often see a bounce in the polls after the conventions but Mr McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as running mate is being seen as key.

Mr McCain has tried to strike a balance between distancing himself from an unpopular presidency and rallying the party's conservative base.

Mrs Palin wowed the Republican convention crowd with her speech, helping to re-energise his campaign.

Major test

Mr McCain said that "the electricity has been incredible" at rallies ever since he invited the Alaskan governor to join his ticket.

"She has excited people all over the country. I would love to say it was all because of the charisma of John McCain, but it is not," he told CBS on Sunday.

Mrs Palin will face a major test this week when she gives her first nationally televised interview, following intense media scrutiny over her personal life and credentials for the ticket.

The USA Today-Gallup poll, which was released on Sunday, showed Mr McCain leading Mr Obama by four percentage points, 50 to 46.

A USA Today poll taken before the Republican convention showed Mr McCain trailing Mr Obama by seven points.

The latest poll had a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.

The results of a Reuters/Zogby poll, also released over the weekend, gave Mr McCain the edge, with 50 percentage points to 46.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll showed John McCain with a one-point lead.

Mr McCain and Mrs Palin are scheduled to be in Missouri on Monday.

Mr Obama is campaigning in the crucial swing state of Michigan. His vice-president, Joe Biden, was appearing in Wisconsin and Iowa, while Hillary Clinton is on the campaign trail in Florida.

Despite the frenetic pace of the presidential race, the candidates will stop campaigning on Thursday to appear together in New York on the anniversary of the 11 September 2001 attacks.

They said they would put aside politics to honour the memory of the nearly 3,000 people who died.


BBC News

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Jury selection has begun at a court in Las Vegas, Nevada, in the trial of the former US football star OJ Simpson.

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Mr Simpson was arrested last September for allegedly robbing at gunpoint two sports memorabilia dealers in a hotel.

He faces 12 charges including assault with a deadly weapon, kidnapping and burglary. If found guilty he could face life in prison.

Mr Simpson, 61, and his co-defendant, Clarence Stewart, 54, have pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Mr Simpson's legal team said he was trying to retrieve stolen memorabilia that belonged to him and have denied that any guns were involved.

Selection process

Arriving at the Clark County Regional Justice Center, Mr Simpson declined to answer reporters' questions, but smiled and waved when someone called out "Good luck!"

Prosecutors, defence lawyers and District Judge Jackie Glass have used questionnaires to identify jurors with biases and cut the pool from 500 to fewer than 250 candidates.

Selecting the 12-member panel and four alternatives could take a week or longer, court officials said.


BBC News

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South African President Thabo Mbeki has flown to Harare to revive Zimbabwe's deadlocked power-sharing talks.

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BBC Southern Africa correspondent Jonah Fisher says this may be the last chance for Mr Mbeki's mediation.

Both Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai claim to have won this year's elections, marred by widespread violence.

Since South Africa-brokered crisis talks broke down last month, both sides have hardened their positions.

Mr Mugabe has said he is ready to form a government alone, while Mr Tsvangirai over the weekend said there should be new elections if a deal is not reached.

South African Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said Mr Mbeki would meet both men, as well as Arthur Mutambara, the leader of a smaller opposition faction.

'Surrender powers'

Before talks broke down, the two rivals had agreed that Mr Tsvangirai would be named prime minister while Mr Mugabe remained president, but they could not agree on how to share powers.

The MDC wanted Mr Mugabe to become a ceremonial president, while the ruling Zanu-PF party insisted he retain control of the security forces and the powers to appoint and dismiss ministers.

"The issue that we are facing here is that Mugabe must accept to surrender some of his powers for the power-sharing arrangement to work," Mr Tsvangirai told a Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) rally in Gweru, in central Zimbabwe on Sunday.

"We would rather have no deal than a bad deal," Mr Tsvangirai said.

He also said he would not bow to pressure from Mr Mbeki, who has been acting as a mediator in the crisis.

Mr Mugabe said on Thursday that the opposition MDC had one week to agree a power-sharing deal, or he would form his own government.

He says he is tired of waiting for the opposition to sign a draft deal and he will push ahead alone if necessary.

Our correspondent says a new government dominated by Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF would continue to face all the same problems - shortages of food, fuel and hyperinflation.

Western countries have made it clear they will only lift sanctions and assist in reconstruction if the opposition is given real power.

The MDC leader gained more votes than Mr Mugabe in March elections but official results show he did not pass the 50% threshold for outright victory.

Mr Tsvangirai pulled out of the June run-off, saying some 200 of his supporters had been killed and 200,000 forced from their homes in a campaign of violence led by the army and supporters of the ruling Zanu-PF.

Zanu-PF has denied the claims and accused the MDC of both exaggerating the scale of the violence and being responsible for it.


BBC News

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Ukraine's territorial integrity is "non-negotiable", France's Nicolas Sarkozy has affirmed at the end of an EU summit with the country in Paris.

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Mr Sarkozy's reassurance comes after rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine over its Crimea region.

Ukraine has also been offered an association agreement with the EU, to be signed next year.

The accord represents cautious support for possible eventual EU membership for Ukraine.

"In the eyes of Europe, [territorial integrity] is absolutely non-negotiable," Mr Sarkozy said in a response to a question from reporters in Paris.

He underlined that the accord left the path for future membership of the 27-member state bloc open, saying: "This association accord does not close any avenues."

Patience

Ahead of the summit, Ukraine's president had sought a strong signal that the country belongs within Europe, diplomats said, to deter Moscow from intervening as it did in Georgia.

But the BBC's Emma-Jane Kirby, in Paris, said EU diplomats have been acutely aware of the risk of angering Russia by further strengthening ties between the former Soviet republic Ukraine and Europe.

"It is the maximum that we could do, and I believe that it is already an essential step," Mr Sarkozy said.

Mr Sarkozy emphasised that the accord was a recognised first step for countries with aspirations of EU membership.

Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko recognised the difficult timing of the summit and welcomed the association agreement as a successful outcome.

"We understand very well the conditions of this dialogue at present. This isn't the best time, given the situation in the region but we're patient," he said.

Fears have been raised that Ukraine, which has rocky relations with Russia, could find itself in a similar position to Georgia over South Ossetia.

Ukraine's Crimea region, like South Ossetia, is home to a significant Russian population. It also hosts a Russian naval base, which President Yushchenko has made clear he would rather not be there.

For the EU, Ukraine remains a key energy transit route and is seen as vital to the union's long-term security and energy strategy.

However some EU member states, including the Netherlands, Germany and Italy, have been reluctant to allow any explicit statement confirming Ukraine's future membership of the bloc.

The country is in the midst of political turmoil, following the collapse of its coalition government last week.

Mr Yushchenko threatened to dissolve parliament and call elections after his supporters walked out in protest at new laws to trim presidential powers.

The laws were introduced by the opposition and backed by his former ally Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's bloc, now his rival in the upcoming presidential elections.


BBC News

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French carmaker Renault has announced 6,000 job cuts, as it responds to an industry-wide slowdown in sales.

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Renault said that 4,900 positions would go in France, and 1,100 in other European countries, through voluntary redundancy measures.

French unions have reacted angrily to the news, with the CGT union calling for a one-day strike on Thursday.

The CGT also asked President Nicolas Sarkozy to intervene. The French government owns 15% of Renault.

Missed sales targets

Renault's move follows its announcement in July that while its half-year profits had risen 37%, it had fallen behind on its sales targets.

Some 1,000 jobs will go at Renault's Sandouville plant in western France, which makes the firm's large-sized, but weak-selling Laguna model.

Renault is also to freeze the hiring of new staff.

It said it now intended to sell more than three million vehicles this year compared with its original goal of 3.3 million.


BBC News

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Russia says it will keep 7,600 troops in Georgia's breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia after withdrawing from the rest of the country.

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On Monday, Russia agreed to withdraw its troops from positions within Georgia, taken up during the recent conflict, by mid-October.

The first troops were seen abandoning a checkpoint near Abkhazia, at the Black Sea town of Ganmukhuri, witnesses said.

But Russia says it will set up military bases in both disputed regions.

It also says it has established formal diplomatic ties with their administrations.

The move followed a decision - condemned by the US and EU but defined as "irrevocable" by Moscow - to recognise South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said troops were expected to remain in the two regions "for the foreseeable future".

"Russian troops will remain on the territory of South Ossetia and Abkhazia on request of their leaders in parliament," Mr Lavrov said from Moscow.

"They will be there a long time. This is absolutely necessary, so as not to allow a repeat of armed actions," he added.

Mr Lavrov said that both regions should also be able to participate in talks on Georgia scheduled for next month in Geneva with "fully fledged" places.

Russia is expected to sign formal agreements on troop deployment in South Ossetia and Abkhazia over the coming days.

International observers

Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said that some 3,800 men would be positioned in each breakaway region.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had already indicated that Moscow intended to maintain a military presence in the regions, but Mr Serdyukov's statement provides the first specific breakdown of troop numbers.

On Monday, Mr Medvedev pledged to withdraw troops from the rest of Georgia on condition that the EU would deploy at least 200 observers, along with 220 other international monitors to ensure the security of the two breakaway regions.

Under the deal, Russia will pull out within 10 days of the deployment of EU monitors.

Already on Tuesday, Russian troops and military vehicles rolled away from their positions at Ganmukhuri, a Black Sea town near the border with Abkhazia.

"It is the first sign of the Russian pull-out from the so-called buffer zones as a result of the 8 September agreement," a Georgian interior ministry spokesman said.

A defence ministry official in Moscow confirmed the move.

"In accordance with the agreements... the defence ministry has begun the dismantling of checkpoints in zones in South Ossetia and Abkhazia," he said, according to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.

Russian troops are present in both Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as well as in so-called buffer zones around these regions and near the strategic port city of Poti.

Fighting between Russia and Georgia began on 7 August after the Georgian military tried to retake the breakaway region of South Ossetia by force.

Russian forces launched a counter-attack and the conflict ended with the ejection of Georgian troops from both South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Also on Tuesday, South Ossetia's Prosecutor General Taimuraz Khugayev said that investigations had confirmed that more than 500 people had been killed during Georgia's attack last month, according to Russian news agency, Interfax.

Russia initially suggested more than 1,500 people had died in the conflict. Independent observers say they have been unable to confirm such high figures.


BBC News

[John]

Thankyou for the news.

[JohnCenaFan28]

The US has imposed sanctions on an Iranian shipping company and 18 of its affiliates over its alleged support for Tehran's nuclear programme.

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The Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) had provided logistical support for the Iranian defence ministry, the US treasury said.

IRISL's US-based assets would be frozen and its transactions banned, it said.

The US has already imposed a number of sanctions on Iran linked to its controversial nuclear programme.

Western nations accuse Iran of seeking to develop a nuclear weapon. But Tehran says its nuclear activities are aimed solely at peaceful energy development.

'Deceptive schemes'

The US treasury accused IRISL, a global operator, of shipping "military-related cargo" and lying about its activities.

"Not only does IRISL facilitate the transport of cargo for UN-designated proliferators, it also falsifies documents and uses deceptive schemes to shroud its involvement in illicit commerce," Stuart Levey, Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said in a statement.

"IRISL's actions are part of a broader pattern of deception and fabrication that Iran uses to advance its nuclear and missile programs," he said.

The move means that US citizens and companies will not be allowed to do business with IRISL and its affiliates. The companies' bank accounts will be frozen.

The UN has passed three rounds of sanctions against Iran aimed at curtailing its nuclear programme.

Last month, the European Union approved new measures against Tehran after it missed a deadline to respond to a proposal from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany to suspend uranium enrichment.


BBC News

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The US Democratic presidential candidate has denied claims of sexism after likening his rival's promise of change to putting "lipstick on a pig".

Barack Obama said Republican John McCain's outrage was "phoney", a diversion from debating real issues.

The controversy began on Tuesday after Mr Obama said his rival was advocating change while pursuing the politics of the current Bush administration.

Mr McCain's campaign accused him of smearing running mate Sarah Palin.

Mrs Palin joked last week that lipstick was all that separated a "hockey mom" and a pitbull.

'Made-up' controversy

Mr Obama made the remark during a rally in Virginia where he accused the McCain campaign of trying suddenly to adopt the promise of change - a platform he himself has been running on for months.

Drawing a link between the Republican senator for Arizona and President George W Bush, he suggested change would be impossible for Mr McCain to achieve.

"You can put lipstick on a pig. It's still a pig. You can wrap up an old fish in a piece of paper and call it change. It's still going to stink after eight years. We've had enough."

Mrs Palin, a self-described "hockey mom", made her joke about lipstick during a speech at the Republican National Convention last Wednesday.

Soon after Mr Obama's comments, McCain aides produced an election campaign ad referring to "sexism in American life", and accusing the Illinois senator of "smearing" Mrs Palin, governor of Alaska.

And there was speculation that Mr Obama might apologise, but he took a more aggressive line, says the BBC's Kevin Connolly in Washington.

He dismissed the "made-up controversy" on Wednesday - defending his remark as an "innocent expression".

Mr Obama said his comments had been taken out of context.

"The McCain campaign would much rather have the story about phoney and foolish diversions than about the future," the Illinois senator said.

Republicans may well try to keep the controversy going, although one difficulty for them is that John McCain has himself used the offending phrase, our Washington correspondent says.

Mr McCain had used the same analogy to criticise a health care plan presented by former Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton last year.

The row erupted as a new poll by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News suggested that Mr Obama and Mr McCain were in a statistical dead heat. Mr Obama held a lead of several points earlier this summer.

Another poll by CNN and the Opinion Research Foundation also put the rival candidates in a statistical tie, with Mr Obama polling 49% to Mr McCain's 48%.

The latest Gallup daily tracking poll of registered voters gave Mr McCain a lead of 49% to Mr Obama's 44%.


BBC News

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An association in China says that suicide is the leading cause of death among young people.

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The Chinese Association for Mental Health says young people aged between 15 and 34 are more likely to die at their own hand than by any other means.

The suicide rate is reported to be higher in the countryside than cities, with more women taking their own lives.

The report was published in advance of World Suicide Prevention Day, taking place on Wednesday.

In some countries the leading cause of death among young people is road accidents. In China, it is suicide.

Studies come up with a number of reasons for the higher rates of female suicide in rural areas.

In particular, doctors say that arguments about marriage cause rural women to commit suicide.

Books withdrawn

But the problem is not just in the countryside.

In the city of Shanghai, three students have tried to kill themselves since the school year began at the start of September.

Another student, a 12-year-old boy, died when he jumped from a sixth floor window.

So the authorities in Shanghai have told schools to send out mental health questionnaires to several thousand pupils to try to prevent anyone else from killing themselves.

In addition, local bookshops have taken a number of books with suicide-related themes off their shelves.

They include a popular comic book called "The Rabbit Which Wanted To Kill Itself".


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

Prosecutors are to seek a retrial of seven British men who were accused of a plot to blow up planes flying from the UK to North America with liquid bombs.

Three men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder but the jury was unable to decide whether they and four other men had planned to target planes.

The men had denied plotting to bring down planes from Heathrow with home-made bombs disguised as soft drinks.

The Crown Prosecution Service will put a retrial application before a court.

The CPS said the seven men should face a retrial on every count the jury, which was discharged on Monday, had failed to agree on.

Director of public prosecutions Sir Ken Macdonald QC said: "This will include a count that each defendant conspired to detonate improvised explosive devices on transatlantic passenger aircraft.

"We shall be returning to court to make this application in due course."

He added he had reached the decision after "careful consideration" with the head of his counter-terrorism division and counsel.

Making videos

The seven men are Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 27, Assad Sarwar, 28, Tanvir Hussain, 27, Ibrahim Savant, 27, Arafat Waheed Khan, 27, Waheed Zaman, 24, and Umar Islam, 30.

On Monday, after a five-month trial at London's Woolwich Crown Court, Ali, of Walthamstow, east London, Sarwar, of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, and Hussain, of Leyton, east London, were found guilty of conspiracy to murder. They have yet to be sentenced.

The jury was unable to reach a verdict on whether they and London residents Mr Savant, of Stoke Newington, Mr Islam, of Plaistow, and Mr Zaman and Mr Khan, both of Walthamstow, had conspired to detonate explosives on aircraft.

The jurors also failed to decide whether or not Mr Savant, Mr Islam, Mr Zaman and Mr Khan were guilty of conspiracy to murder, and those four men also face a possible retrial on that count.

All seven had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit public nuisance by making videos threatening bombings, but none of the men has yet been sentenced for that offence.

Political protest

Ali, Sarwar and Hussain told the jury they had wanted to create a political spectacle in protest at British foreign policy.

It would have included fake suicide videos and devices that would frighten, rather than kill, the public.

Prosecutors alleged the men had been planning to carry liquid explosives on to planes at Heathrow, knowing the devices would evade airport security checks.

However the court heard the explosives had never been fully constructed and tickets had neither been bought nor plans to travel made.

Sweeping airport restrictions on liquids in hand luggage were brought in following the men's arrests in August 2006.

An eighth defendant in the Woolwich Crown Court trial - Mohammad Gulzar, 27, of Barking, east London - was cleared of all charges.


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is believed to be recovering from a recent stroke, officials in South Korea say.

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Speaking after a late-night briefing, a South Korean spokesman said that the 66-year-old leader was not thought to be in a serious condition.

Speculation over Mr Kim's health mounted after he failed to appear at an important military parade on Tuesday.

A North Korean diplomat, however, has dismissed the reports of Mr Kim's ill health as "worthless".

Kim Jong-il has ruled the communist nation since his father, Kim Il-sung, died in 1994. He has not yet named a successor.

'No vacuum'

On Tuesday, Mr Kim missed a parade in Pyongyang to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the North Korea's foundation.

Late on Wednesday, intelligence officials told South Korean President Lee Myung-bak that Mr Kim was believed to be recuperating from an apparent stroke.

"At the meeting, Lee was given a report that the North Korean leader has passed a critical moment after suffering a stroke," Yonhap news agency quoted presidential spokesman Lee Dong-kwan as saying.

South Korean lawmakers earlier received a similar briefing at a closed session of parliament.

"Kim suffered either a stroke or a cerebral haemorrhage, but is recovering, the intelligence agency said," opposition lawmaker Won Hye-young told journalists. "Pyongyang is not in a state of administrative vacuum."

"Although Kim is not fit enough for outside activity, he is conscious and able to control affairs," Yonhap news agency quoted him as saying.

Lee Myung-bak has nonetheless told his Cabinet to be prepared for an abrupt change in North Korea's political situation, the agency said.

Mr Kim has not been seen in public since early last month. He has been known to disappear from public view for extended periods before, only to reappear later.

This time, however, the reports of ill health have been given added impetus by news that a team of Chinese doctors was recently summoned to examine him.

North Korea has rejected reports that Kim Jong-il is unwell. The North Korean diplomat in charge of relations with Japan, Song Il-ho, dismissed the claims as a "conspiracy plot".

The communist state's deputy leader, Kim Yong-nam, was later quoted, again by Kyodo, as saying there was "no problem".

Nuclear fears

Concerns about Mr Kim's health come amid an impasse in international efforts to urge North Korea to abandon its nuclear programme.

North Korea agreed in February 2007 to give up its nuclear ambitions in return for aid and diplomatic concessions, but the progress of the deal has been far from smooth.

After a long delay, Pyongyang handed over details of its nuclear facilities in June 2008. In return, it expected the US to remove it from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.

But the two sides cannot agree on a process to verify the information that North Korea handed over and Pyongyang now appears to be starting to reassemble its main nuclear plant.

Meanwhile the World Food Programme estimates that North Korea is suffering from a serious food shortage.

The North has relied on foreign assistance to help feed its 23 million people since its state-controlled economy collapsed in the mid-1990s.


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

Shares in troubled US bank Lehman Brothers have plunged again on concerns over the future of the bank.

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Lehman announced the biggest loss in its history on Wednesday and investors remain unconvinced by the bank's plans to strengthen its finances.

One analyst said the firm was "limping along" and "may or may not make it".

Lehman's shares fell 40% to $4.30 and have lost 76% since Monday. The value of other financial firms has also been affected by the nervousness.

Shares in mortgage lender Washington Mutual, for example, fell more than 20%.

"We thought that getting news out of Lehman was going to clear the dark cloud but it really doesn't," said Arthur Hogan, chief market analyst at Jeffries.

"It just leaves us with a company that's limping along, that may or may not make it," he added.

The company's shares are down more than 94% from their 52-week high of $67.73 in November 2007.

"As much as they try to... calm investors down, investors don't have yet the answers they need," said Rose Grant, managing director of Eastern Investment Advisors.

"There's a complete lack of faith, lack of confidence and lack of trust."

Lehman has lost billions of dollars through its badly judged bets on the growth of US sub-prime mortgages - a market that began to crumble last year.

The Wall Street bank said on Wednesday it made a loss of $3.9bn (£2.2bn) between June and August, taking its losses this year to $6.6bn.

To shore up its weak financial position, it has slashed its dividend and will sell a stake in its lucrative fund management arm.

It will also reduce its exposure to residential mortgages and spin off its commercial real estate business as part of the shake-up.

But investors were not convinced that Lehman would be able to pull off the deals and raise the money it needs to plug its losses.

"Finance is a confidence game," said Andrew Busch, analyst at BMO Capital Markets.

"Once it's gone, the critical function of being able to trade with other financial entities becomes difficult and expensive," he added.


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

President George W Bush has authorised US military raids against militants inside Pakistan without prior approval from Islamabad, the BBC has learned.

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An unnamed senior Pentagon official told the BBC the classified order had been made within the past two months.

On Wednesday, the US's top military commander said the US was shifting its strategy in Afghanistan to include raids across the border into Pakistan.

Pakistan has said it will not allow foreign forces onto its territory.

Meanwhile, security officials in Pakistan say they have killed up to 100 militants on the Afghan border. There is no confirmation.

The US say that Pakistan's north-west tribal areas are being used as "safe havens" by militants preparing attacks on Afghanistan.

But Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff, Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, said there was "no question of any agreement or understanding with the coalition forces whereby they are allowed to conduct operations on our side of the border".

'Common insurgency'

A senior Pentagon official told the BBC that Mr Bush gave his approval this summer for cross-border raids into Pakistan.

The order includes the use of conventional ground troops crossing the border into Pakistan to pursue militants there.

The BBC's Kim Ghattas in Washington says it is a sign of growing US frustration with Islamabad's lack of assertive action against the militants.

There is also an increasing concern about the threat such militants pose to Nato troops in neighbouring Afghanistan, and potentially to the US, says our correspondent.

The US has officially stressed the need for co-operation, and on Thursday, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen told Congress that the US must continue to work closely with Pakistan.

"In my view, these two nations are inextricably linked in a common insurgency that crosses the border between them," he said.

"We can hunt down and kill extremists as they cross over the border from Pakistan... but until we work more closely with the Pakistani government to eliminate the safe havens from which they operate, the enemy will only keep coming."

But, our correspondent says, the latest revelation will only add to the tensions between the two countries.


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

Junior school pupils in Tanzania experienced a mass fainting fit while taking their final year exams, an educational official has told the BBC.

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The 20 girls at Ali Hassan Mwinyi School in Tabora started fainting after finishing their first paper.

"I'm not a specialist but I imagine this was a case of mass hysteria that does happen in some of the schools," Midemo Paul Makungu said.

He said it only affected the girls, some of whom took 40 minutes to revive.

"There was chaos, crying, screaming, running after that first paper," Mr Makungu, Tabora's educational officer, told the BBC News website.

More than 140 Standard Seven pupils were taking the national exam at the school in the north of the country.

He said special arrangements were made so that those who had fainted could finish the other two papers they had that day.

"They eventually finished at 11pm," he said.

It is not the first such incident at the school - over the last month there have been several mass fainting fits amongst the girl pupils.

"Normally this happens in girls' secondary schools. It is very common here," Mr Makungu said.


BBC News

[John]

Thank You For The News Eel!

[JohnCenaFan28]

At least 25 people have been killed in a suicide car bombing in a town north of Baghdad, police say.

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The blast targeted a police station in the commercial district of the mainly Shia town of Dujail.

At least 40 others were injured in the explosion, which happened around 1800 (1500 GMT), police said.

The attack comes a day after the outgoing US troop commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, said recent security gains were "not irreversible".

Violence in Iraq has declined steadily in recent months and is currently at a four-year low. But attacks attributed to Sunni militants have continued in some areas north of Baghdad.

Three weeks ago, 25 people were killed in Jalawla when a suicide bomber targeted a police recruiting centre.

Saddam attack

According to police, the blast in Dujail took place just before dusk, when many people were on the streets.

A suicide bomber drove a vehicle filled with explosives at a police station, security officials said. A nearby medical clinic was also reportedly damaged.

The casualties included both civilians and police, reports said.

Dujail, some 40 km (25 miles) north of the Iraqi capital, was the site of an assassination attempt against former leader Saddam Hussein in 1982.

He was executed in December 2006 after a court found him guilty of ordering the deaths of more than 140 Shias in response to the attack.


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

Executives at Lehman Brothers are racing to meet a deadline of Sunday night to find a new owner for the troubled bank, the BBC has learned.

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The BBC's business editor Robert Peston says that Bank of America is the main candidate to buy Lehman but Barclays may also play a role in the rescue.

Bankers close to Lehman warned that failure to conclude a deal by then would be devastating for firm.

Investors sent Lehman shares tumbling again in New York trading.

"If a solution isn't found by the time Asia opens for business on Monday, well the consequences would be disastrous," a senior banker told the BBC.

Our correspondent says that the US Treasury is working assiduously behind the scenes to facilitate a takeover of the bank.

He says that Barclays is taking part in the negotiations to buy all or part of Lehman but a US solution, led by Bank of America, is still the most likely outcome.

Lehman's fund management business, which is in relatively good shape, may be sold separately, he adds.

Losses mount

Lehman announced the biggest loss in its history on Wednesday and investors remain unconvinced by the bank's plans to strengthen its finances.

Lehman shares fell 12% to $3.71 in trade in New York after falling around 40% on Thursday.

The company has lost 80% of its market value since Monday. Six months ago the stock was trading at $48.65.

The Financial Times reported that Bank of America is considering a joint bid for Lehman with with private equity firm JC Flowers and China Investment Co, the Chinese sovereign wealth fund.

Concerns over the fate of Lehman follow the bail-out on Sunday of mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. The lenders were thrown into financial difficulty after the collapse of the US sub-prime mortgage market.

Our correspondent says that Wall Street has lost confidence in Lehman's capacity to survive as an independent entity.

But he questions whether any company would take the plunge and take over Lehman without some government support.

"The US Treasury may... have to provide some backstop underwriting for Lehman, so that an orderly resolution of Lehman's woes can be achieved," our correspondent says.

"When confidence in a bank erodes, it ebbs at first and then is gone in a great whoosh. Lehman will be lucky to end the day as independent bank."

White House spokesman Tony Fratto said the US Treasury "is closely monitoring the markets and they stay in contact with market participants"


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

A body found in a Tel Aviv river is that of missing four-year-old Rose Pizem, Israeli police have confirmed.

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Flowers, candles and messages have already been placed on the site near where the tiny body was discovered in a suitcase by police on Thursday.

The hunt for Rose has been widely publicised across Israel.

Her grandfather, Ronny Ron, initially confessed that he had killed her, but later withdrew the statement, saying he had been coerced into making it.

Two divers retrieved a red suitcase that fitted the description given by the French-born girl's Israeli grandfather from the Yarkon river on Thursday.

Inside, police found human remains.

The remains were sent for identification, and on Friday police confirmed that they were those of the missing girl.

"Final confirmation of the DNA tests show that the body is that of Rose," said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.

"Samples were taken from both the mother and the father," he said.

Touching tributes

Near the scene of the discovery on Friday, touching tributes were being left to Rose.

One message, in what appeared to be a child's handwriting, said in French: "Rose, I love you, I miss you. God Bless you".

Nearby, flowers, chocolates and small dolls were laid out in memory of the girl.

Rose had been missing since May.

Ronny Ron, a 45-year-old taxi driver, lived near Tel Aviv with Rose's French-born mother Marie-Charlotte Renaud, 23.

Ms Renaud had previously been married to Mr Ron's son Benjamin Pizem, who is Rose's father.

Ms Renaud and her husband had travelled to Israel when Rose was very young in search of the father Mr Pizem had never met.

However, Ms Renaud and Mr Ron became lovers and she decided to stay in Israel with Mr Ron. Mr Pizem took Rose back to France.

A long custody battle ended with Rose moving to live with her mother and grandfather in Israel in 2007.

On Tuesday, a Tel Aviv court remanded Mr Ron and Ms Renaud in custody for 10 days.

Israeli media has published an emotional message, written by Ms Renaud and delivered by her lawyer, to be placed on her daughter's grave.

"I'm sorry, so sorry I couldn't understand you, understand your suffering. Sorry I couldn't hug you and tell you how much I love you," the message said.

"I'm sorry I couldn't show you the past few months how much I love you. You went away from me, you're my daughter, my child. You must know now how sorry I am and how much I love you."

Rose's maternal grandmother, Betty Sghaier, says she wants the little girl's remains to be flown to France.

"I want her body to be repatriated - she has no reason to be out there," she told AFP news agency.


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

Thailand's ruling party has abandoned its attempt to get embattled leader Samak Sundaravej reappointed as prime minister.

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The People Power Party (PPP) had initially backed Mr Samak, who was stripped of office earlier this week.

But it became clear that coalition partners and some PPP lawmakers opposed the decision, and a planned vote to re-elect him could not go ahead.

The move could pave the way for an end to Thailand's political crisis.

Protesters have been demanding Mr Samak step down for weeks. They say he is a puppet for Thaksin Shinawatra, the former prime minister who the military accused of corruption and ousted in 2006.

Mr Samak had vowed not to bow to the protesters' demands, but was eventually forced out earlier this week over an appearance in a TV cookery show that a court said breached the constitution.

'Done his best'

The PPP initially said it would renominate him as prime minister, but early on Friday the vote to re-elect him had to be abandoned because too few MPs turned up.

It became apparent that partners in the ruling coalition and some members of his own party opposed his nomination.

A spokesman later confirmed that Mr Samak was no longer trying to win back his job.

"Prime Minister Samak asked me to deliver the message that he has done his best as the party leader to preserve democracy," his personal secretary Theeraphol Noprampha told journalists.

"Now his role has come to an end, and everything is now up to the party," he said.

Parliament is now scheduled to vote on a new prime minister on Wednesday.

So far no clear front-runner has emerged and the protesters, who are occupying government buildings in Bangkok, say they will not accept another leader perceived as close to Mr Thaksin.

But the choice of a compromise candidate could persuade the demonstrators to abandon the protests that have paralysed the government and driven tourists away, analysts say.

The PPP is expected to hold talks with the five other parties that make up the ruling coalition in the next few days.

The BBC's Jonathan Head, in Bangkok, says that whoever gets the job will face the unenviable task of calming the fevered political temperature and helping the governing party overcome some formidable challenges.

Over the next few months it must face the possibility of being dissolved by the increasingly assertive courts over allegations of vote-buying in the last election.


BBC News

[John]

Thanks for the news!

[John]

Thank you for the news Eel!

[John]

KATE McCann has revealed entries from her diary today written as she and her husband Gerry struggled to cope with the disappearance of their daughter.
The moving extracts released in the News of the World expose a smear campaign against the McCann's by Portuguese cops to make them out cold and unmoved by Maddy's disappearance.
According to Kate carefully selected extracts of her diary were leaked to Portuguese press by the police to paint them in a bad light.
Dark thoughts, frustration at the police and the daily struggle of life in the spotlight and having to protect the rest of her family are all revealed in the heartfelt extracts written between April and July 2007.
The diary shows the depth of the heartache felt by Kate and Gerry as they searched for their daughter.

Normal

The notes start on the day of Maddy's disappearance and document a chillingly normal family evening.
Kate reveals how she gave her kids milk and biscuits before reading them a bedtime story on the night of her abduction.
She then goes on to say: "Kisses goodnight for M (Madeleine). Pulled the door to as far as possible without shutting it. Silence. Dry hair. Put make-up on. Glass of wine. Restaurant."
Hours later Maddie had been snatched and a frantic search was started.
The next day's entry is painful to read: "No sleep, Gerry and I started looking through the streets around 06.00 as it was starting to get light. Nobody around. Why not? Desperate.
"Nobody from the police introduced themselves. Nobody offered us a drink or food. All the police dressed informally and smoking. No sympathy was shown and far from inspiring.
"We left the police station around 7.30pm to 8pm.
"After 15 minutes we received a call from the PJ saying we had to go back but they didn’t tell us why.
We arrived—they showed us a photo of a girl they’d forgotten to show us from the close circuit TV footage. Not M. Devastating."
In the following days Kate talks about her desperation and fight to remain strong for her two other children, twins Sean and Amelie.
In the diary Kate also tells who phoned her to offer encouragement: "Cherie Blair (then the Premier’s wife) phoned to find out how we were.
"We talked about everything in general, including about them leaving Number 10.
She agreed as well to make a 20-second video clip for our broadcast on YouTube about Madeleine and children who have disappeared.
"I also had the chance to speak to Tony (then Prime Minister) who told me that we weren’t to hesitate to ask him if there was something he could do to help."
In her last entry on July 31 before her diary was taken by cops she said: 'My sweetheart, my darling, my love, my companion. I love you more than anything. I'm going to dream that I'm lying by your side - moments I'll always cherish and I long to have again.

--------
Source-Sun.com

Why cant the police just stop following them around? Its not them!

[John]

Two teenagers will be quizzed by police today about their role in the murder of a football-mad "gentle giant".

Oliver Kingonzila was the 26th teenager to be killed in London this year after he was stabbed to death in Croydon early Saturday.

The 19-year-old, known as Ollie to his friends and family, was knifed following a "fracas" outside E Bar in south London.

He was taken to a local hospital but was pronounced dead in the early hours of the morning.

Two 18-year-olds have been arrested in connection with his killing.

Family friend Dorothy Wadley described Oliver as "a gentle giant, a really lovely boy".

She said: "He had a huge grin on his face most of the time, it's just so sad this has happened.

"His family are devastated obviously. He'd only just celebrated his 19th birthday."

Mr Kingonzila's best friend was in the club with him on Friday evening.

The teenager, who didn't want to be named, said: "There was no reason for what happened last night.

"He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was unprovoked."

Det Chief Insp Damian Allain, leading the investigation, said: "We now know there was a fracas outside the E Bar involving three people one of whom is the deceased and we need to hear from anyone that saw that incident.

"It may be that one of them could also have been injured and may need hospital treatment.

"Either way they hold vital information to our ongoing investigation."

The two youths are being kept at separate police stations in south London, a Met spokesman said.

Source-Yahoo.com

[JohnCenaFan28]

Thanks for the news.

[JohnCenaFan28]

Thanks for the news.

[JohnCenaFan28]

Scientists have uncovered evidence for an inbuilt "sat-nav" system in the brains of London taxi drivers.

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They used magnetic scanners to explore the brain activity of taxi drivers as they navigated their way through a virtual simulation of London's streets.

Different brain regions were activated as they considered route options, spotted familiar landmarks or thought about their customers.

The research was presented at this week's BA Science Festival.

Earlier studies had shown that taxi drivers have a larger hippocampus - a region of the brain that plays an important role in navigation.

Their brains even "grow on the job" as they build up detailed information needed to find their way around London's labyrinth of streets - information famously referred to as "The Knowledge".

"We were keen to go beyond brain structure - and see what activity is going on inside the brains of taxi drivers while they are doing their job," said Dr Hugo Spiers from University College London.

The scientists used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to obtain "minute by minute" brain images from 20 taxi drivers as they delivered customers to destinations on "virtual jobs".

The scientists adapted the Playstation2 game "Getaway" to bring the streets of London into the scanner.

After the scan - and without prior warning - the drivers watched a replay of their performance and reported what they had been thinking at each stage.

"We tried to peel out the common thoughts that taxi drivers tend to have as they drive through the city, and then tie them down to a particular time and place," said Dr Spiers.

The series of scans revealed a complex choreography of brain activity as the taxi drivers responded to different scenarios.

The hippocampus was only active when the taxi drivers initially planned their route, or if they had to completely change their destination during the course of the journey.

The scientists saw activity in a different brain region when the drivers came across an unexpected situation - for example, a blocked-off junction.

Another part of the brain helped taxi drivers to track how close they were to the endpoint of their journey; like a metal detector, its activity increased when they were closer to their goal.

Changes also occurred in brain regions that are important in social behaviour.

Taxi driving is not just about navigation: "Drivers do obsess occasionally about what their customers are thinking," said Dr Spiers.

Animals use a number of different mechanisms to navigate - the Sun's polarized light rays, the Earth's magnetic fields and the position of the stars.

This research provides new information about the specific roles of areas within the brains of expert human navigators.


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

A Chinese firm accused of selling milk powder that has made babies unwell was warned in August over the safety of its product, its partner and co-owner says.

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New Zealand-based dairy giant Fonterra said it had urged China's Sanlu Group to recall the tainted powder six weeks before Sanlu took adequate action.

The Fonterra farmers' co-operative owns a 43% stake in Sanlu.

More than 400 babies in China have been taken ill after using milk contaminated with the industrial chemical, melamine.

Melamine is used to make plastics and is banned from food. Ingesting it can lead to the development of kidney stones.

At least one child has reportedly died in China as a result of using the contaminated milk, which the firm recalled from sale on Thursday.

'Severe punishment'

In a statement released on Sunday, Fonterra said it had urged Sanlu's board to recall the milk powder as soon as it learnt of the contamination - on 2 August.

"From the day that we were advised of the product contamination issue in August, Fonterra called for a full public recall of all affected product and we have continued to push for this all along," the statement said.

Chinese officials have complained that they were only alerted last Monday of the dangers posed by the milk. They said Sanlu's customers had been complaining about the milk since March.

China's Health Minister, Gao Qiang, said on Saturday that Sanlu "should shoulder major responsibility for this".

He said those responsible for the contamination "would be dealt with severely". Nineteen arrests have so far been made over the scandal, Chinese authorities say.

Some of the tainted milk had been sent to Taiwan but none had been sold to other foreign markets, Mr Gao said.

Melamine has been used by Chinese suppliers of animal feed components to make them appear to have more protein.

It was linked to the formation of kidney stones and kidney failure in pets in the United States last year, leading to thousands of deaths and illnesses.

A fake milk powder scandal in 2004 killed at least 13 babies in China's eastern province of Anhui.

Investigators found that the milk given to these babies had no nutritional value, and the resulting scandal triggered widespread investigations into food safety.


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

Russia's foreign minister has said on a visit to the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia that Moscow's actions were the only way to guarantee security.

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Sergei Lavrov was in the Abkhaz capital Sukhumi less than a week after Russia established diplomatic ties with both it and the South Ossetia region.

Only Russia and Nicaragua recognise the two regions as independent states.

Mr Lavrov also attacked Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer's stance on Moscow's conflict with Georgia.

Mr Scheffer is due to visit the Georgian capital Tbilisi on Monday for the first meeting of a new commission to assess the conflict and Georgia's Nato's membership prospects.

Mr Lavrov is expected in the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali on Monday.

Diplomatic challenge

The Russian foreign minister said Russia's actions were the only way to ensure Abkhazia's security as well as that of South Ossetia.

Russia has wasted little time in underlining its recognition of Abkhaz independence with Mr Lavrov's high-level visit, the BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse reports from Tbilisi.

Mr Lavrov threw down a challenge to the international community by saying that discussions on security in the Caucasus were impossible without the two breakaway regions, our correspondent adds.

This raises the prospect that Russia may insist on their participation in future talks including Georgia, the EU and US - all of which are fundamentally opposed to their secession from Georgia.

Speaking about Mr Scheffer, the Russian foreign minister accused him of making statements about Georgia which were "inappropriate for the leader of such a serious organisation [as Nato]".

The Nato secretary general has said the organisation stands by its aim of eventually admitting Georgia and Ukraine as members.


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

Emergency talks have been held up between Italy's government, investors and trade unions over attempts to save the airline Alitalia from collapse.

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The government has been trying to broker a rescue package with investors, which would involve a sell-off of profitable parts of the airline.

A meeting originally convened for 1800 Italian time (1600GMT) has been pushed back to 2200 Italian time (2000 GMT).

If no deal is reached, Alitalia, could go into liquidation next week.

With the airline saying it is running out of money to buy aviation fuel, the government needs to persuade unions to back a deal that involves job cuts.

The only offer on the table is from Italian consortium CAI, which only wants Alitalia's profitable operations.

Unions have so far rejected this deal as it would mean major job losses.

The BBC's Frances Kennedy, in Rome, says informal discussions throughout the day were meant to iron out enough of the obstacles to get the parties back to the table for a final do or die negotiating marathon.

However the meeting at the Labour Ministry has been twice delayed.

This is a sign that the nine unions and the cartel of Italian investors wanting to buy part of Alitalia are still far apart on key issues, like job losses, salary cuts and industrial strategy, our correspondent says.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has pledged to do all he can to save Alitalia.

Securing the airline's future was one of his main election pledges before he returned to power in May.

Failed French takeover

Back in April, plans for Alitalia to be bought by Air France-KLM collapsed due to union opposition to planned job cuts.

Italy's civil aviation authority said on Saturday that Alitalia's operating licence was at risk due to the airline's admission that it was running out of funds to buy fuel.

Alitalia is currently being run by administrators after seeking bankruptcy protection on 29 August.

The Italian government owns a 49.9% stake in Alitalia, but it cannot simply pump public funds into the airline as there are strict European Union rules preventing state support for airlines.


BBC News

[John]

Thank You for the news!

[John]

Thank You For The News!

[JohnCenaFan28]

The International Atomic Energy Agency says it has not resolved questions about a possible military dimension to Iran's nuclear programme.

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In its latest report, the UN nuclear watchdog said it had failed to make meaningful progress in assessing Iran's past nuclear activities.

Iran was also continuing to enrich uranium in defiance of a UN Security Council resolution, it said.

The US said Iran could face further sanctions unless it changed course.

Iran says its nuclear programme is aimed solely at civilian atomic energy, but Western nations accuse Iran of seeking to develop a nuclear weapon.

'No credible assurances'

In its report, the IAEA said that Iran was failing to co-operate with its investigators.

In May, the UN watchdog said Tehran was withholding information about projects to develop a nuclear warhead, convert uranium and test high explosives.

It called for access to key sites, documents and officials so that investigators could assess Iran's position that its nuclear work was for peaceful purposes.

But, said the IAEA, no such access had been granted.

"Regrettably the agency has not been able to make any substantial progress on the alleged studies and other associated key remaining issues which remain of serious concern," the report said.

Without greater transparency from Iran, the IAEA would "not be able to provide credible assurances about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran", it added.

Iran says documentation on its alleged projects has been fabricated.

The IAEA also said that Iran was continuing to install new cascades of centrifuges to enrich uranium in defiance of a UN Security Council order.

Around 3,800 centrifuges were now in operation at Iran's enrichment plant in Natanz, an increase of 300 since May, the report said.

Responding to the report, the US said Iran could face more punitive measures.

"The Iranian regime's continued defiance only further isolates the Iranian people," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

Iran should suspend uranium enrichment or "face further implementation of the existing United Nations Security Council sanctions and the possibility of new sanctions", Reuters news agency quoted him as saying.

The report will be discussed by the IAEA's board of governors next week.


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

Pakistani troops have fired shots into the air to stop US troops crossing into the South Waziristan region of Pakistan, local officials say.

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Reports say nine US helicopters landed on the Afghan side of the border and US troops then tried to cross the border.

South Waziristan is one of the main areas from which Islamist militants launch attacks into Afghanistan.

The incident comes amid growing anger in Pakistan over increasingly aggressive US attacks along the border.

The latest confrontation began at around midnight, local people say.

They say seven US helicopter gunships and two troop-carrying Chinook helicopters landed in the Afghan province of Paktika near the Zohba mountain range.

US troops from the Chinooks then tried to cross the border. As they did so, Pakistani paramilitary soldiers at a checkpoint opened fire into the air and the US troops decided not to continue forward, local Pakistani officials say.

Reports say the firing lasted for several hours. Local people evacuated their homes and tribesmen took up defensive positions in the mountains.

The incident happened close to the town of Angoor Adda, some 30km (20 miles) from Wana, the main town of South Waziristan.

A Pakistani military spokesman in Islamabad confirmed that there was firing but denied that Pakistani troops were involved.

Diplomatic fury

It emerged last week that US President George W Bush has in recent months authorised military raids against militants inside Pakistan without prior approval from Islamabad.

The BBC's Barbara Plett in Islamabad says there is a growing American conviction that Pakistan is either unwilling or unable to eliminate militant sanctuaries in its border area.

There have been a number of missile attacks aimed at militants in Pakistan territory in recent weeks.

Pakistan reacted with diplomatic fury when US helicopters landed troops in South Waziristan on 3 September. It was the first ground assault by US troops in Pakistan.

Locals in the Musa Nikeh area said American soldiers attacked a target with gunfire and bombs, and said women and children were among some 20 civilians who died in the attack.

In the latest incident, the tribesmen say they grabbed their guns and took up defensive positions after placing their women and children out of harm's way.

Pakistan's army has warned that the aggressive US policy will widen the insurgency by uniting the tribesmen with the Taleban.

Last week the army chief declared that Pakistan would defend the country's territorial integrity at all cost, although the prime minister has since said this would have to be through diplomatic channels rather than military retaliation.


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

Nato's secretary general has said he hopes for Georgia's "accelerated" integration with Nato, and condemned Russia's conduct in August's conflict.

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However Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, speaking in Tbilisi at the first meeting of the Nato-Georgia Commission, did not say when Georgia might join the alliance.

And he emphasised that the country still had to make democratic progress.

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili welcomed the visit as a "powerful signal" of solidarity.

"Your presence sends a... signal to the world that Georgia, together with its friends and allies, does not stand alone," Mr Saakashvili told Mr de Hoop Scheffer and the ambassadors of the 26 Nato countries gathered in Tbilisi.

"Russia's use of force was disproportionate and Russia must now comply with all elements of the six-point plan," Mr de Hoop Scheffer said, referring to the EU-brokered ceasefire deal that calls for all forces to withdraw to positions occupied before the conflict.

"At the same time, despite the difficult situation, we expect Georgia to firmly stay the course of democracy and reform," the Nato chief added.

Nato divisions

Earlier he said the post-conflict situation was "difficult to swallow", since Russia appeared intent on maintaining troops in Georgia's breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

"If the Russians are staying in South Ossetia with so many forces, I do not consider this as a return to the status quo," he told the Financial Times.

Mr de Hoop Scheffer did not say whether Georgia would be given a Membership Action Plan - a roadmap for accession - when Nato meets for a summit in December.

Nato countries are divided, says the BBC's diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus.

While they are keen to offer Georgia fulsome support, he says, Nato rules say that ethnic disputes or external territorial disputes must be resolved before membership can be offered.

The conflict in the region began on 7 August when Georgia tried to retake South Ossetia by force after a series of lower-level clashes.

Russia launched a counter-attack and the Georgian troops were ejected from both South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Also on Monday, the EU announced 500m euros (£397m, $712m) in aid to help Georgia's recovery.

European Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said the funds would go to assisting internally displaced people, post-conflict rehabilitation and economic recovery, and towards new infrastructure.

In Brussels, European Union foreign ministers were set to clear the way for at least 200 ceasefire monitors to deploy to buffer zones around South Ossetia and Abkhazia, ahead of an expected Russian troop withdrawal by 10 October.

It is unclear whether the monitors will actually be allowed to enter the breakaway regions, which are full of Russian troops.

Russia has recognised the two regions' independence, and President Dmitry Medvedev said he would sign agreements this week formalising diplomatic relations and establishing military links.

Moscow has already announced that it intends to base 3,800 troops in each of the two regions.


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

A former German infantry commander has gone on trial in Munich for a Nazi war crime, in what is expected to be one of the last cases of its kind.

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Josef Scheungraber, 90, is accused of ordering the killing of 14 civilians in a Tuscan village in 1944.

He has previously been sentenced in absentia by an Italian military court to life in prison.

Scheungraber "completely and thoroughly denies the accusations in the charge sheet" said his lawyer.

Outside the courtroom, dozens of demonstrators held banners calling for Scheungraber to be put behind bars.

Some have been outraged that he has only been put on trial now.

He has lived for decades as a free man, and served on the town council in Ottobrunn, outside Munich.

He ran a furniture shop, attended German veterans' marches and recently received an award for municipal service.

Retaliation

Scheungraber wore a traditional Bavarian suit to the proceedings, which he followed through a hearing aid.

The court has determined that, despite his age, he is fit to be tried, though he will be allowed regular breaks.

The court heard how events unfolded 26 June, 1944.

German troops are alleged to have shot dead a 74-year-old woman and three men in the street before forcing 11 others into a farmhouse which they then blew up. A 15-year-old boy survived the attack with serious injuries.

The massacre was allegedly in retaliation for an attack by Italian partisans that left two German soldiers dead.

Scheungraber said in his statement that he had not given an order for the killings and was not at the scene of the crime.


BBC News

[John]

Are they still on about this?

[John]

Thanks for the news!

[JohnCenaFan28]

The wing flaps on a plane that crashed in Madrid last month were not open properly at take-off, a draft preliminary report has concluded.

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Investigators found that the pilots were unaware of the problem because a cockpit warning alarm did not go off, leading Spanish newspapers reported.

The Spanair plane plunged to the ground shortly after take-off, killing 154 people on board.

It was the deadliest air crash in Spain in 25 years.

Investigations into the crash are continuing, with no firm conclusions yet made about whether the disaster was the result of technical fault or human error.

Cockpit recordings

The MD-82 jet, which was preparing to fly to Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, had aborted a previous take-off attempt before it crashed.

The draft report of the investigating committee, leaked to Spanish newspapers, details how the aircraft crashed when it attempted to take off following a brief stop for technicians to correct a fault in a temperature gauge.

The pilots had detected the high temperature as they readied the plane for take-off, having already deployed the wing flaps, the plane's black box recorder showed. They aborted the take-off to get the temperature gauge looked at by technicians, the draft report says.

By the time the plane resumed its position on the runway, the flaps - which make it easier for aircraft to get off the ground at take-off speeds - had been retracted, data from the black box is said to show.

The MD-82 plane is equipped with sensors intended to warn pilots whether flaps are correctly deployed before take-off.

However, the draft report suggests no warning signal sounded in the cockpit before the pilots accelerated the plane down the runway for the ill-fated take-off attempt.

Deadly precedent

The draft report said that Spanair did not rigorously follow advice from the plane's manufacturers to check the flap deployment warning signal.

Following an MD-82 crash in the US city of Detroit in 1987, which killed 154 people, McDonnell-Douglas (now part of Boeing) advised that flap and slats indicator systems be checked before each flight.

However, Spanair only carried out checks on the system before the first flight of each day or when the pilot and co-pilot was changed, the draft report said.

The pair in control of the plane had already taken it from Barcelona to Madrid on the morning of the accident without incident, and were not under orders to check the systems before beginning their next flight, the draft report said.

Investigators have not released any official statement on the disaster, and Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba told Spanish TV the government would not comment until the investigation had been completed.

"In my experience an accident doesn't happen for a single reason," he said.

"We are going to wait for the report to be finished to find out what happened because there are many theories," Mr Rubalcaba added.


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

Bolivian troops have arrested the governor of a northern province wracked by deadly anti-government violence.

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Leopoldo Fernandez, an opponent of President Evo Morales, is accused of backing violence in Pando, in which some 16 people died.

Last weekend Mr Morales declared a state of emergency in Pando.

The region is among several opposed to his plans to redistribute wealth and giving a greater voice to Bolivia's indigenous community.

Government troops who remain in control of the state capital of Pando, Cobija, moved to detain the governor on Tuesday, according to reports.

Mr Fernandez, who was arrested alongside one other local politician, reportedly put up no resistance as he was transferred to Cobija aiport before being taken to Bolivia's main city, La Paz.

Truce hope

Pando is a remote northern region of Bolivia situated in the Amazon basin on the borders with Peru and Brazil.

Mr Morales' central government accused Leopoldo Fernandez of hiring hitmen who killed at least 16 farmers on their way to a pro-government rally.

The authorities have asked for a 30-year prison sentence if Mr Fernandez is convicted. He denies the charges.

Up to about 100 people remain missing after the recent violence, the Efe news agency says, the scale of which prompted the president to send in troops to secure Cobija.

The violence subsided and the blockades were lifted as the two sides began negotiations, but many of those who oppose the government simply do not believe the president, says the BBC's South America correspodent, Daniel Schweimler.

They blame the government and its indigenous supporters for instigating the violence, he adds.

There were reports on Tuesday of a potential truce with Mr Morales that could end the violence.

The governor of Tarija, in the south of Bolivia, said he expected to sign a deal with the president, Reuters reported.

On Monday, the leaders of nine South American nations backed Mr Morales at an emergency summit in Chile.

Mr Morales has likened the unrest in opposition-controlled regions of his country to an attempted coup.

But the unrest, in which protesters have blocked roads and occupied public buildings, represents the most serious challenge to Mr Morales since he took office almost three years ago, correspondents say.


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

Pakistan's army spokesman has made clear that its forces will not tolerate incursions into Pakistani territory.

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His remarks come a day after Pakistani troops were reported to have fired shots into the air to stop US troops crossing into South Waziristan.

Tension is rising in Pakistan over an increase in US attacks along the border with Afghanistan.

America's top military commander, Adm Michael Mullen, is in Pakistan on an unannounced visit, the Pentagon says.

He is due to meet Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and army chief Gen Ashfaq Kayani to discuss the border operations, officials say.

Meanwhile, British Justice Secretary Jack Straw has said operations along the border should be done "in a way that is not counterproductive".

"We believe that these matters have to be subject to consent of the Pakistan government because Pakistan is a sovereign nation," he told the BBC after talks in Islamabad.

On Monday, there were reports of nine US helicopters landing on the Afghan side of the border and US troops attempting to cross into South Waziristan.

The tribal region is one of the main areas from which Islamist militants launch attacks into Afghanistan.

Locals said seven US helicopter gunships and two troop-carrying Chinook helicopters landed in the Afghan province of Paktika near the Zohba mountain range.

US troops from the Chinooks then tried to cross the border. As they did so, Pakistani paramilitary soldiers at a checkpoint opened fire into the air and the US troops decided not to continue forward, local Pakistani officials say.

Pakistan's military confirmed firing but denied that Pakistani troops were involved.

Army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told the Associated Press on Tuesday that "no incursion is to be tolerated".

But he stressed to the BBC that no specific orders had been given to open fire if US troops crossed the border from Afghanistan.

Diplomatic fury

It emerged last week that US President George W Bush has in recent months authorised military raids against militants inside Pakistan without prior approval from Islamabad.

The BBC's Barbara Plett in Islamabad says there is a growing American conviction that Pakistan is either unwilling or unable to eliminate militant sanctuaries in its border area.

There have been a number of missile attacks aimed at militants in Pakistan territory in recent weeks.

Pakistan reacted with diplomatic fury when US helicopters landed troops in South Waziristan on 3 September. It was the first ground assault by US troops in Pakistan.

Locals in the Musa Nikeh area said American soldiers attacked a target with gunfire and bombs, and said women and children were among some 20 civilians who died in the attack.

On Monday, the tribesmen say they grabbed their guns and took up defensive positions after placing their women and children out of harm's way.

Pakistan's army has warned that the aggressive US policy will widen the insurgency by uniting the tribesmen with the Taleban.


BBC News

[John]

Thanks for the news!

[John]

Thanks for the news!

[JohnCenaFan28]

At least 19 people have been killed in a riot at a prison in Mexico - the second outbreak of violence at the jail in less than a week, officials say.

Another 12 people were injured when violence broke out at the La Mesa prison in Tijuana, near the US border.

Family members were quoted as saying inmates were protesting at their treatment since a riot on Sunday which led to at least three inmates' deaths.

About 200 inmates were being moved to other jails following Wednesday's riot.

The authorities had regained control of the prison and were increasing security, Baja California Governor Jose Osuna said.

Mass protest

"Up to the last count, there are 19 dead and 12 wounded," Daniel de la Rosa, Baja California's state police chief, told a news conference on Thursday.

Hundreds of family members have been gathering outside the prison since Sunday's riot, which destroyed large parts of the prison.

At least three inmates died in the first riot - which was reportedly sparked by the death of an inmate during a search for drugs and weapons - although some reports put the total at four.

Relatives said the second riot broke out because inmates had not been given any food or water since Sunday, according to the Associated Press.

They have also reportedly accused the authorities of lying about Sunday's events.


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

Senior Republican Senator Chuck Hagel has voiced doubts about Sarah Palin's qualifications for the vice-presidency.

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John McCain's running mate "doesn't have any foreign policy credentials", Mr Hagel told the Omaha World-Herald.

Mr Hagel was a prominent supporter of Mr McCain during his 2000 bid for the US presidency, but has declined to endorse either candidate this year.

He was opposed to the Iraq War, and recently joined Mr McCain's rival Barack Obama on a Middle East trip.

'Stop the nonsense'

"I think it's a stretch to, in any way, to say that she's got the experience to be president of the United States," Mr Hagel told the Omaha World-Herald newspaper.

And he was dismissive of the fact that Mrs Palin, the governor of Alaska, has made few trips abroad.

"You get a passport for the first time in your life last year? I mean, I don't know what you can say. You can't say anything."

Mr Hagel also criticised the McCain campaign for its suggestion that the proximity of Alaska to Russia gave Mrs Palin foreign policy experience.

"I think they ought to be just honest about it and stop the nonsense about, 'I look out my window and I see Russia and so therefore I know something about Russia'," he said.

"That kind of thing is insulting to the American people."

BBC North America editor Justin Webb says Mr Hagel's opinion of Mrs Palin will have an effect on independent voters.

A senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Mr Hagel was a close ally of Mr McCain, but the two men parted company over the decision to go to war in Iraq.

Mr Hagel skipped this year's Republican National Convention in favour of a visit to Latin America.

Mr Hagel's decision to accompany Mr Obama this summer on a trip to Iraq and Israel, as part of a US Congressional delegation, led to speculation that he would throw his support behind the Democratic nominee.

However, a spokesman for the Nebraska senator insisted in August that "Senator Hagel has no intention of getting involved in any of the campaigns and is not planning to endorse either candidate".


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

Bolivian President Evo Morales has begun talks with opposition leaders in a bid to defuse a political crisis in the country.

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Tight security surrounds the talks in Cochabamba, central Bolivia.

Observers from the Organisation of American States and the UN are monitoring the negotiations.

Long-standing political unrest erupted into violence last week as Mr Morales struggled to assert his authority in the east of the country.

An agreement which led to the talks was made on Tuesday.

In it, provinces whose governors oppose Mr Morales's left-wing reforms are to return to order.

There is also to be an impartial inquiry into the killing of 16 pro-government farmers in the northern region of Pando, the government said.

Land reforms

Rival groups have agreed to avoid discussing a draft constitution - which Mr Morales wants to rewrite - during the talks.

Governors opposing Mr Morales want him to abandon land reforms and recognise their ambitions for autonomy.

They also want to have more control over natural gas revenues in their areas.

Mr Morales says he wants to natural gas revenues to re-distribute Bolivia's wealth and give a greater voice to the country's large indigenous community.

"This may be the last chance to solve the country's problems in peace," said Mario Cossio, governor of the southern Tarija province, as he arrived at the talks.

Ruben Cuellar, an assembly delegate for the opposition Podemos party, said: "Granting autonomy means revising a host of issues in the constitution from land reform to health."

Talks between the two sides disintegrated eight months ago, and violence flared in recent weeks.

At least 30 people have been killed, mainly in the Pando region where Mr Morales declared a state of emergency last week.

Its governor, Leopoldo Fernandez, was arrested on Tuesday and transported to La Paz.

He is accused of hiring the hitmen who killed farmers on their way to a pro-government rally. He denies the charge.

As many as 100 people are reportedly still missing after the recent violence.

However, the fighting has now subsided and some blockades were lifted after the latest talks were agreed.


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

A consortium of investors proposing to rescue airline Alitalia has withdrawn its takeover offer, raising fears the carrier may go into liquidation.

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The Italian group, called CAI, dropped its bid after unions failed to back the deal before a 1400GMT deadline.

While four of Alitalia's unions had supported the deal, five had objected because of plans to cut 3,000 jobs.

Italy's flag-carrier has already warned that it is running out of funds to buy all the aviation fuel it needs.

Making its announcement, CAI said it expressed "profound disappointment".

"Further concessions would inevitably have put the realisation of the plan at risk," it said.

Cancelled flights

Italian Labour Minister Maurizio Sacconi said before the deadline that the future of Alitalia was "hanging by a thread".

While Italy's four main union organisations - CGIL, CISL, UIL and UGL - had signed up to the agreement with the CAI, five other unions had rejected the deal as "useless and provocative".

Those opposed to the package - SDL, ANPAC, UP, ANPAV and Avia - include pilots and cabin crews.

Their protests forced Alitalia, which is losing 2.1m euros ($3m; £1.7m) daily, to cancel 40 flights on Wednesday.

The head of the UIL union, Luigi Angeletti, attacked those unions that rejected the CAI offer.

"The company is dead and some of my colleagues want to be its undertakers," he said.

Government role

Under the CAI rescue proposal, the Italian consortium had put forward a 1bn-euro offer for the airline.

It wanted Alitalia to merge with Air One, the country's second-largest airline, while its 1.2bn-euro debt would be absorbed by a second firm, which would then be liquidated.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has pledged to do all he can to save Alitalia, in which the Italian government holds a 49.9% stake.

In April, plans for the airline to be taken over by France-KLM collapsed when unions refused the accept the terms of the deal.

Alitalia suspended trading in its shares in June and filed for bankruptcy protection last month.


BBC News

[Slayer_X]

thanx

[Slayer_X]

This isnt even relavent anymore . hes just a scared old man .he probly did it . war is a brutal thing . why try him now?

[JohnCenaFan28]

Alitalia has cancelled a number of flights from Rome's Fiumicino airport, increasing fears that the carrier may soon go into liquidation.

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The airline confirmed that a number of flights have been cancelled, but denied it had run out of aviation fuel.

On Thursday, a consortium withdrew a rescue offer for Alitalia due to opposition from trade unions.

Alitalia, which filed for bankruptcy protection last month, has warned it is low on cash to buy more fuel.

Reports say between 20 and 30 Alitalia flights have been cancelled.

Alitalia told the AFP news agency that the move was caused by "technical reasons".

'No alternative'

The CAI consortium's takeover offer was backed by three of Alitalia's nine unions, but six opposed the plans, due to plans to cut 3,000 jobs.

The Italian government insists that the CAI deal is the only way for Alitalia to avoid liquidation.

"There is no alternative to CAI," said Labour Minister Maurizio Sacconi.

"We need to return to the negotiating table because there is no-one else in the race."

There is little the government can now do, as state aid for airlines is illegal under European Union rules.

There were also reports on Friday that Italy's civil aviation authority may ground all Alitalia planes within 10 days from Monday unless the airline can show a new rescue plan.

Government stake

Under the CAI rescue proposal, the Italian consortium had put forward a 1bn euro ($1.4bn; £790m) offer for the airline.

It wanted Alitalia to merge with Air One, the country's second-largest airline, while its 1.2bn euro debt would be absorbed by a second firm, which would then be liquidated.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has pledged to do all he can to save Alitalia, in which the Italian government holds a 49.9% stake.

In April, plans for the airline to be taken over by Air France-KLM collapsed when unions refused to accept the terms of the deal.

Alitalia shares were suspended in June and the airline is being run by a special administrator following its move into bankruptcy protection last month.


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

The US military says seven people, including three women civilians, have been killed in an air strike in Iraq.

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The US said it was targeting insurgents in the village of al-Dawr, near Tikrit north of Baghdad, where Saddam Hussein was captured in 2003.

Witnesses are quoted as saying the attack happened after US troops had surrounded a compound in the village.

The village is home of a former leader of the Baath party, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, who is still a fugitive.

A military statement said those killed included four suspected insurgents and three women. A child was pulled from the rubble of the building and was treated at a nearby US base.

It said the target was a man believed to be the leader of a bombing network in the area north of Baghdad.

Reports quote Iraqi officials and neighbours saying that the family whose members were killed in the air strike had no connection to the insurgency.

The US said its forces surrounded the compound and called for its occupants to surrender after the main suspect, who was armed, had shown "hostile intent" at a doorway and been shot dead by troops.

However, nobody emerged from the building for about one hour "despite multiple warnings" the statement said, and the troops called in the air strike.

"Sadly, this incident again shows that the terrorists repeatedly risk the lives of innocent women and children to further their evil work," said US military spokesman Colonel Jerry O'Hara.


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

Stone-throwing protesters have disrupted the opening of a right-wing conference against the building of a giant mosque in Cologne, Germany.

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The demonstrators blocked two leaders of the Pro-Cologne movement from entering the conference venue, pursuing them as they sought refuge on a boat.

The "anti-Islamification" event has drawn speakers from across Europe. Its main event is a march on Saturday.

But opponents are predicting a massive counter-demonstration.

German nationalist leaders had hoped to give a press conference at a building in Cologne, but were barracked by a crowd of dozens, and turned away by a city official on orders from the mayor.

They sought refuge on a boat on the Rhine river, which demonstrators then pelted with stones and paintballs. Police arrested several of them, the Associated Press reported.

The Pro-Cologne group said it was trying to build a "European, patriotic, populist right-wing movement", and said it expected politicians from Belgium, Austrian and Italy to attend its conference.

The centrepiece is a rally on Saturday against the building of a large, domed mosque, with two 55m (177ft) minarets, in the city's heavily immigrant Ehrenfeld district.

Construction has been approved by the city council and is due to begin by the end of the year.

Cologne Mayor Fritz Schramma called on the city's inhabitants to give the right-wingers "the cold shoulder".

Gabriele Hermani, a spokeswoman for the interior ministry condemned the conference saying: "We believe that such an event organised by populists and extremists in Cologne is damaging to the good co-operation between the city and its Muslim citizens."


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

A top Islamic militant suspected of involvement in the wave of bomb attacks on Indian cities has been killed in a shoot-out in Delhi, police say.

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They say the man identified as Atif was killed with another man in a "fierce exchange" of gunfire at a house in the mainly Muslim Jamia Nagar district.

Two Indian policemen were injured in the operation and a third suspect was captured alive.

At least 20 people died in a multiple bomb attack on Delhi last week.

Serial bombings

News channels showed an ambulance taking away a bloodied person from the crowded site of Friday's gun battle.

A large contingent of policemen had surrounded the four-storey home where the suspected militants were supposed to be hiding, witnesses told the BBC.

Delhi Police Commissioner YS Dadhwal said that one of the men killed was a senior leader of the Indian Mujahideen, a group which claimed responsibility for last weeks serial bombings in the capital.

The group, which is relatively unknown, is also believed to be behind similar attacks in the cities of Jaipur and Ahmedabad.

"The police were firing at the fourth and top storey of the building," one eyewitness said.

"A lot of people had gathered around the building."

Police arrived at the house after receiving information that some "suspected militants" were hiding there, senior Delhi police official Karnail Singh told reporters.

"They opened fire on the police when we approached the house," he said.

"Two of our men, including an inspector, were injured."

The two militants were killed during the ensuing gun battle and one was arrested, he added.

On Wednesday, Delhi police issued sketches of three men who they believe were involved in the attacks.

About 90 people were injured when the five devices went off in busy shopping areas within minutes of each other.

On Thursday, India revealed plans to upgrade its intelligence-gathering ability following a spate of bombings.

A new centre will be established to research surveillance and preventative measures and become a focus for counter-terrorism strategies.


BBC News

[Kenpachi Zaraki]

Well one Inspector who was injured later died in the hospital.God Bless his soul. More suspects have been arrested.

[John]

Thanks For The News!

[JohnCenaFan28]

Nigeria's main militant group says it has blown up a major oil pipeline owned by Shell in the oil-rich Niger Delta.

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The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) said it had used explosives to attack a "major pipeline" in the Asari Toru region.

Mend declared "war" on Nigeria's oil industry last Sunday after a fierce military raid on one of its bases.

If confirmed, the latest attack would be the sixth since Mend launched what it has called Hurricane Barbarossa.

In the past week, militants have attacked gas plants, oil installations and pipelines in some of the worst violence for two years.

Shell, which has only confirmed the first two of the claimed attacks, said it was investigating the latest claim.

The oil giant also declared a force majeure - which frees it from contractual obligations - on crude oil shipments from its Niger Delta facilities.

Disrupt exports

Mend vowed to "continue to nibble every day at the oil infrastructure in Nigeria until the oil exports reach zero".

"The military and the government of Nigeria whose unprovoked attack on our position prompted this oil war are no match for a guerrilla insurgency of this kind," it said in a statement.

Groups such as Mend claim to be fighting for greater control over oil wealth in the impoverished Niger Delta, but they are accused of making money from criminal rackets and trade in stolen oil.

Critics say the militants are simply criminal gangs out to extort money from oil companies.

Nigeria's oil production has been cut by 20% because of unrest in the region over the past few years.


BBC NEws

[JohnCenaFan28]

A 93-year-old veteran of the Dunkirk evacuation has been reunited with war medals after they were recovered by scuba divers from the River Thames.

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Charles Brown lost two rows of medals last Sunday as he boarded a boat during the Association of Dunkirk Little Ships cruise from Kingston to Weybridge.

Mr Brown said he was "emotional" about the medals which included an OBE, a Dunkirk and Normandy campaign medal.

Divers from Teddington Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) found them.

Scuba divers began their fingertip search near Kingston Bridge at about 1100 BST on Saturday.

Last week attempts to recover the medals with magnets proved unsuccessful.

Mr Brown lost the medals from the breast pocket of his jacket as he used his walking frame to board a boat near Kingston Bridge.

On hearing about the recovery Mr Brown, who is originally from Southwark in south London, came to the riverside from his care home in Woking, Surrey.

He said: "I do get a bit emotional because these medals meant so much to me. I wasn't a celebrity, a pop singer or a cricketer, these medals were what I was proud of.

"I'm not going to be celebrating with cream cakes or anything like that, just having the medals back is enough for me."

Poor visibility

Malcolm Miatt, operations manager at Teddington RNLI, said: "It was a fingertip search on a grid pattern. I wasn't sure that we'd find the medals because they have been down there all week.

RNLI's helmsman and experienced scuba diver Jean-Pierre Trenque, who led the dive, said: "It was quite dark but surprisingly we had probably half a metre visibility in there.

"I literally just went in the water, straight down the wall, we had good datum where the medals had been dropped and I didn't think they would have drifted too much."

Mr Brown, who joined the army as a volunteer in 1939, was a tank transporter and fought a rear guard defence at Dunkirk.

He was one of the last off the beach during the evacuation.


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

A huge campaign of marches, vigils, speeches and art is being held in Argentina, aimed at ensuring that a retired builder is not forgotten.

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Julio Lopez, 78, is a name that everyone in Argentina recognises.

He disappeared two years ago after appearing as a witness in a major human rights trial.

Mr Lopez has become a symbol in the fight for justice for the atrocities committed by Argentina's military government in the 1970s and 80s.

He was a victim twice over. He was kidnapped and tortured by the authorities working for the Argentine military which governed between 1976 and 1983.

Then two years ago, he gave evidence in the trial of police chief Miguel Etchecolatz.

But the day before the policeman was sentenced to life in prison for human rights atrocities, Mr Lopez disappeared.

Unlikely hero

His family and human rights activists believe he was taken by police officers or ex-police officers as a warning to others considering testifying in subsequent human rights trials against former members of the military government.

Mr Lopez has not been seen since, despite a massive campaign of marches, rallies, media coverage and appeals from his family and the president.

To mark the second anniversary of his disappearance, a fresh round of protests has been organised in Buenos Aires and in Mr Lopez's home city of La Plata.

A large silhouette of the former building worker is being unveiled on a wall in the capital, candles are being lit and thousands are marching from the Argentine Congress to the presidential palace.

The demand is simply that Mr Lopez be found alive.

The frail, quietly spoken man has become an unlikely hero in the continuing fight in Argentina to bring to justice those responsible for the tens of thousands of people kidnapped, tortured and killed during a period that become known as the Dirty War.


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

The Mexican military have confiscated $26m (£14m) in cash believed to belong to the notorious Sinaloa drugs cartel, officials say.

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It is thought to be Mexico's second-highest cash seizure ever.

A defence ministry spokesman said soldiers had found the money stuffed inside cardboard boxes at a house in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state.

They also confiscated more than 2kg(4lb) of marijuana and two guns with ammunition during a raid on the house.

Three people fled the scene and no-one has been arrested, officials say.

Transit route

Sinaloa state, in the north-west of the country, is part of a key transit route for drugs from Latin America into the US.

Defence ministry official Gen Luis Oliver said documents found in the house named a member of a gang allegedly led by an associate of fugitive Sinaloa cartel chief Joaquin Guzman.

Gen Oliver said the cash seizure was dwarfed only by one other in Mexico - when police seized $207m (£115m) in March 2007 linked to a drug-trafficking ring.

In the last two years, Mexican President Felipe Calderon has deployed more than 40,000 troops, along with federal police, in a crackdown on drug gangs in the country.

Despite a string of seizures of money, drugs and arms, increasing cartel violence has claimed more than 2,700 lives this year.


BBC News

[John]

Thanks for the news!

[JohnCenaFan28]

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has submitted his resignation letter to the country's President, Shimon Peres.

Mr Olmert may remain as interim prime minister for several weeks while his successor as leader of the Kadima Party tries to form a new government.

He is to be replaced by Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who has six weeks to gather a fresh coalition.

Mr Olmert announced he would step down in July after facing growing pressure over multiple corruption inquiries.

The BBC's Wyre Davies in Jerusalem says that forming a coalition will not be an easy task as Kadima does not have a majority in the Israeli parliament, known as the Knesset.

The same parties, particularly religious parties from the right, who joined the Olmert government will not necessarily support Ms Livni, our correspondent says.

It is a complicated process that may end in general elections at the start of next year, until when Ehud Olmert may remain as prime minister, our correspondent adds.

Corruption investigations

Ms Livni, who is regarded as a moderate, won the leadership of the governing Kadima party on Thursday, beating Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz by just 431 votes, or 1.1%.

According to the president's office, Ms Livni will have up to 42 days to attempt to form a coalition representing at least 61 of the Knesset's 120 seats from Israel's mosaic of political parties.

If she fails, the president may give another member of the Knesset up to 42 days to try to form a government.

If still no government is formed, the president may mandate yet another member to try, or call elections, which must then take place within 90 days.

Mr Olmert has faced growing pressure over multiple corruption investigations during his less than three years in office. He denies any wrongdoing in all cases.

Police have recommended he be indicted over two of the probes - allegations that he misused cash payments from a US businessman, and accusations that he double-billed government agencies for trips abroad.


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

The inquest into the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes by police hunting a suicide bomber is due to begin.

The Brazilian electrician was shot at Stockwell Tube station in south London the day after the botched 21 July 2005 London suicide attacks.

A jury will hear from two officers who fired the fatal shots - the first time their accounts will have been heard.

Former High Court judge Sir Michael Wright has been appointed coroner for the hearing, set to last three months.

Sir Michael, assistant deputy coroner for Inner South London, will swear in the jury and deliver an opening statement.

Mr de Menezes was shot dead on 22 July 2005 by specially trained Metropolitan Police firearms officers.

Teams of undercover officers had trailed the 27-year-old across south London after he left flats being watched for one of the 21/7 bombing suspects.

In 2007, an Old Bailey jury found the Metropolitan Police guilty of breaching health and safety laws, after hearing about the events leading up to Mr de Menezes being shot seven times at close range on a tube carriage.

Key question

The inquest jury will consider whether or not Mr de Menezes was unlawfully killed.

They will hear from some 75 witnesses over three months, including 40 serving police officers who have been granted anonymity, and Tube passengers.

Among those who will be speaking for the first time will be policemen codenamed C2 and C12, the two specialist firearms officers who shot the Brazilian.

Some of the other officers giving evidence appeared at the Old Bailey trial, including surveillance officers accused of failing to establish whether or not the man they were following matched the description of suicide bomber Hussain Osman.

The proceedings are likely to be watched closely to see if they raise questions about the leadership of Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner.

The inquest is being held at John Major conference room at the Oval Cricket Ground because of the scale of the proceedings and level of public interest.

Relatives of Mr de Menezes, who have campaigned for police officers to be prosecuted, will hold a protest at the venue.

Mr de Menezes' mother, Maria, and brother Giovani, are expected to fly from Brazil to attend the later stages of the inquest, including evidence given by the two shooters.

There have been five inquiries relating to the death and its aftermath, including the criminal trial.


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

Members of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) are preparing to vote for a new leader to replace outgoing Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda.

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The winner will become the country's third prime minister in two years - and is expected to call a general election almost immediately.

There are five candidates in the race, but former Foreign Minister Taro Aso is the favourite to win.

The LDP has governed Japan almost continuously since 1955.

But the main opposition Democratic Party (DPJ) made big gains in recent elections and controls the upper house of parliament.

The political deadlock caused by the opposition's popularity eventually forced Mr Fukuda to resign after less than a year in the job.

Economy worries

He had become prime minister after his predecessor, Shinzo Abe, abruptly resigned citing health reasons.

The BBC's Chris Hogg, in Tokyo, says the resignations have led critics to complain that the party is out of touch and lacks a proper mandate to govern.

The LDP's recent slump in popularity has led some to suggest that the party could be on the verge of losing power - an almost unthinkable prospect for most of the past 50 years.

Our correspondent says there is little doubt that the LDP will select Mr Aso as its leader.

Mr Aso pledged to a crowd of supporters in Tokyo that he would sort out Japan's economy.

"America is facing a financial crisis... we must not allow that to bring us down as well," he said.

The bad old days?

The 68-year-old veteran is promising greater public spending to try to stimulate the economy - particularly in rural areas, where the party is traditionally strong.

But one of his rivals for the leadership, Kaoru Yosano, accused him of risking Japan's long-term interests through wasteful spending.

Other colleagues fear higher spending could mark a return to the old profligate ways of the LDP, where expensive public works projects were used to try to create jobs, hollowing out the public finances.

Mr Aso, a brash straight-talker, is seen as an antidote to the reserved style of Mr Fukuda. If selected, Mr Aso would become Japan's first Catholic prime minister.

The other candidates include Yuriko Koike, who is seeking to be Japan's first female leader.

Former defence chief Shigeru Ishiba and young reformist Nobuteru Ishihara are also in the running.

A total of 527 LDP members can vote - 386 MPs and 141 members of regional chapters. Polling begins at 1400 (0500 GMT).


BBC News

[Black Widow]

AN anguished mum frantically dialled 999 to report her ex's threat to kill their young daughters — but it was too late.

Cops arrived at the man’s caravan home within minutes last night but found the girls, aged one and three, smothered inside.

A family friend today claimed 33-year-old David Cass phoned their mother to say “the children have gone to sleep forever” – before killing his two young daughters and committing suicide.

Cass is thought to have suffocated three-year-old Ellie and 14-month-old Isobel in the caravan parked at the garage where he had worked in Southampton.

He then went inside Paynes Road Car Sales garage and hanged himself.

Family friend Val Frasier said the children’s mother, Kerry Hughes, had called police after receiving the call from her former lover.

Cass, who had custody of the youngsters for the weekend, made the chilling threat, saying: “I can’t live without them.”

“She had a phone call from her boyfriend. He apparently said to her ‘the children have gone to sleep forever and I’m going to hang myself’,” Mrs Frasier said.

Miss Hughes’ best friend Emma Timberlake said told Miss Hughes he was going to kill himself on Friday.

And she added that he had offered her £250 to have sex with him one last time but she refused.

Cass had been an employee at Paynes Road Car Sales in Southampton, for the past four years, his boss, John Martin, said.

Mr Martin said Cass had seemed depressed over the last few weeks because of relationship problems with a woman, who lived in the Fair Oak area of Eastleigh, Hampshire.

He told reporters that Cass handed in his notice on Friday, adding: “He said to me he was going away and he had a plan. I said ’Don’t do anything stupid'.”

Police sources said the man had phoned the children's mum threatening to kill them before she dialled 999.

Officers launched an immediate search.

The bodies were found at 6.51 last night.

A source added: “It is an appalling tragedy. They (the children) were suffocated.”

A friend of Cass, Paul Timberlake, said he was stunned about what had happened.

“You would never have thought this of him,” he said. “He was such a nice bloke, he’d do anything for anyone and was very helpful and he absolutely loved his children.

“I saw him two weeks ago and he was fine but I know he was having wife trouble.

“I’ve spoken to my daughter who is friends with the mother and she told me that this was the first weekend he’d been allowed to have them (the children) since the split.

“Everyone is stunned and no-one can believe it.”

The garage, in the Shirley area of Southampton, was sealed off as police and forensics teams examined the scenes.

Horrified George Taylor, 55, who lives just yards from Paynes Road Car Sales, said: “It is just a sad world we live in. It is just terrible.”

A police spokesman said: “Officers attended the car sales garage where they discovered the bodies.

“They are not looking for anyone else in connection with the deaths and are now tracing and informing next of kin.”

Late last night three bunches of flowers had been left at the garage entrance.

Post mortems are expected to be held today.

The weekend horror was the latest a tragic string of killings of children by their fathers.

Brian Philcox, 52, gassed himself, daughter Amy, seven, and three-year-old son Owen on Father’s Day this year.

In April 2007 Dafydd Field, 52, was found dead in his prison cell days after killing his son Jethro, six.


the sun

[Swinny]

Pathetic... just absolutely pathetic. There's just nothing else to say.

[JohnCenaFan28]

That's awful...

[JohnCenaFan28]

At least 15 people have been injured in an apparent attack in Jerusalem, Israeli police say.

They say a man drove his car into a group of people at a busy intersection, before being shot and killed by an armed bystander.

Rescue services took the injured to local hospitals. Police described the incident as a "terror attack".

The road junction was close to the so-called Green Line, which separates the Jewish and Arab areas of Jerusalem.

The incident took place just before 2300 (2000 GMT).

Despite the late hour the streets were busy as people walked back from Jerusalem's Old City.

"A man in a vehicle struck a number of people in Kikar Tzahal [also known as Israel Defence Forces Square]," said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.

A rescue worker said the group of pedestrians was about to cross the road when the car - apparently a black BMW - struck them.

The identity of the alleged attacker was not immediately known, with reports suggesting he could be Palestinian.

If so, this would be the third such incident of its kind in recent weeks in Jerusalem.

On two previous occasions, Palestinian construction workers from East Jerusalem have driven diggers into oncoming traffic, killing three Israelis and wounding several others.


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

Egypt says negotiations are still ongoing to secure the release of 19 people abducted in southern Egypt.

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A cabinet spokesman said that an earlier announcement by the foreign minister that they had been freed and were safe and well was premature.

The group includes five Italians, five Germans and a Romanian, along with eight Egyptians.

They were seized near the Gilf al-Kebir plateau, close to the Libyan and Sudanese borders.

Egypt said the kidnappers were bandits who had demanded a ransom.

Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit had announced the news of a release in New York.

Mr Abul Gheit said ahead of a meeting with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice: "They have been released, all of them, safe and sound.

"It was a group of gangsters."

But the cabinet spokesman, Magdy Radi, said: "It is premature to say they are released. The negotiations are still continuing."

Tour owner's call

Earlier, Egypt had said bandits had demanded a ransom of up to $6m (£3.24m) and it was feared the group had been taken to Sudan.

Kidnappings of foreigners in Egypt have been very uncommon in recent years.

The tourism ministry said those abducted along with the foreigners were two guides, four drivers, a guard and the owner of the travel company who had organised the trip to Gilf al-Kebir.

Gilf al-Kebir is a giant plateau famous for its prehistoric cave paintings, which featured in the 1996 film The English Patient.

The Mena news agency reported that the tour company owner had called his wife on a satellite phone to say the group had been kidnapped by five masked men speaking English "with an African accent".

The BBC's Ian Pannell in Cairo says local guides have indicated that the Gilf al-Kebir area has become increasingly unsafe this year.

Another group of foreigners was held at gunpoint in February and three of their vehicles were taken.

An investigation at the time pointed the blame at smugglers and bandits.

Our correspondent says there has been criticism that the Egyptian military has not done enough to patrol the area despite the increased threat.


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

The price of oil has jumped by more than $16 to $120.92 a barrel, the biggest one-day gain on record.

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There is uncertainty about how the government's plan will work, causing investors to switch to perceived safe havens such as oil.

Others believe that the US government's bail-out plan will help the economy, increasing demand for oil.

Concerns also persist about supply as production in the Gulf of Mexico is still affected by Hurricane Ike.

However, analysts said the US rescue package was key.

"[It] has changed sentiment in the oil market," said analyst Paul Harris from Bank of Ireland.

At one point during trading, the price of oil rose by more than $25. The volatility in the price has been exacerbated by the fact that the contract for the supply of oil in October expires on Monday.

The contract for oil to be delivered in November was not up as sharply. It rose by $6.62 to $109.37 in New York.

Last week oil traded as low as $91 a barrel. It had fallen from the peak of $147 a barrel it reached in July.


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45040000/jpg/_45040220_kano466.jpg

A nightly carnival where bachelors are ridiculed into getting married is under way in northern Nigeria.

Until 1 October, Kano's "Bachelor catcher" and his band of musicians will roam the streets, parading a bachelor they have caught in a noose.

The carnival is part of the celebrations of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, where people fast during the daylight hours.

These days the bachelor is a symbolic one, chosen for the event.

But in the past the troop of drummers known as "Nalako" used to roam the streets looking for men they thought should do the decent thing and marry.

Hereditary

The title of Kano's "Bachelor catcher", the Sarkin Nalako, has been handed down for at least three generations, according to its current holder Auwalu Nalako.

"This is something my father did, and his father before him. It is of great importance," he says.

Auwalu's two sons will take over from him, he says.

After sunset, when Muslims break their fast, it is traditional among Kano's Hausa population for young men to go into the streets in groups and go door-to-door dancing and singing.

People give contributions of food or money.

Bachelor 'dogs'

But the Nalako group have a message to their songs.

They call bachelors "dogs" and say their prayers during Ramadan are worthless.

The Sarkin Nalako dresses up like a hunter, and his bachelor prey is paraded around with a rough noose around his neck and indigo dye smeared on his face.

Their songs are accompanied by goatskin drums and metal bells.

"Its important to encourage people to get married to avoid the immorality of having sexual intercourse with lots of people," says the Sarkin Nalako.

In Hausa tradition, a man cannot be recognised as an adult unless he is married.

Those without the means to marry are often denied respect and a voice in society.


BBC News

[Slayer_X]

God i love living in a free country

[Slayer_X]

ummmmmm dasterdly!

[Black Widow]

A CRAZED gunman who killed 11 people during a school shooting was questioned and RELEASED by police just a DAY before the massacre.

Masked Matti Juhani Saari, 22, who went on to murder 11 this morning before turning the gun on himself, was brought in after posting violent videos on website YouTube.

The killing spree began just before 11am as more than 150 students went to class in Kauhajoki, 180 miles northwest of Helsinki.

Witnesses said panic broke out as Saari, who shot himself in the head and later died in hospital, entered the school and opened fire.

Finland's interior minister, Anne Holmlund, said the gunman was detained for questioning yesterday about the YouTube postings in which he is seen firing a handgun.

In one of the clips the man wearing a leather jacket fires several shots in rapid succession with a handgun at what appears to be a shooting range.

The posting was made five days before today's atrocity and the location was given as Kauhajoki.

The posting included a message saying: “Whole life is war and whole life is pain.

"And you will fight alone in your personal war.”

Ms Holmlund said police released the man because they had no legal reason to detain him.

School janitor Jukka Forsberg said of the shooting: “Within a short space of time I heard several dozen rounds of shots, in other words it was an automatic pistol.

“I saw some female students who were wailing and moaning, and one managed to escape out of the back door.”

The Finnish news agency STT reported that the school building was on fire and the gunman had explosives on him.

Vesa Nyrhinen, detective superintendent from the local police, said of the gunman: “He was wounded by his own bullets.”

College rector Timo Varmola said there were 150 students in the school at the time.

The 22-year-old identified himself on the video sharing website as Mr Saari.

He had posted three other clips of himself firing a handgun in the past three weeks.

Clips from the 1999 Columbine school shootings in Colorado were listed among his favourite videos.

The shootings happened almost a year after another gunman killed eight people and himself at a school in southern Finland.

Pekka-Eric Auvinen, described by police as a bullied 18-year-old outcast, opened fire at his high school, on November 7.

He killed six students, a school nurse and the principal before ending his own life with a gunshot to the head.

The 2007 attack triggered a fierce debate about gun laws in the Nordic nation.


the sun

[Swinny]

God i love living in a free country

Lol, yup, I'm with ya there.

[Swinny]

Damn. Yet another school shooting. There's just way too many.

[JohnCenaFan28]

The UN's atomic watchdog says it has removed seals and surveillance cameras from part of North Korea's main nuclear complex at Pyongyang's request.

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North Korea says the move is part of a plan to reactivate the Yongbyon plant, and that it plans to return nuclear material to the site next week.

The move comes amid a dispute over an international disarmament-for-aid deal.

A similar step in 2002 sparked a crisis which eventually resulted in Pyongyang testing a nuclear weapon in 2006.

The removal of seals and cameras "was completed today" at the site, a spokeswoman for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said.

IAEA inspectors will have no further access to the reprocessing plant, she added.

The US said North Korea's decision to exclude UN monitors was "very disappointing" and urged Pyongyang to reconsider the move or face further isolation.

"We strongly urge the North to reconsider these steps and come back immediately into compliance with its obligations as outlined in the six-party agreements," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

He said that Washington remained "open to further discussions" with the North on their obligations for denuclearisation.

The North has been locked in discussions for years over its nuclear ambitions with five other nations - South Korea, the US, China, Russia and Japan.

Symbolic gesture

Pyongyang began dismantling the reactor, which can be used to make weapons-grade plutonium, last November.

However, on Friday it announced that it was working to reactivate it.

North Korea was expecting to be removed from the US terror list after submitting a long-delayed account of its nuclear facilities to the international talks in June, in accordance with the disarmament deal it signed in 2007.

It also blew up the main cooling tower at Yongbyon in a symbolic gesture of its commitment to the process.

However, the US said it would not remove North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism until procedures by which the North's disarmament would be verified were established.

North and South Korea have been technically at war since their 1950-53 conflict ended without a peace treaty.

Fuel rods

Experts say the Yongbyon plant could take up to a year to bring back into commission, so there will be no new plutonium production for a while.

However, there is plenty already available in the form of the spent fuel rods, taken from the reactor core, but only removed to a water-cooled tank on the site, says the BBC's John Sudworth in Seoul.

It is this nuclear material that will now be introduced into the separate plutonium reprocessing plant, according to the information given to the IAEA.

Some estimates suggest the fuel rods could yield about 6kg (13lbs) of plutonium within two to three months - enough for one atomic bomb to add to North Korea's existing stockpile.


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

The Iraqi parliament has passed a law which paves the way for provincial elections, after months of wrangling.

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The decision brings to an end months of debate over how the law would be applied to the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.

As a compromise, parliament has agreed to deal separately with the issue of Kirkuk, so that elections can go ahead in other parts of the country.

Agreement over the drafting of the laws has been seen as a key part of political reform in Iraq.

One member of parliament told the BBC the agreement was a sign of national reconciliation.

The law must now go before the country's three-man presidency council, headed by President Jalal Talabani.

The head of the Iraqi parliament's legal committee, Bahaa al-Araji, told reporters that a compromise deal had been reached on Kirkuk.

"We tell our brothers in the south, the centre of Iraq and Kurdistan that this is an achievement by parliament," he said.

"The elections will be soon, so the people of Iraq can put forward their votes to select new local government."

Correspondents say provincial elections are part of an American-backed plan to reconcile rival groups, particularly the Sunnis, who boycotted the last round of provincial elections in 2005.

Disputed city

Control of Kirkuk is disputed between Iraqi Arabs, Kurds and ethnic Turkmen, and disagreements over how to treat the city held up debate in parliament.

Iraqi Kurds believe they should control the city, which has a Kurdish majority but which lies outside their semi-autonomous northern enclave.

They believe any deal should reflect what they say was the "artificial Arabisation" of the city under Saddam Hussein.

But Kirkuk's ethnic Arabs and Turkmen say it should be under the control of the central government.

Parliament adopted a draft provincial election law in July, despite a boycott by Kurdish and some Shia Muslim MPs, but it was rejected by the presidential council.

Deep apathy

Polls had been scheduled for October this year, but were cancelled after MPs failed to reach an agreement.

Mahmoud Mashhadani, speaker of the Iraqi parliament, said the new deal was "what the Iraqi people want" and had been "written for them by the Iraqi politicians".

Parliament has now set a deadline of 31 January 2009 for elections to be held in 14 of Iraq's 18 provinces.

However, that excludes Kirkuk and three other Kurdish provinces, which will hold elections at a later date, reports say.

The BBC's Hugh Sykes, in Baghdad, says that the low level of registration on the electoral roll prior to the earlier cancelled polls suggests a deep level of apathy among voters.

Many people wonder what the point is of turning out to vote when they still have to endure limited electricity supplies, high unemployment and poor facilities, says our correspondent.


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

The chairman of the US Federal Reserve has urged politicians to "act quickly" to support the proposed $700bn (£378bn) bail-out of the financial markets.

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The US economy risked "very serious consequences" if measures were not taken, Ben Bernanke added.

Mr Bernanke said Congress must "address the grave threats to financial stability" which were being faced.

On Tuesday politicians expressed strong scepticism about the bail-out following a five-hour Senate hearing on the plan.

'Work together'

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson had told already the banking panel that delaying the bail-out would put the entire US economy at risk.

The White House has called on Republicans and Democrats to work together to approve the plan, under which a federal fund could buy bad debt from financial institutions with "significant operations in the US".

The fund would aim to sell off these mortgage-related debts in the future when, the Treasury says, their value might have risen.

But congressmen from both sides said they wanted assurances that the plan would benefit ordinary American home-owners as well as Wall Street.

Some have gone further, calling the plan a potential waste of public money.

'Stresses intensified'

For the economy to pick up required a "return to more normal functioning" of the financial system - allowing credit to flow and giving a boost to the housing sector, Mr Bernanke said.

"Despite the efforts of the Federal Reserve, the Treasury, and other agencies, global financial markets remain under extraordinary stress.

"Action by Congress is urgently required to stabilize the situation and avert what otherwise could be very serious consequences for our financial markets and for our economy."

He added that the US economy continued to face substantial challenges, including a weakening labour market and elevated inflation.

"Notably, stresses in financial markets have been high and have recently intensified significantly," he said.

"If financial conditions fail to improve for a protracted period, the implications for the broader economy could be quite adverse."


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

The Bank of East Asia has denied rumours that it is in financial trouble, after thousands of customers queued to withdraw their savings.

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After weeks of global market turmoil, lines of people quickly formed outside the bank's branches in Hong Kong.

In a statement, the bank said the rumours were malicious and untruthful, and they had informed the police.

The speculation was believed to have been spread by mobile phone, and drove the bank's share price down by 11%.

The rumours started earlier this week and customers descended on branches on Wednesday, despite bank staff handing out leaflets to the crowds denying that the bank was in financial difficulty.

'Sound and stable'

"The management of Bank of East Asia hereby states in the strongest possible terms that such rumours have no basis in fact" said the statement.

The origins of financial rumour

"The management further confirms that the bank's financial position is sound and stable," it added.

It also said that its total outstanding exposure to US bankrupt bank Lehman Brothers was HK$422.8m (£29m), and to US insurer AIG was HK$49.9m (£3.5m).

On Friday, Moody's Investors Service changed its outlook on the Hong Kong bank's credit rating from stable to negative, citing a recent insider trading case that exposed "lacklustre internal controls" at the bank.

Last week, the bank revealed a trading loss of HK$93m (£6.5m) that it says was incurred by a rogue equity derivatives trader who "manipulated" valuations to hide losses.

The discovery forced the bank to revise down its earnings for the first half of the year.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority also dismissed the speculation and said the banking system as a whole was "safe and sound."

"I can confirm, categorically, that these rumours are unfounded," said Joseph Yam, the authority's chief executive.

"It is a very sound bank", he added.


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

The United States military says US and Afghan forces have exchanged gunfire with Pakistani troops across the border with Afghanistan.

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A senior US military official says a five-minute skirmish broke out after Pakistani soldiers fired warning shots near two US helicopters.

No one was hurt in the incidents and the US maintains its troops did not cross the border from Afghanistan.

Cross-border action by US-led forces has angered Pakistan in recent weeks.

The latest incident took place along the Pakistani border with the eastern Afghan region of Khost, an area which is a hotbed of militant groups.

Forces from the US-led coalition and the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) patrol the frontier, but Pakistan has been angered by reported US operations across the border in pursuit of insurgents.

A BBC correspondent says the border between the two countries is very unclear and in effect is marked by a 3km-4km (one to two mile) stretch of no-man's land.

Escorting troops

Nato said the helicopters - which belong to its Isaf mission - came under fire from a Pakistani checkpoint.

A US Central Command spokesman, Rear Admiral Greg Smith, said Pakistani soldiers at the checkpoint were observed firing on two US OH-58 Kiowa helicopters that had been covering a patrol of Afghan and US troops about a mile (1.6km) inside Afghanistan.

"The ground forces then fired into the hillside nearby that checkpoint, gained their attention, which worked," he said.

"Unfortunately, though, the [Pakistani] unit decided to shoot down a hillside at our ground forces. Our ground forces returned fire."

However, the Pakistani military gave a different account.

In a statement, commanders said troops fired warning shots at the helicopters when they strayed over the Pakistan border.

"When the helicopters passed over our border post and were well within Pakistani territory, our own security forces fired anticipatory warning shots," a statement said.

"On this, the helicopters returned fire and flew back."

In New York, Pakistan's new prime minister gave another version of events when he said that Pakistan forces had fired "flares" to warn the helicopters they were near the border.

Later, in an address to the UN General Assembly, he referred to the cross-border tension when he said that his country could not allow its territory to "be violated by our friends".

An Isaf spokesman said he believed the incident was a misunderstanding, but he was certain the helicopters had been operating on the Afghan side of the border.

The BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan, in Islamabad, says that the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan is very unclear.

The Afghan-Pakistan militant nexus
US attacks raise stakes in Pakistan

There is an imaginary border called the Durand line which each side marks differently.

Pakistan says that the area of no-man's land along the border is its territory and Afghanistan makes similar claims.

Tension between Washington and Islamabad has risen since 3 September, when the US conducted a ground assault in Pakistani territory, its first, targeting what it said was a militant target in the tribal region of South Waziristan.

Pakistan reacted angrily to the action, saying 20 innocent villagers had been killed by US troops.

Local officials have said that on two occasions since then Pakistani troops or tribesmen have opened fire to stop US forces crossing the border. The claims were not officially confirmed.

On Wednesday, a drone believed to be operated by the CIA crashed inside Pakistan.

The US and Nato have called on Pakistan to do more to curb militants operating in the border area.


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has urged the lifting of what he called illegal sanctions against his country.

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Speaking at the UN General Assembly in New York, he said the sanctions were hampering Zimbabwe's economy.

After his re-election in disputed polls this year, Western countries tightened measures against individuals and firms seen to be supporting Mr Mugabe.

At the UN, he also called for reform of the Security Council, saying it had become the tool of powerful countries.

Zimbabwe's economy has gone into a sharp crisis in recent years, with inflation now standing at 11,000,000%.

'False accusations'

"Once again, I appeal to the world's collective conscience to apply pressure for the immediate removal of these sanctions by Britain, the United States and their allies, which have brought untold suffering to our people," he said.

Mr Mugabe frequently blames the limited sanctions for his country's economic woes.

An attempt to tighten the sanctions earlier this year failed to get UN backing after China and Russia refused to support them.

Mugabe calls for an end to sanctions against Zimbabwe

He said powerful nations on the Security Council - which he did not name - had falsely accused his government of human rights abuses.

Supporters of Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party were accused of mounting a campaign of intimidation against the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) during the elections earlier this year.

"By the way, those who falsely accuse us of these violations are themselves international perpetrators of genocide, acts of aggression and mass destruction," he said, referring to the invasion of Iraq.

Mr Mugabe said the Security Council had become undemocratic and should be re-organised to include greater geographical representation with permanent seats for African nations.

He also thanked South Africa's former President Thabo Mbeki for brokering a power-sharing agreement reached earlier this month with the MDC.

Under the deal, a new government is to be formed with ministers from both Zanu-PF and the MDC.

Mr Mugabe said the agreement showed Africans could solve African problems, which, he said, were often the legacy of the West's colonial involvement in the continent.


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

A Canadian man has been found guilty of participating in a terrorist group that allegedly planned to storm parliament and behead the prime minister.

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The 20-year-old was arrested in 2006 along with 17 others in a massive anti-terrorism operation in Toronto.

Delivering the verdict, the judge said there was "overwhelming" evidence that a terrorist group existed and that the accused "knew what it was about".

The trials of 10 others, including the alleged ringleaders, are still pending.

Charges against the remaining suspects have since been dropped.

Undercover operation

The man, a convert to Islam, cannot be identified under Canadian law as he was a minor at the time his arrest in 2006.

He had denied all terrorism-related charges, and his lawyer argued that the bomb plot was a "jihadi fantasy" that the accused knew nothing about.

However, Superior Court Justice John Sproat found him guilty of attending terrorist training camps and described him as an eager "acolyte" of the ringleader.

"He clearly understood the camp was for terrorist purposes," the judge told a court in Ontario.

"Planning and working toward ultimate goals that appear unattainable or even unrealistic does not militate against a finding that this was a terrorist group," he said.

He found the defendant guilty of participating in a terrorist organisation rather than the more serious crime of plotting bomb attacks - a charge faced by some of the group.

The cell members were arrested in the summer of 2006.

Prosecutors said the group conspired to obtain several tonnes of ammonium nitrate - a fertilizer that can be used to make explosives - and bomb key Canadian landmarks including the parliament buildings in Ottawa.

Canada's intelligence agency described the alleged campaign as "al-Qaeda inspired".


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

Pirates who seized a Ukrainian ship off the coast of Somalia have reportedly demanded a ransom of $35m (£19m) to release the vessel and its crew.

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The pirates earlier warned against any attempt to rescue the crew or cargo of the MV Faina, which is carrying 33 battle tanks destined for Kenya.

Pirates have seized dozens of ships near Somalia's coast in recent months.

A Russian Navy vessel is heading to the region and the US says it is monitoring developments in the area.

A spokesman for the pirates, who gave his name as Jalal Jama Ali, told a Somali website that the group were prepared to negotiate with the Kenyan government, but would not release the vessel unless the ransom was paid.

'Global security problem'

On Friday, Ukrainian Defence Minister Yury Yekhanurov confirmed 33 Russian T-72 tanks and "a substantial quantity of ammunition" were aboard the Faina.

Ukraine's foreign ministry said the ship had a crew of 21 and was sailing towards the Kenyan port of Mombasa.

The ship's captain had reported being surrounded by three boats of armed men on Thursday afternoon, it said.

Earlier reports suggested that the cargo had been destined for south Sudan, but Kenyan government spokesman Alfred Mutua confirmed the tanks were heading to Kenya.

"The cargo in the ship includes military hardware such as tanks and an assortment of spare parts for use by different branches of the Kenyan military," he said.

Security analyst Knox Chitiyo told the BBC the latest incident showed the waters off Somalia's coast had become a "global security problem".

"Piracy has become big business and there seems to be no concerted response to the problem," said Mr Chitiyo, from the London-based Royal United Services Institute.

Authorities in Somalia's semi-autonomous region of Puntland say they are powerless to confront the pirates, who regularly hold ships for ransom at the port of Eyl.

Senior UN officials estimate the ransoms pirates earn from hijacking ships exceed $100m (£54m) a year.

Pirate "mother ships" travel far out to sea and launch smaller boats to attack passing vessels, sometimes using rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs).

Last week, France circulated a draft UN resolution urging states to deploy naval vessels and aircraft to combat such piracy.

France, which has troops in nearby Djibouti and also participates in a multi-national naval force patrol in the area, has intervened twice to release French sailors kidnapped by pirates.

Commandos freed two people whose boat was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden earlier this month and in April, six arrested pirates were handed over to the French authorities for trial.

Russia announced on Friday it would start carrying out regular anti-piracy patrols in the waters off Somalia to protect Russian citizens and ships. A warship had been sent to the area earlier this week, it said.

Somalia has been without a functioning central government for 17 years and has suffered from continual civil strife.


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

A bomb blast at a market in India's capital has killed one person and injured at least 15 others.

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The market, in the Mehrauli area, was packed with shoppers when, according to eyewitnesses, two men drove up in a motorcycle and dropped a package.

Police have described it as a low intensity explosive device.

Two weeks ago, five bombs ripped through busy shopping areas in Delhi, killing at least 20 people. Nearly 50 were killed in Ahmadabad in July.

Police say they have arrested the head of a group claiming the attacks.

Mohammed Arif Sheikh, described as the founder of the Indian Mujahideen (IM), was arrested along with four others, Mumbai (Bombay) police said on Thursday.

Blood and glass

Television footage showed shards of glass in the market area, with people walking about in blood-stained shirts.

The site has been cordoned off and fire fighters have rushed to the area.

Ambulances are ferrying the injured to hospital. Some are said to be in a serious condition.

The brother of the 13-year-old boy who died said he had sent his brother to buy eggs when the blast went off.

"He had barely entered the shop to buy the crate (of eggs), smoke started coming out of a tiffin and suddenly there was a blast and he died on the spot," he said.

Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said they were questioning eyewitnesses who saw two men throw something from a passing motorcycle.


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

A cargo ship, believed to be Ukrainian or Russian, sank in stormy waters off the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria with 13 crew members aboard, authorities say.

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The 5,000 tonne Tolstoy, carrying scrap metal, did not send out a distress call, said Nikolai Apostolov, head of the Bulgarian maritime office.

Bulgarian authorities were alerted by a Russian satellite centre, he said.

News agencies report that the ship's crew, believed to be Ukrainian with a Russian captain, are all missing.

Rescue helicopters and ships were searching the waters 20 kilometres (12 miles) off Cape Emine on Bulgaria's northern Black Sea coast, but their efforts were hampered by rough weather.

The ship sank at about 0400 (0100 GMT).

The Tolstoy, which sailed under a North Korean flag, departed from the southern Russian port city of Rostov-on-Don on 21 September and was destined for Turkey.


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

The authorities in Mexico have arrested three people suspected of throwing grenades that killed eight people and wounded more than 100 last week.

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The grenades exploded during independence day celebrations in the city of Morelia, in western Mexico.

Investigators say the three men are members of a unit of the Gulf drug cartel, known as the Zetas.

The attacks shocked Mexico, because they appeared to target civilians, not security forces or other criminals.

The explosions went off in the main square of Morelia as the crowds celebrated the independence day on 16 September.

Police say the three arrests came as a result of an anonymous tip-off.

The city is the capital of Michoacan, a state hit by a wave of drug gang violence in recent years.

Drug-related violence in Mexico has claimed the lives of more than 2,700 people so far this year.


BBC News

[John]

Thanks for the news!

[JohnCenaFan28]

Austria's Social Democrats won the most votes in the country's early election but far right parties made significant gains, the interior ministry has said.

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Preliminary official results from Sunday's poll show Social Democrats with 29.7% of the vote.

But the country's two far right parties made large gains, winning a total vote share of 29% between them.

The conservative People's Party, which was in a faltering coalition with the Social Democrats, won 25.6%.

The interior minister, Maria Fekter, said the far right Freedom Party had won 18.01% percent of the vote and the Alliance for the Future of Austria had 10.98%.

The elections were called after Austria's 18-month-old coalition collapsed.

The BBC's Bethany Bell, in Vienna, described the far right gains as a "slap in the face" to the centrist parties.

Full official results will not be known until absentee and postal ballots, making up about 10% of the votes, are counted.

Outrage across Europe

For the first time in an EU country, 16 and 17-year-olds were able to vote. This bloc represented about 200,000 of the 6.3 million-strong electorate.

Elections were last held in October 2006. It took a further six months for the government to form a cabinet.

The far right showing was its strongest showing in Austria since 2000, when the Freedom Party won 28% and gained a place in the coalition government with the conservatives.

That development sparked outrage across Europe and for several months Austria was placed under EU sanctions.

In this election, the shape of any future governing coalition is hard to predict, our correspondent said, before the vote.

Analysts say the far right could re-enter government but only after all other options are exhausted.

These include another grand coalition or pacts with the Greens or the two other smaller parties.


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

Sudanese officials say their forces have shot and killed six of the kidnappers who abducted a group of European tourists in Egypt last week.

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Two other suspected kidnappers have been taken into custody, but the tourists themselves remain in captivity in Chad, officials in Sudan said.

The hostages - 11 tourists and eight Egyptian guides - were taken on 19 September and are said to be unharmed.

They include five Germans, five Italians and a Romanian.

A spokesman for Sudan's military said that the kidnappers were killed following a high-speed desert chase.

Sawarmy Khaled said the missing Europeans, who were abducted in Egypt but thought to have been taken first to Sudan and are now being held in neighbouring Chad.

Leader 'dead'

Mr Khaled said the Sudanese military forces were near the Libyan border when they encountered a white vehicle carrying eight armed men.

"The armed forces called for it to stop, but they did not respond and there was pursuit in which six of the armed men were killed," he said, adding that the group's leader, who he identified as a Chadian named Bakhit, was among the dead.

The remaining two gunmen were captured and they confessed to being involved in kidnapping the tourists and their guides, who were on desert safari in southwest Egypt.

The tourists, who were seized while near Gilf al-Kebir in Egypt, are being held by 35 other gunmen in the Tabbat Shajara region of Chad, Mr Khaled added.

He said the vehicle was "full of weapons including RPGs" and documents from the Sudan Liberation Movement "about how to distribute the ransom when received".

The shootings come as negotiations continue for the release of the hostages.

An Egyptian official told the AFP news agency that the kidnappers and German negotiators had agreed to a deal but that "negotiations were still ongoing to work out details."

The kidnappers have demanded that Germany take charge of payment of an $8.8m ransom.

German officials have declined comment.


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

At least 23 people have been killed and dozens more wounded in a string of bomb attacks in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, police have said.

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Police said a car bomb followed by a roadside bomb killed 10 people and wounded 22 in the busy Karrada shopping district of the centre of the capital.

Earlier they reported two bombs killed 13 people in other districts.

The blasts occurred before the breaking of the fast for the evening meal during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

Gunmen in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar have killed the country's most prominent policewoman, officials say.

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Lt-Col Malalai Kakar, head of Kandahar's department of crimes against women, was shot in her car as she was about to leave for work.

Her son was also wounded in the attack, and is said to be seriously injured.

Taleban rebels, who banned women from joining the police when they were in power, said they had carried out the shooting.

"We killed Malalai Kakar," a Taleban spokesman told AFP news agency.

"She was our target, and we successfully eliminated our target."

The BBC's Martin Patience in Kabul says Ms Kakar was one of only a few hundred female police officers in Afghanistan and that she had previously received death threats.

Prominent

Ms Kakar, who was reported to be in her early 40s and had six children, was one of the most high-profile women in the country.

She has figured prominently in the national and international media, partly due to a famous episode in which she killed three would-be assassins in a shoot-out - although she said her everyday life involved tackling theft, fights and murders.

Ms Kakar joined Kandahar's police force in 1982, after her father and brothers were also police officers.

But when the hard-line Taleban regime took over Afghanistan she was prevented from working.

Working in the police force in Afghanistan has become an increasingly dangerous occupation, says our correspondent.

According to the Ministry of Interior, more than 700 police officers were killed in the first six months of 2008.

The majority of the casualties were killed in suicide attacks and roadside bombings.

In June, another woman police officer was gunned down in Herat province in a killing believed to have been the first of its kind.

Kandahar is a key battleground of the Taleban insurgency, where Afghan and foreign troops are fighting the rebels.


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

Police in the US state of Maryland say they have found the frozen bodies of two children in the freezer of a house in Calvert County.

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A 43-year-old woman told police the children were her adopted daughters and had been frozen since February.

The remains were found by authorities investigating reports of child abuse at the address.

The county sheriff's office told the BBC the woman was arrested and was being held without bail.

The authorities visited the house, in Lusby, on Saturday to investigate reports of abuse against a third child, a seven-year-old girl, who showed "signs of extreme abuse and neglect", the sheriff's department said.

When police arrived at her house to look for evidence of the alleged abuse, they found the children's remains in a chest-style freezer.

The woman said that the remains were those of her adopted children and had been in the freezer since she had moved to the area in February, said police.

She also admitted to hitting the seven-year-old with a "hard-heeled shoe".

"It's a tragedy, and it gets to you a little bit," County Sheriff Mike Evans told a news conference on Monday.

"You think you've seen it all, but you haven't."

Police confirmed that the woman had adopted three children but that they had not yet been able to examine and identify the bodies.

The woman has been charged with first degree child abuse and is being held in a county jail without bail.


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

At least five people have been killed in a suspected car bomb attack on a military bus carrying soldiers in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli.

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Witnesses said the blast happened on the outskirts of the city during morning rush hour. Some 30 people are believed to be wounded.

Several soldiers as well as civilians were killed in a similar blast on a bus in the city last month.

Lebanon's leaders said the attacks were an attempt to destabilise the country.

Efforts have been under way recently to try and reconcile Lebanon's rival factions after a wave of violence in May pushed the country close to civil war.

Pro-government Sunni fighters and pro-Syrian gunmen, whose fighting has centred on Tripoli, agreed to a peace deal earlier this month.

Threatened deal

Lebanese officials said the blast came after a car parked by a busy roadside near the southern entrance to the city was detonated by remote control.

The explosives were believed to have been mixed with nuts and bolts, and shattered nearby windows and damaged other cars.

The blast appeared to target a military bus that was passing through morning traffic in the Bahsas neighborhood at the time.

Security sources said four of the dead and at least 21 of the wounded were soldiers, the rest were civilians.

TV pictures showed soldiers sealing off the area and preventing people from approaching the scene of the blast.

Government officials said an investigation into the attack was under way, but no one had yet claimed responsibility.

At least 14 people were killed in a similar attack on a bus in the city in August. Several of the victims were off-duty soldiers.

'Terrorist act'

"Once again the hand of treachery has reached the military institution in a clear targeting of security and stability," the Lebanese military said in a statement after Monday's attack.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said the bombing was aimed at undermining efforts to reconcile Lebanon's various rival factions.

Syria too denounced the bombing, calling it a "terrorist and criminal act".

A similar bombing in the Syrian capital Damascus killed at least 17 people just two days ago.

The Syrian authorities have blamed the attack on Islamist extremists, and say the car came from a "neighbouring Arab country".

The BBC's Natalia Antelava says some analysts believe this new trend for car bombings in the region is directly linked to the changing situation in Iraq.

As the security situation improves there, analysts say, so insurgents are driving their members across the border into neighbouring countries.


BBC News

[Swinny]

There's way too much news like this on a regular basis. It's horrible. There's too many sick people out there...

[JohnCenaFan28]

A group of Western tourists and their Egyptian guides, who were kidnapped 10 days ago by gunmen, have been freed.

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The 11 hostages - five Italians, five Germans and a Romanian - and some eight guides are said to be in good health.

The group, abducted in a remote border region of Egypt, have now arrived at a military base in the capital, Cairo.

Egyptian officials said they were freed in a mission near Sudan's border with Chad, and that half of the kidnappers were killed. No ransom was paid.

The freed hostages were greeted by Egyptian military and government officials on arrival in Cairo as well as foreign diplomats, and were then taken for medical checks.

Sudanese authorities had been tracking the group since early last week through a remote mountainous plateau that straddles the borders of Egypt, Libya and Sudan.

They were seized in an ambush at around dawn on Monday, Egyptian security sources said. Some 150 Egyptian special forces were then sent to Sudan, officials said.

German officials had been negotiating via satellite phone with the kidnappers, who were demanding a ransom of $8.8m (£4.9m). Egyptian officials said no money exchanged hands.

Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said that Sudanese and Egyptian forces had carried out "a highly professional operation".

He added that "Italian intelligence and experts from the special forces" in Italy and Germany had been involved.

Egypt's defence minister said that half of hostage-takers had been "eliminated", without giving precise figures.

The BBC's Christian Fraser, in Cairo, says Egypt's tourism minister will be relieved.

The abductees had been touring in an area well off the beaten track but a messy end to this crisis would not have been good for the health of the Egyptian economy, our correspondent says.

Suspects

The breakthrough comes a day after Sudanese troops clashed with alleged kidnappers in northern Sudan, killing six gunmen. Another two were taken into custody.

The two suspects claimed the tourists were in Chad but their exact whereabouts at the time of rescue remains unclear. Chad denied the group was within its borders.

In a statement, the military said the vehicle of the hostage-takers was full of weapons and documents detailing how the ransom should have been paid.

Other documents found inside led the army to believe a faction of the Darfur rebel Sudan Liberation Army was involved in the kidnapping.

None of Darfur's numerous rebel groups have said they were linked to the kidnappings.

Other reports said the abduction, near the Gilf al-Kebir plateau, was carried out by tribesmen or bandits operating in the area.


BBC News

[Black Widow]

An aspiring chef died after eating a super-hot chilli sauce as part of an endurance competition with a friend.

Andrew Lee, 33, challenged his girlfriend’s brother to a contest to see who could eat the spiciest sauce that he could create.

The fork-lift truck driver, who wanted to cook for a living, prepared a tomato sauce made with red chillies grown on his father’s allotment. After eating it, however, he suffered intense discomfort and itching. The following morning he was found dead, possibly after suffering a heart attack.

Toxicology tests are being conducted to try to establish if he suffered a reaction to the food.

An inquest was told that Lee, from Edlington, England, was in perfect health and had just passed a medical examination at work. He was a keen cook and would often prepare meals for his parents. It is believed that Mr Lee had never prepared a dish as hot as the one he made the night before his death.

Lee’s sister, Claire Chadbourne, 29, said that he took a jar of the sauce to the home of his girlfriend, Samantha Bailey, and challenged her brother Michael, 29, to see who could eat it. “Andrew just ate the chillies with a plate of Dolmio sauce,” she added. “It was not a proper meal because he had already eaten lamb chops and potato mash after work.

“He apparently got into bed at 2.30am and started scratching all over. His girlfriend scratched his back until he fell asleep. She woke up and he had gone. It is incredible. Who would have thought he could have died from eating chilli sauce? We don’t know of anything else that could have caused his death. The postmortem showed no heart problems.

“He loved cooking for his friends. He always said he wanted to be a chef but didn’t want to start at the bottom.”

An inquest was opened and adjourned in Doncaster last week.


foxnews.com

[Slayer_X]

Umm id like to see toxicology report

[Black Widow]

http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/3994/15087184ir3.jpg


The eBay sale of a digital camera which reportedly contained MI6 images of terror suspects is being probed by police, the Foreign Office has confirmed.

A bidder bought the camera for £17 on the auction website.

He reportedly found photos of terror suspects, their names and fingerprints and even snaps of rocket launchers and missiles.

The 28-year-old from Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, only discovered the secret images when he downloaded his own holiday snaps from the Nikon Cool Pix camera.

He told local police and was shocked when Special Branch officers arrived at his home days later to seize his new purchase.

Officers have made five visits to his home in the last week to quiz him and his family, according to The Sun.

A spokeswoman for Hertfordshire Police said: "We can confirm we seized a camera after a member of the public reported it. Intelligence officers are investigating."

And the Foreign Office said: "We can confirm a police investigation is under way."

But the spokeswoman said she could not confirm or deny the intelligence service's involvement in the probe.

She refused to comment on reports that the camera was sold by an MI6 agent.

Among the images reportedly on the camera is a document, marked "top secret", which gives details of the encrypted computer system used by MI6's agents in the field.

The Sun said some of the material relates to 46-year-old Abdul al Hadi al Iraqi, a high-ranking al Qaeda officer, who was captured by the CIA in 2007.

A friend of the un-named buyer is quoted as saying: "He only bought the camera because he was going on holiday with his ex.

"He flew home early this month and downloaded his holiday pictures and saw some of rocket launchers and missiles.

"He knew he hadn't taken them so he asked his friends about it and they suggested going to the police."


Sky News

[Black Widow]

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They looked like the odd couple when they posed in central London.

The world's smallest man hooked up with the lady with the longest legs.

He Pingping, who is just 74.61cm tall (2ft 5.37in), posed on steps in London's Trafalgar Square with Russian Svetlana Pankratova, whose legs have been measured at 132cm (4ft 3.9in).

That is almost twice his height.

Pingping admitted he was head over heels in love - but not with the lady towering above him.

Pingping, who was born with primordial dwarfism, was thinking as ever of his girlfriend back in Inner Mongolia.

He said through an interpreter: "I always miss her when I'm not with her."

The 20-year-old has been going out with the woman, who is of average height, for six months.

He is from Huade County in Wulanchabu, and at the time of his birth was no bigger than his father's palm.

He Pingping met Svetlana at the launch of the 2009 edition of the Guinness World Records book.

Svetlana, from Volgograd, lives with her Russian boyfriend on the Costa del Sol in Spain, and is 1m 96cm tall (6ft 4in).

The 36-year-old said of He Pingping: "I heard he was going to be the shortest man, but I didn't realise he was going to be that small.

"He seems very happy, he smiles and laughs a lot."

Svetlana, who works in a real estate agency business in Spain, already has a boyfriend shorter than herself.

"I don't mind dating a shorter person, my boyfriend is 1m 85cm (6ft 1in)," she said.



World Records 2008


Oldest living person - 114 years and 115 days - Edna Parker, US


Most searched person on the internet - Britney Spears, US


Best selling album in the UK in one week by a female - Leona Lewis, UK


Largest underwater press conference - 61 journalists


Oldest DNA - 800,000 years


Angelina Jolie - World's Most Powerful Actress


Brad Pitt - World's Most Powerful Actor


Sky News

[JohnCenaFan28]

Thanks for the news.

[JohnCenaFan28]

Thanks for the news.

[JohnCenaFan28]

Wow, that's strange. Thanks for the news.

[JohnCenaFan28]

A Canadian Conservative Party speech-writer has resigned after Prime Minister Stephen Harper was accused of plagiarism in a speech he made in 2003.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45067000/jpg/_45067140_harperap226b.jpg

Owen Lippert admitted he had been "overzealous in copying segments" of a speech in support of the invasion of Iraq by then Australian PM John Howard.

Mr Lippert said neither his superiors nor Mr Harper, who was opposition leader at the time, had been aware.

The accusation comes half-way through a general election campaign.

Mr Harper, who has led a minority government since January 2006, called the snap election for 14 October last month, hoping to obtain a parliamentary majority, for which he needs to win 28 more seats.

Opinion polls suggest the conservatives are within striking distance of doing so, having maintained a near 10-point lead over the Liberals.

Context 'even worse'

The speech by Mr Harper was originally made on 20 March 2003 as the House of Commons in Ottawa held an emergency debate at the beginning of the US-led war in Iraq.

In the debate, Mr Harper urged Canada and the Liberal government to join the so-called "coalition of the willing".

Five years later at a campaign stop on Tuesday, a Liberal MP for Toronto, Bob Rae, made accused the prime minister of plagiarism.

Mr Harper's 2003 speech had been made almost word-for-word two days before in Canberra by his former Australian counterpart, John Howard, he said.

To prove the allegation, portions of the speeches were played side by side.

"In the interests of world peace and regional security... The community of nations required Iraq to surrender," Mr Howard said in his speech.

"In the interests of peace and regional security... The community of nations required Iraq to surrender," Mr Harper said two days later.

Mr Rae said the discovery was made by accident almost two months ago by Liberal strategists who were looking for similarities between Mr Harper's government and that of US President George W Bush.

The Liberals said they did not release the information until Tuesday because they had been waiting to receive a videotape of Mr Howard's speech from Australia.

Liberal leader Stephane Dion said Mr Harper ought to be "expelled" by his party, and that the context in which the plagiarism had occurred made it "even worse".

"It's about Stephen Harper saying that Canada should go with the war in Iraq," he said.

"He's unable to choose his own words," he added. "Canadians want their country [to] speak with its own voice on the world stage."

'Pressed for time'

Conservative campaign spokesman Kory Teneycke initially refused to discuss the allegations of plagiarism.

"I'm not going to get into a debate about a five-year-old speech that was delivered three parliaments ago, two elections ago," he told the CBC.

But eventually Mr Lippert, who describes himself as an expert in intellectual property, apologised and announced his resignation.

"Pressed for time, I was overzealous in copying segments of another world leader's speech," he said in a statement.

"Neither my superiors in the office of the leader of the opposition nor the leader of the opposition was aware that I had done so."

The BBC's Lee Carter in Toronto says the revelation comes during an election campaign that has focused heavily on leadership, with Mr Harper depicting himself as honest and dependable, contrasting himself to Mr Dion, who has been criticised for poor leadership and communication skills.

The two men are to face each other shortly in two vital televised debates - one in French on Wednesday and another in English on Thursday.


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

Spanish police have arrested 121 people in what they described as the country's largest ever operation against internet child pornography.

Millions of images that show child sex abuse were seized in a series of nationwide raids, which uncovered a network spanning 75 countries.

Police say two of those held were using their own children to make pornography.

A further 96 people have been charged with possession and distribution of child pornography.

Foreign assistance

The arrests, made over the past seven days, were part of a long-term operation which began in July last year with the help of Brazilian police.

Those detained include bank clerks, porters and airline pilots, and some are foreigners resident in Spain.

About 800 officers were involved in conducting 210 searches in 42 different provinces that "seized millions of archives of videos and photographs some of which show extremely harsh abuse of minors", police said.

In addition, 347 hard drives, 1,186 CDs and DVDs and 36 laptops were seized.

Enrique Rodriguez, from the police's Technological Investigation Brigade, told Spanish radio that the network was enormous, involving 18,000 IP addresses across the world, including 1,600 in Spain.

IP addresses are unique numbers that identify each computer connected to the internet.

Police say the foreign leads will now be followed up through Interpol.

The raids bring to 1,200 the number of people arrested for child pornography in Spain over the past five years.


BBC News

Thank you Spain!

[JohnCenaFan28]

A suspected pilotless American drone has fired missiles in a border area of Pakistan, killing at least six people, Pakistani intelligence officials say.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45067000/jpg/_45067873_41ad4886-fa16-4261-a82f-fceb24b446ab.jpg

Officials said a house was hit near the town of Mir Ali in North Waziristan and nine people were also injured.

Some reports say the missiles were fired after the drone was shot at.

A spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan told the BBC News website that he "was not aware" of a drone attack taking place.

The Pakistani army has not commented on the incident.

Haven

Tension between the US and Pakistan has increased over cross-border incursions against militants by American forces based in Afghanistan.

North Waziristan is known as a haven for Taleban and al-Qaeda fighters who enter Afghanistan.

Foreign fighters from Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and the Middle East are all thought to be based there.

The BBC's Barbara Plett in Islamabad says that, according to some reports, the house of a local Taleban leader was struck near Mir Ali, but the reports are not confirmed.

She says there is no clear indication as to who was killed in the missile strike.

The United States has stepped up missile attacks from drones in the region in recent weeks.

It says that they are used against militant targets, but our correspondent says that sometimes intelligence failures have led to civilian casualties.

Shot down

Such attacks seem likely to continue as long as US and Nato forces in Afghanistan believe that Taleban and al-Qaeda forces are taking refuge in Pakistan's tribal areas, our correspondent says.

Last week, the Pakistani army said it was investigating the wreckage of a suspected US spy plane found in South Waziristan, although it dismissed suggestions the aircraft had been shot down.

Pakistan has protested to Washington about US strikes into its territory, including a raid by commandos on 3 September in which several Pakistanis were killed.

Pakistani and US troops are also reported to have exchanged fire across the border last week.

President Asif Ali Zardari has said he will not tolerate violations of his country's territory.

But in a statement released on Monday, the US State Department affirmed "its support for Pakistan's sovereignty, independence, unity, and territorial integrity".

The statement was released after a meeting in Washington between the US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte and Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi.


BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

Prime Minister Gordon Brown is expected to carry out a limited reshuffle of his Cabinet in the coming days, officials indicated.

Speculation over a widespread shake-up of his frontbench team has cooled in the context of a global financial crisis that has helped quieten Labour internal revolt.

Mr Brown's spokesman has insisted that the PM remained "focused very much on the economic situation and that is his overwhelming priority".

But a smaller-scale revamp has been enforced by the public revelation of Ruth Kelly's desire to quit as Transport Secretary to spend more time with her family.

The timing of the reshuffle has not been confirmed.

Earlier, it was reported Mr Brown would set up an emergency committee to take charge of Britain's response to the financial crisis.

The Times claimed it would be modelled on similar lines to Cobra, the Government's crisis management committee, and would bring together ministers, officials and advisers.

Its secretariat would be run from the Cabinet Office.

According to The Times, the Prime Minister will announce its formation at the same time as the expected reshuffle to replace Ruth Kelly.

Details of Ms Kelly's resignation were confirmed in a chaotic 3am briefing in a hotel bar by aides to Ms Kelly and Gordon Brown during the Labour Party conference last week.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Government attempts to tackle rising energy bills were accused of being in "meltdown" as the latest figures showed a million more households slipped into fuel poverty in 2006.

Some 3.5 million UK households spent more than 10% of their income on heating and powering their homes in 2006, a million more than 2005, official figures showed.

And the situation is worsening - with the Government's own projections suggesting more than 3.5 million households in England alone will be in fuel poverty this year.

Ministers insisted they were committed to tackling the problem, but the new figures drew renewed calls from unions for a windfall tax on energy companies and caps on fuel bills.

The number of households suffering fuel poverty in England rose from 1.5 million in 2005 to 2.4 million in 2006, and was expected to rise to 3.1 million in 2007 and top 3.5 million in 2008. Across the UK, 2.75 million vulnerable households - those with children, elderly people or someone with a long term illness - were in fuel poverty in 2006, including 1.9 million in England.

The worsening situation is caused largely by spiralling gas and electricity bills, which rose 22% between 2005 and 2006 and have jumped twice this year.

Energy firms have blamed the price increases on soaring wholesale costs. The rising prices are increasingly undermining Government commitments to eradicate fuel poverty - as far as reasonably practical - in all vulnerable homes in England by 2010.

In response to the problem, the Government recently pledged an extra £1 billion to tackling fuel poverty. It also upped its obligations on energy suppliers and generators, who are now required to spend £3.7 billion between now and 2011 on helping people with energy efficiency measures.

But Friends of the Earth director Andy Atkins said: "The Government's fuel poverty strategy is in meltdown. The only long term solution to fuel poverty is a massive energy efficiency programme. This will heat homes, cut bills and help meet our targets for tackling climate change."

Help the Aged special adviser Mervyn Kohler said the Government's response to the problem was "completely feeble".

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Gordon Brown has led the praise for the Metropolitan Police commissioner.

The Prime Minister said in a statement: "Sir Ian Blair has made a huge personal contribution to the safety and security of our country, leading the national police effort against terrorism and the fight against crime, successfully introducing neighbourhood policing in London and cutting crime in the capital very significantly.

"I congratulate him and his officers, and of course I want to pay particular tribute to Sir Ian's leadership when London experienced the most serious terrorist attacks ever on British soil."

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith accepted Sir Ian's resignation with reluctance - but the Conservatives welcomed the move.

The Tories repeatedly called for him to stand down after the Metropolitan Police was found guilty last year of serious failures that led to the death of innocent Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes.

Ms Smith said she accepted Sir Ian's decision to quit "with regret".

"Sir Ian has always had my support for the demanding and vital tasks that we expect of the Met," she said.

But shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve accused the Government of showing a "serious lack of judgment" about the leadership of the Met. He said: "This is the right decision.

"We have been calling for Sir Ian to step down for almost a year - since the serial and systematic failings at the Metropolitan Police disclosed during the de Menezes trial - whilst Cabinet ministers from the Prime Minister onwards continued to express total confidence in him.

"It is vital that a successor is appointed who can restore public confidence."

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Sir Ian Blair has announced his resignation as Metropolitan Police Commissioner, saying he cannot continue without the support of London mayor Boris Johnson.

Britain's most senior police officer said the mayor had told him on Wednesday he wanted a "change in leadership" at the top of the Met.

Sir Ian said: "Without the mayor's backing I do not think I can continue in the job."

Mr Johnson took over as chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority on Wednesday.

Sir Ian defended his record at the top of the Met and said it was the duty of the Commissioner to lead the force "through good times and bad".

He said he would leave the job on December 1 after Home Secretary Jacqui Smith had "reluctantly but graciously" accepted his resignation.

"I am resigning not because of any failures of my service and not because the pressures of the office and the many stories that surround it are too much," he said.

"I am resigning in the best interests of the people of London and of the Metropolitan Police Service.

He said he had wanted to stay on until his contract ran out in February 2010. "However, at a meeting the new mayor made clear, in a very pleasant and determined way, that he wished there to be a change of leadership at the Met."

London Mayor Boris Johnson praised Sir Ian Blair but said the Met would benefit from new leadership following his resignation as commissioner.

-Ananova

[Black Widow]

SYDNEY, Australia - A 7-year-old boy broke into a popular Outback zoo, fed a string of animals to the resident crocodile and bashed several lizards to death with a rock, the zoo's director said Friday.

The 30-minute rampage, caught on the zoo's security camera, happened early Wednesday after the boy jumped a security fence at the Alice Springs Reptile Center in central Australia, said zoo director Rex Neindorf.

The child then went on a killing spree, bashing three lizards to death with a rock, including the zoo's beloved, 20-year-old goanna, which he then fed to "Terry," an 11-foot, 440-pound saltwater crocodile, said Neindorf.

The boy also fed several live animals to Terry by throwing them over the two fences surrounding the crocodile's enclosure, at one point climbing over the outer fence to get closer to the giant reptile.

In the footage, the boy's face remains largely blank, Neindorf said, adding: "It was like he was playing a game."

By the time he was done, 13 animals worth around $5,500 had been killed, including a turtle, bearded dragons and thorny devil lizards, Neindorf said. Although none were considered rare, some are difficult to replace, he said.
"We're horrified that anyone can do this and saddened by the age of the child," Neindorf said.

Alice Springs police said they are unable to press charges against the boy because of his age. Children under age 10 can't be charged with criminal offenses in the Northern Territory. His name was not released because of his age.

Neindorf said he plans to sue the boy's parents.
The boy's small size is probably the reason he didn't trip the zoo's security system, which relies on sensors to detect intruders, Neindorf said.

"I just want people to learn that they can't let their children go and run amok," Neindorf said. "If we can't put the blame onto the child, then someone has to accept the responsibility."


AOL News



What a little bastard, where the hell where his parents.. shame a croc didnt eat him.

[Jodes]

wow this is a very sad story. i hope he can get some kind of help for doing what he did.

[JohnCenaFan28]

That's awful...

[JohnCenaFan28]

Peter Mandelson's shock return to the Cabinet has been officially confirmed by Downing Street, shortly after he described his latest comeback as "third time lucky".

Gordon Brown appointed Mr Mandelson Business Secretary in his most radical reshuffle since becoming Prime Minister.

His appointment was the most surprising element of a wider-than-expected shake-up that saw returns for other experienced Labour figures such as Margaret Beckett and Nick Brown.

None of the most senior posts were changed - Chancellor Alistair Darling, Foreign Secretary David Miliband and Home Secretary Jacqui Smith all remaining in their posts.

But John Hutton, who is making way for Mr Mandelson, was named Defence Secretary, with Des Browne leaving the Government altogether.

The transport brief, being vacated by Ruth Kelly who is also stepping down as an MP at the next election to concentrate on family life, goes to Geoff Hoon, previously Chief Whip.

No 10 also announced the creation of a new department, covering energy and climate change, to be headed by Ed Miliband, who moves from the Cabinet Office.

Having given up his parliamentary seat in 2004 to take up the post of Trade Commissioner, Mr Mandelson's return to Government is the latest remarkable twist in the career of a man who was twice forced to quit the Cabinet under a cloud.

It appeared to signal the end of a feud with Mr Brown dating back more than a decade to when Mr Mandelson supported Tony Blair to become Labour leader following the death of John Smith.

Downing Street also confirmed that the present leader of the House of Lords, Baroness Ashton, was the Government's recommendation to Brussels to replace Mr Mandelson as a European commissioner.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Chancellor Alistair Darling has again pledged to do "whatever it takes" to protect bank deposits as Gordon Brown announced plans for a new National Economic Council to co-ordinate the Government's response to the global economic crisis.

At a joint Downing Street press conference with Mr Brown, the Chancellor said savers should be reassured by the Bank of England's promise to make sure that banks had the funds they needed.

At the same time, the Financial Services Authority said it was extending the guarantee to depositors in British banks from £35,000 to £50,000.

"That will make a difference and I believe that it will go a long way to assuring people that their deposits are safe," he said.

"I have made it clear in addition to that on countless occasions and again I make it clear that our priority is to do everything we can to stabilise the financial situation and protect depositors.

"I mean it when I say I will do whatever it takes to make sure that that happens."

Mr Brown said he believed that other countries would soon follow Britain's example in setting up a National Economic Council, made up of key ministers, to co-ordinate policy across government.

"My sense is that in a few months' time all governments around the world will be taking similar action to the action we are taking today," he said.

"Quite simply, the new era that we have entered requires new ways of governing. We don't just need to change policies to deal with the new financial difficulties but the way we take decisions, the way we govern, has got to change as well."

Chaired by the Prime Minister, the council will meet twice a week, starting on Monday, to assess the implications of ongoing problems in the financial markets and the impact of global commodity price fluctuations on the UK economy.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Talks aimed at averting strikes and other industrial action by Network Rail signalling workers ended without resolution.

Around 450 members of the Rail Maritime and Transport (RMT) union in Scotland are due to stage two 24-hour walkouts next week in a row over staffing rosters and transfers.

RMT officials and Network Rail managers held eight hours of talks at the conciliation service Acas in Glasgow.

But they will reconvene on Monday after no resolution was reached.

Strike action remains scheduled to take place from noon on October 7, and again from noon on October 9, while a ban on overtime and rest-day working is set to start from Tuesday.

David Simpson, Network Rail route director, Scotland, said: "Following a day of negotiations hosted by Acas, talks will reconvene on Monday morning.

"In the meantime, we have requested that the strike is suspended in order to spare passengers the prospect of four days of severe service disruption.

"Network Rail is disappointed that the RMT has refused this request."

Ian Macintyre, RMT regional organiser for Scotland and Northern Ireland, said there had been progress.

He said: "The talks were quite meaningful and we are still working on a number of issues that will get us out of the impasse we are in. We went in with a positive attitude and we hope to continue the talks because of the progress that has been made today."

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Children as young as three have been found abandoned at UK ports and airports.

Home Office figures show 3,525 unaccompanied children under 18 applied for asylum in 2007, a 2% increase on the previous year.

Many of these youngsters were from war-torn countries or those afflicted by desperate poverty.

Around a third arrived from Afghanistan, 10% from Iran and 9% from Iraq.

In Hampshire, children were found abandoned at Southampton docks, Southampton airport and at service stations in the last year.

Of the 68 unaccompanied children, Hampshire County Council said they had placed 43, while Southampton City Council took in 19 and a further six were looked after by Portsmouth City Council.

The youngest child found by the county council was just three years old.

A spokeswoman said unaccompanied asylum seeking children would be treated in exactly the same way as other children in the council's care.

A Border Agency spokesperson said they would never deport a child unless they had contacted their family or arranged care for them.

"We recognise that the subject of unaccompanied asylum seeking children is a very complex and emotive issue, and the welfare of children and young people is of paramount importance. That is why, even where an unaccompanied asylum seeking child has been found not to need international protection, we do not return children and young people to countries unless either the family has been satisfactorily traced or an acceptable level of reception and care arrangements have been established."

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Labour maintained its bounce in the polls following the conference season, but is still trailing the Conservatives by a wide enough margin to hand David Cameron victory in the forthcoming election, according to two surveys.

A YouGov poll for Saturday's Daily Telegraph put Labour on 31%, up seven points on a similar survey last month. But Gordon Brown's party remains 14 points behind Mr Cameron's Tories on 45% (up one point) and seems to have made most of its gains from the Liberal Democrats, down five points on 15%.

Meanwhile, an ICM poll published on the Guardian's website indicated that the Tories enjoyed a modest bounce of their own from their conference.

Compared to a similar survey a week ago after Mr Brown's well-received speech in Manchester, the Conservatives are up one point on 42%, Labour down two on 30% and Liberal Democrats down one on 17%, giving Mr Cameron's party a comfortable 12-point advantage.

The two surveys were conducted after the end of the Conservative conference in Birmingham, and suggest that - despite being largely overshadowed by the international banking crisis - the gathering managed to halt, if not reverse, Labour's surge after its own conference.

As MPs return to Westminster on Monday, the message seems to be that the economic crisis and conference season have helped Mr Brown eat into the Tory poll lead, but the Prime Minister still has a long way to go to dent Mr Cameron's chances of replacing him in the election expected in 2010.

The Guardian survey found that 55% of voters think Mr Brown has handled the economic situation well, against only 39% who say he has performed badly.

And after months in which he has trailed Mr Cameron as best choice for leader of the country, the Telegraph poll put Mr Brown almost neck-and-neck on 39% to the Tory leader's 40%.

Some 34% of people told YouGov they would trust the Conservatives to get Britain out of the present financial crisis, against 27% who named Labour and 29% who were unconvinced by either.

YouGov elicited the opinions of 2,048 adults across Great Britain online between October 1 and 3. ICM interviewed a random sample of 1,008 adults by telephone between October 1 and 2.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Thousands of people have called on the Government to keep its promise to end child poverty by 2020.

More than 10,000 gathered in Trafalgar Square in London for the rally to highlight the plight of nearly four million children who live below the poverty line in the UK.

The rally was hosted by former EastEnders actor Chris Parker who led the crowd in shouting: "listen up Downing Street, keep the promise". Meanwhile, pop star Sophie Ellis-Bextor entertained supporters who marched from Millbank to Trafalgar Square.

Brendan Barber, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress addressed the crowd and also called on the Government to pledge £3 billion to end the suffering of the 3.9 million children who live in poverty.

"We stand here ... in the shadow of South Africa House which is inscribed with the words 'Good Hope'. We are here ... with good hope that the Government will eradicate child poverty by 2020."

He added: "This has got to be at the top of the agenda. At a time when the Government has been able to find tens and tens of millions to support the financial system and the bankers I think it is time we found the £3 billion to deliver on that commitment."

Mr Parker told the crowd: "This is the last chance the Government has to make that commitment in 2009. It's not much to ask, to keep that promise."

He said it was the biggest event to end child poverty held in the UK.

Jasmine Whitbread, chief executive of Save The Children, was joined on stage by Shameless actor David Threlfall. She said: "Children in poverty have a 10 year less life expectancy than anyone else. With your help we can keep the pressure on the Government to end child poverty."

Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Chris Grayling who joined the march and rally said: "Child poverty is an increasing worry in this country, particularly as the numbers involved are increasing year on year. (The) rally will be a big reminder to the Government and other politicians of how important the issue of child poverty is."

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Prime Minister Gordon Brown will propose a £12 billion fund to help small businesses deal with the credit crunch when he meets fellow European leaders in Paris.

Mr Brown will join the leaders of the four EU nations belonging to the G8 group of industrialised countries - France, Germany, the UK and Italy, as well as the head of the European Central Bank and the President of the European Commission.

Speaking at 10 Downing Street before his departure for Paris, Mr Brown said: "We are seeing, in addition to the national action we are taking, that these global problems about oil, about the credit crunch, need global solutions.

"So I will be proposing to the leaders I meet in Paris today that we work together to clean up the system, both in America and Europe where there have been problems, that we call a timetable for international meetings to agree the changes that will open up those areas which have been far too often closed and not transparent.

"And I will also be proposing a £12 billion small business fund, so that small businesses in our country and the rest of Europe can get money immediately so that they can continue to employ staff and continue to provide services.

"I think in the next few weeks we have got to show how we can do more in Britain and across Europe to help small businesses, as well as households, through what is a difficult economic time but where I believe Britain can lead the way out of the difficulties."

The scheduled four hour meeting has been called by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who holds the EU's presidency.

The meeting is intended to show solidarity between Europe's "big four" - but divisions are growing over how far to go in regulating the money markets and bailing out failing banks and finance houses.

The meeting will welcome Washington's approval of a massive 700 billion dollar (£397 billion) rescue package to restore confidence in Wall Street.

But suggestions of a similar central pot of cash to be set up for the 27-nation EU bloc have received such a poor response that French ministers are denying it was their idea.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Britain's biggest mortgage lender has become the latest mortgage lender to hike its mortgage rates.

Halifax said it was raising its rates by up to 0.25%, following last week's increase of up to 0.45%.

The group blamed the move on continued increases in the cost of wholesale funding.

The move leaves a two-year fixed rate deal for someone with a 25% deposit who pays a £999 arrangement fee at 6.05%.

Several major lenders, including Nationwide, Cheltenham & Gloucester and HSBC have announced rate hikes in the past couple of weeks, as the money markets responded to the recent financial turmoil.

Swap rates, upon which fixed-rate mortgages are based, soared by 0.4%, although they have since fallen back to their previous level, while the key inter-bank lending rate three-month Libor rose from a recent low of 5.7% to 6.27% .

The rate increases by lenders brings to an end the most prolonged period of falling mortgage rates since the credit crunch first struck.

Rates had been steadily falling since July, helping push the average cost of a two-year fixed-rate mortgage down to its pre-credit crunch level, as lenders once again competed for business.

The Bank of England's Credit Conditions Survey this week warned that banks and building societies plan to further cut back on lending during the coming three months in the face of the worsening economic outlook.

Lenders said they had reduced the amount they advanced by more than expected during the three months to mid-September.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

The British courts should refuse to act on a European arrest warrant requesting the extradition to Germany of a man accused of Holocaust denial, a senior politician said.

Australian citizen Frederick Toben was arrested on Wednesday at Heathrow, en route from the United States to Dubai, and has been remanded in custody awaiting an extradition hearing on October 17.

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said that individuals should not be handed over to courts abroad for Holocaust denial, which is not a crime in the UK and raised issues of freedom of speech.

The former MEP said that countries could "pick and choose" the cases in which they would apply warrants issued by fellow EU member states, citing the case of Belgium, which has said it would not send suspects to Poland on murder charges which related to abortion.

Mr Huhne told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "There is a clear precedent for doing this and I think we should in this case."

Dr Toben was detained under an EU arrest warrant issued by the District Court in Mannheim, Germany, which accuses him of publishing material on the internet "of an anti-semitic and/or revisionist nature".

While stressing that he was completely opposed to anti-semitism, Mr Huhne said: "We don't in this country tend to prosecute people for issues that we regard as issues of freedom of speech.

"I don't think the European arrest warrant was designed to be used in this sort of case and there are good legal grounds under Article 4 of the European arrest warrant whereby we could actually refuse to participate in this.

"I think it is a pretty dodgy case that the Germans are bringing, both in terms of German law and in terms of the reach of it, because in fact Dr Toben didn't actually commit this offence in Germany.

"If somebody goes too far and incites violence or causes an attack on somebody else, then it is absolutely right they should be prosecuted, but there is a very clear distinction from something you hold as an opinion - it may be wrong and you may completely disagree with it, and I do in this case... I think we have to hold that fundamental belief in freedom of speech."

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Two men have been arrested on suspicion of murder following the discovery of a man's body at his burned-out flat, police said.

David Hughes, 44, was found dead at his home in Easton, Bristol on Wednesday, following the blaze.

Mr Hughes was found on the second floor of the flat, in Stapleton Road.

A post-mortem examination on Friday confirmed that his death was 'due to assault', and detectives confirmed two men in their 30s were being held.

The pair continue to be questioned after their arrests on suspicion of murder.

A 10-strong forensic team remains at the scene of the fire carrying out what police describe as "detailed investigation and examination".

Officers from the Avon and Somerset force are conducting house-to-house enquiries.

A community contact vehicle is parked in the area so that residents can volunteer intelligence and seek advice and reassurance.

Anyone with information is asked to call the incident room on 0845 4567000 or Crimestoppers anonymously 0800 555111.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

The public should not expect "a decisive military victory" in Afghanistan, Britain's most senior military commander in the country has warned.

Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith said the aim was to reduce the uprising to a level at which it could be managed by the Afghan army - and made clear that this could involve talking to the Taliban.

It was necessary to "lower our expectations" and accept that it would be unrealistic to expect that multinational forces can entirely rid Afghanistan of armed bands, he suggested.

Brig Carleton-Smith, the commander of 16 Air Assault Brigade, which has just completed its second tour of Afghanistan, told the Sunday Times that his forces had "taken the sting out of the Taliban for 2008".

But he added: "We're not going to win this war. It's about reducing it to a manageable level of insurgency that's not a strategic threat and can be managed by the Afghan army.

"We may well leave with there still being a low but steady ebb of rural insurgency."

Brig Carleton-Smith said the aim should be to change the nature of the debate in Afghanistan so that disputes were settled by negotiation and not violence.

"If the Taliban were prepared to sit on the other side of the table and talk about a political settlement, then that's precisely the sort of progress that concludes insurgencies like this," he said.

"That shouldn't make people uncomfortable."

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Campaigners for a "balanced migration" policy welcomed hints from the Government's new immigration minister that he may seek limits on the number of migrants coming into Britain.

Phil Woolas said Government policy must reflect the need for an upper limit on the size of Britain's population, in order to provide confidence to the native population that migration is "under control".

His comments follow a recent European Commission report predicting that unless trends change immigration will drive a surge in UK population from 61 million to 77 million by 2060, making Britain the EU's most crowded state.

The co-chairs of a cross-party parliamentary group calling for balanced migration are to meet Home Secretary Jacqui Smith on Wednesday to discuss their call to stabilise UK population over time by limiting the flow of people into the country to match the numbers leaving each year.

Mr Woolas told the Sunday Times that it was vital "to provide confidence to the indigenous population that migration is under control".

And he added: "On a common sense level there has to be a limit to the population. You have to have a policy that thinks about the population implication as well as the immigration implication."

The minister's remarks appear to suggest a possible shift in Government thinking towards the possibility of a cap on migrant numbers, after years in which ministers have focused on ensuring that those entering the country are able to contribute to the economy. The Government's points-based system is intended to ensure that non-EU nationals without useful job skills are barred from entry to the UK, while high-skilled migrants are welcomed.

But Mr Woolas said: "On the one hand is the rationale that we have got to strengthen our economy. But we have got to provide reassurance to communities that the numbers coming in are not bad for us. Community cohesion is crucial. After the economy, this is probably the biggest concern facing the population."

The co-chairs of the All-Party Group on Balanced Migration, Labour's Frank Field and Conservative Nicholas Soames, said in a joint statement: "We welcome the remarks by the new minister for immigration in which he acknowledged the importance of limiting the growth in our population, much of which is due to immigration. We look forward to working with him to give these ideas practical form and we will be discussing them with the Home Secretary when we met her this week."

Shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve said: "We cautiously welcome the sentiment but we have had plenty of tough talk from New Labour before, which was only followed by zero action. A great deal of damage has been done by Labour's refusal to face up to this issue."

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Chancellor Alistair Darling said he was ready to offer further assistance to individual banks which get into difficulties.

Mr Darling said that the Government was providing generalised support to stabilise the banking sector as a whole, but was also prepared to take action where specific banks are at risk of collapse, as it did with Bradford & Bingley and Northern Rock.

He told BBC1's Andrew Marr Show that the Government was ready to take "pretty big steps that we wouldn't take in ordinary times" in order to ensure that Britain gets through the current crisis.

But the Chancellor said he would resist pressure to scrap the Bank of England's inflation target to allow for cuts in interest rates, insisting that it was vital to maintain economic discipline even in bad times.

And he indicated that he was ready to let state borrowing rise higher rather than increase taxes, arguing that now was not the time to take money out of the economy.

Setting out his approach to emerging difficulties in the financial world, Mr Darling told Andrew Marr: "It's important that we take action across the piece. That's why, through the Bank of England, we have put billions of pounds into the system to help the whole banking sector.

"But also you do need to be ready to take specific action - as we did with Bradford & Bingley last weekend, as we did with Northern Rock.

"The point I'm making is, it's important to take generalised action as well as being ready to take particular action if you get a particular problem with an individual bank."

Shadow chancellor George Osborne told the Andrew Marr Show the practice of helping banks on a case-by-case basis was "running out of road".

He called for a "much bigger solution" - possibly including the Government taking stakes in several banks as happened in Sweden in the early 1990s.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

A man has died after he was shot inside a club during the early hours of Sunday, the Metropolitan Police said.

The 24-year-old received a gunshot wound at around 5.30am at the SE1 club, in Weston Street, near London Bridge.

He was taken to hospital but later died, Scotland Yard said.

Police said they believe they know the identity of the dead man. Next of kin have been informed.

Trident, the Metropolitan Police's specialist unit set up to deal with gun crime in the black community, is investigating the incident.

A post-mortem examination will take place.

Police said that they are keeping an open mind as to any motive to the shooting at this time.

Anyone with information should contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.

-Ananova

[scorpionf]

I feel so bad for the animals.... When I first read this I wondered what the f*ck the parents were doing and why where they not keeping an eye on the little brat. I say they should go ahead and sue the parents like they plan to.

[Slayer_X]

thats fucked up

[Slayer_X]

So this guy did what he was told to do almost 70 years ago .They have a scared old man . This old guy has to deal w/ shit we cant understand . This could be your great grandfather .

[JohnCenaFan28]

More than £93 billion was wiped from the value of the UK's biggest companies as London's FTSE 100 suffered its biggest fall since Black Monday.

As fear swept through global markets and governments rushed to prop up banks across Europe the Footsie slumped 7.8% - its largest one-day percentage decline since the aftermath of Black Monday in October 1987.

The index closed 391.1 points lower at 4589.2 - its lowest close total since October 2004 - as investors were rocked by the latest turmoil in the European banking sector.

But Chancellor Alistair Darling - reportedly considering moves to shore up UK banks with taxpayers' cash - did little to restore shattered confidence with firm commitments.

He said "all practical options must remain open" for dealing with the crisis, but added that it would be "irresponsible" to give a running commentary on plans.

The pressure came after German lender Hypo Real Estate became the latest to receive state aid. Italy's largest bank, Unicredit, also warned on profits after announcing asset sales and plans to shore up its balance sheet with a 6.6 billion euro (£5.1bn) boost.

Meanwhile, French bank BNP Paribas agreed to buy a majority stake in struggling bank Fortis - which is already part-nationalised. Elsewhere, Iceland's stock exchange suspended trading in shares of six major banks as its Government works on an economic rescue plan. Iceland's Glitnir bank was nationalised last week.

The shockwaves reverberated through global stock markets. In the US, Wall Street's Dow Jones Industrial Average traded below the 10,000 mark for the first time in more than three years.

In Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei 225 average slid more than 4% to a four-year low, while in Hong Kong the Hang Seng tumbled 5% as Friday's backing of a US financial rescue was all but forgotten.

In London, investors were unnerved by reports that the Government could take big stakes in banks - effectively part-nationalisation - to strengthen their finances. Halifax Bank of Scotland and Royal Bank of Scotland both slumped 20%, while Barclays lost 15% .

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Gordon Brown will be speaking to Angela Merkel amid confusion over the extent of the German chancellor's commitments to protect bank deposits.

The Prime Minister is under intense pressure to match Mrs Merkel's actions or face an exodus of cash from British financial institutions.

It had appeared that Germany offered at the weekend to guarantee all private savings accounts, following similar moves by Ireland and Greece.

Britain has only extended protection to £50,000 - up from £35,000 - in UK banks.

The Prime Minister's spokesman said that the Government had been seeking clarification about Germany's position.

But he said: "Our understanding of the situation is that the German government will not be bringing forward legislation for a legally-binding guarantee of bank deposits."

He added that it was "really a matter for the German government to explain their position".

Mr Brown was on Monday morning chairing the first meeting of the new twice-weekly National Economic Council (NEC), set up to manage Britain's response to the financial crisis.

His talks with Mrs Merkel later on Monday follow a string of telephone conversations with foreign counterparts, including French president Nicolas Sarkozy, and the International Monetary Fund over the last 24 hours.

Germany's actions have taken British officials by surprise. Mrs Merkel gave no indication of the moves when she met fellow EU leaders in Paris on Saturday to seek a co-ordinated approach to the turmoil in the banking sector.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Millions of households are unfairly paying over the odds for their energy supply, a report by the industry watchdog found.

Ofgem said that 4.3 million people without gas supply were being "short changed" by their suppliers, forking out on average £55 a year by not having access to the best dual-fuel deals.

It added that millions more who do not pay by direct debit - including six million pre-payment customers - are being penalised to the tune of around £1.4 billion a year.

Ofgem said in the initial findings of its seven-month probe into the energy market that it was looking at imposing a ban on unfair price differences.

But the report found that while some consumers were missing out on the full benefits of competition, the market was working well for most.

It said it found no evidence of an energy supply cartel and that consumers have benefited from the greater choice since the gas and electricity market was opened up to competition 10 years ago.

The study was launched earlier this year following a series of hefty price increases in gas and electricity.

There were concerns of price collusion after the big six suppliers hiked tariffs at the same time.

Ofgem confirmed it found nothing to back-up these fears or that suppliers were quick to raise prices and slow to cut them.

On the whole, consumers gave the market the thumbs-up, it said, but added that there needed to be a fairer deal for all customers.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

The widow of police chief Michael Todd said she has "forgiven" him after his inquest heard his tangled love life led to his death.

Depressed and suicidal, the former chief constable of Greater Manchester Police sent a text message asking for forgiveness in "another life" as he downed gin and pills.

After his wife discovered his affair with another woman, the 50-year-old surfed internet suicide websites before venturing on to a snowy mountainside in minus 18C temperatures where he drank alcohol and took the sleeping drug Nytol.

Possibly hallucinating, he took his clothes off, a sign of hypothermia and eventually drifted into sleep, dying of exposure, North West Wales coroner Dewi Pritchard Jones concluded.

The father of three was found face-down in the snow, frozen to death the next day, March 11, at Bwlch Glas, near the summit of Mount Snowdon, following a futile rescue search.

After the hearing, Mrs Todd, 47, said: "In his last email to me Michael said 'I really am so sorry for all the hurt I have caused you. I just hope that you will be able to forgive me at least in part some day'. I have forgiven him and Michael's family have forgiven him. The tragedy is that Michael never felt able during his career to seek the help he badly needed and he never knew that we could and have forgiven him."

Police were alerted after he sent a last mobile phone message to a person known only as C, at 7.33pm on Monday March 10. It said: "I'm sorry for what I have done, forgive me in another life."

A call from another person, known only as B, got through to his phone at 9.30pm and was "unintentionally" or "accidentally" answered - the implication being that Mr Todd was slumped on his phone. As he apparently lay dying, B could only hear an "urgent heavy breathing sound", the inquest was told.

He had been confronted by his wife five days earlier after she found out about his infidelity. He went on to send a series of intimate text messages and emails detailing how his life was unravelling in the days and hours before his death.

The coroner concluded that there was not enough evidence to give a definite verdict of suicide or accidental death through misadventure. Instead he recorded a narrative verdict, saying: "Mr Todd died of exposure when his state of mind was affected by alcohol, a drug and confusion due to his personal situation."

-Ananova

[Black Widow]

"G'day mate" and "Strewth" are words cemented in the Australian psyche but according to an academic they could soon become obsolete.

Bruce Moore says the change will come about as the nation shakes loose its colonial roots and moves towards a standard national pronunciation.

The Australian National University academic claims the nasal Australian twang - exemplified by the likes of the late Steve Irwin and actor Paul Hogan - will disappear within a few decades.

"Australians are becoming more confident with the standard Australian accent - and that means there's no longer the need for those sorts of extreme sounds," Mr Moore writes in his new book.

Words like "mate" would no longer be pronounced "mite" as some of the unique characteristics of Australian speech disappeared, he says.

"There's no doubt the broad accent does carry cultural values. I'm not doubting that. That's why it's used in advertisements," writes Mr Moore.

"But in the future that extreme form of it won't be so necessary because the standard accent will carry those same values."

Broad accents came from the need for cultural distinction in the late 19th Century, while 'posh' accents evolved from the use of Queen's English in education in the late 1800s, Mr Moore says.

The lexicographer makes the claims in his book titled Speaking Our Language: The Story Of Australian English.


sky news

[JohnCenaFan28]

Thanks for this.

[JohnCenaFan28]

Royal Bank of Scotland shares plunged nearly 40% to a 15-year low as speculation mounted over an imminent taxpayer-funded rescue of Britain's banks.

RBS shares hit their lowest point since 1993 and eventually closed more than 39% lower - wiping around £10 billion off the value of the business.

Halifax Bank of Scotland - being bought by Lloyds TSB in a rescue takeover - tumbled 41% while Barclays slid 9% as investors bailed out in the uncertainty.

The falls came in another day of turmoil for bank shares after it emerged top executives had held crisis talks with Chancellor Alistair Darling.

The Government is considering a dramatic intervention to prop up banks' finances by using billions of pounds in public money to take stakes in the business.

The BBC reported RBS, Barclays and Lloyds TSB needed around £15 billion of extra capital each. The banks at the meeting called for the Chancellor to act quickly but Mr Darling did not have a fully-prepared rescue plan, the report said.

The banks' woes hampered a fightback by the FTSE 100 Index after Monday's 7.8% slump - the biggest since Black Monday in October 1987. The Footsie finished up just 16 points at 4605.2.

Meanwhile, savers with internet bank Icesave were warned that they are likely to have to claim their money from depositor compensation schemes.

The Financial Services Authority said it expected the Icelandic authorities to put the firm into insolvency proceedings, which would trigger payouts from the UK's and Iceland's saver protection schemes.

The warning came after Icesave stopped consumers withdrawing money from their internet accounts after its parent company Landsbanki was placed into receivership this morning.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Chancellor Alistair Darling is to announce a comprehensive rescue package for the embattled banks on Wednesday.

Following talks on Tuesday with Bank of England Governor Mervyn King and Financial Services Authority chairman Lord Turner, Mr Darling said he would full release full details before markets open on Wednesday morning.

"The Bank of England has been putting substantial sums into the market today (Tuesday) and it is ready to do more when that is needed," he said in a brief holding statement.

"We have been working closely with the Governor of the Bank of England, the Financial Services Authority and financial institutions to put banks on a longer term sound footing.

"I intend to make a statement before the markets open and I will be making a further statement to the House of Commons later in the day."

The Prime Minister earlier reaffirmed his determination to "take whatever action is necessary" to maintain the stability of the financial system in the face of the latest market turmoil.

Following a Cabinet meeting, Gordon Brown's spokesman said: "He reiterated that the Government is ready to take whatever action is necessary to get the country through this challenging period for the global economy."

Meanwhile, business leaders piled on the pressure for a deep rate cut as Bank of England policymakers prepare their response to the worst financial turmoil in living memory.

Virgin billionaire Sir Richard Branson called on the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to slash rates as much as 1% when it votes on Thursday.

The call came after both the British Chambers of Commerce - which warned that the UK is already in recession - and the CBI business group both pressed for 0.5% cuts. The MPC has held rates at 5% since April because of inflation fears but the unprecedented chaos in financial markets has sent shockwaves through the banking system and threatens to tip the UK into a deep recession.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

The UK is "very concerned" about Iran's nuclear ambitions and human rights record, Foreign Secretary David Miliband said.

Tehran's uranium enrichment programme represents a serious threat to security in the Middle East and the wider world, he told MPs.

The Government was continuing to press for oil and gas sanctions against the regime in Tehran, he said.

Tory spokesman David Lidington said Prime Minister Gordon Brown had "repeatedly promised but has not yet seen delivered" restrictions on oil and gas and a ban on export credits.

Mr Miliband said: "That remains an important part of our agenda, both within the European Union and internationally."

The Foreign Secretary and his officials met Iranian deputy foreign minister Mehdi Safari last month to discuss the country's nuclear programme, its role in the Middle East, human rights record and Tehran's relationship with the UK.

"We remain very concerned by Iran's behaviour in all these areas and are working bilaterally and with our partners to address them," Mr Miliband said at Commons question time.

Tory Andrew Robathan (Blaby) warned that "bellicose" comments directed against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's regime could rally support behind him.

Mr Miliband said: "I hope you won't find bellicosity in statements from the Government."

But, he added, Mr Ahmadinejad's statement to the United Nations last month - in which he described Israel as being a "cesspool of Zionism" - was "completely abhorrent".

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

A senior policewoman was accused of giving "reckless" orders as events spiralled out of her control and ended in Jean Charles de Menezes being shot.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick told the inquest into the Brazilian electrician's death the ongoing terror threat meant police could kill another innocent person in the future.

But she rejected suggestions she was "sprinting to catch up" on the day of his death because the operation she led had not been properly organised.

Emotions ran high at the inquest as the jury was shown a crude police sketch of a stickman representing where Mr de Menezes fell in a Tube carriage after being killed.

A handwritten caption below the drawing read: "Challenged, shot 9-10 head".

Several jurors left the court in tears after watching CCTV footage of the Brazilian as he descended into Stockwell Underground station, where he was confronted by police marksmen.

Ms Dick was in charge of the Scotland Yard control room overseeing the pursuit of the Brazilian electrician by surveillance and firearms officers who feared he was failed suicide bomber Hussain Osman.

Michael Mansfield QC, counsel for the Menezes family, grilled her for more than five hours on alleged Metropolitan Police failings on July 22 2005. The senior officer, who remained standing in the witness box throughout her evidence, was visibly uncomfortable at times but firmly stood her ground as she defended her decisions that day.

Mr Mansfield put it to her: "What happened on this day under your authority and responsibility was a chain of events that spiralled out of your control. Essentially from the beginning you were sprinting to catch up with something that had not been properly organised that morning."

Ms Dick answered: "I follow it, I do not accept it."

-Ananova

[Bazzinator]

yea well i dont use it often especially strewth but g'day is fairly common and thats round to stay

[Embrace The Experience]

Tell that to the tradesmen of Australia; G'day mates here to stay.

[JohnCenaFan28]

Treasury officials are in Iceland for urgent talks after the collapse of the country's banking sector left councils and charities in Britain facing losses of up to £1 billion.

The crisis sparked a furious war of words between London and Reykjavik, with Prime Minister Gordon Brown denouncing the "totally unacceptable" failure of the Icelandic authorities to guarantee UK depositors would get their money back.

Icelandic Prime Minister Geir Haarde in turn blamed Britain for the collapse of his country's third largest bank, Kaupthing, after the Government used anti-terrorism laws to freeze Icelandic assets in the UK.

Downing Street confirmed that the Treasury delegation - which included officials from the Bank of England and the Financial Services Authority - was in Reykjavik.

Mr Brown's spokesman said they hoped now to work "constructively and co-operatively" with the Icelandic authorities. However, he strongly defended the Government's action in freezing the Icelandic assets.

Despite another turbulent day on the markets, with the FTSE suffering more heavy losses, Mr Brown was carrying on with a visit to the South West, including a meeting with pensioners in Swindon, Wilts.

The Government has promised individual savers with deposits in Icelandic accounts that it will reimburse any losses they suffer, but it has been resisting calls to extend the guarantee to local authorities and the charitable sector.

More than 100 councils, as well as police forces, fire services and transport authorities, have deposits running into millions of pounds each in the crisis-hit institutions.

Private companies are thought to have in excess of £10 billion in Icelandic accounts they are unable to access. Charities, too, have tens of millions of pounds on the line.

Following talks on Thursday between the Government and the Local Government Association, ministers said only that those councils facing the most severe difficulties would receive "appropriate" support.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Stock markets worldwide were gripped by fear as London's FTSE 100 Index endured its worst week since the Black Monday crash of 1987.

Recession panic and concerns over fragile banks sent investors stampeding for the exits as the Footsie tumbled 8.9% - surpassing even Monday's record sell-off.

The Footsie has plummeted 21% over the week - wiping more than £250 billion off the value of top-flight stocks in the process.

The index eventually finished below the 4,000 mark at 3932.1 - its lowest close for more than five years.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

An Islamic terrorist who launched a suicide car bomb attack on Glasgow Airport left a will addressed to Osama bin Laden, a court has heard.

NHS doctor Bilal Abdulla, 29, wrote he was planning to kill in revenge for injustices against Muslims by British and American soldiers, Woolwich Crown Court was told.

A draft of the will was found on a badly-burned laptop in the remains of a Jeep Cherokee that ploughed into the airport's main terminal building. The computer also contained videos of attacks on coalition forces in Iraq, coffins of American soldiers and clips of speeches by Osama bin Laden.

Jonathan Laidlaw QC, prosecuting, said Abdulla wrote the document because he expected to die in the attack alongside a second man, Kafeel Ahmed, 28. He said: "This document is addressed to, amongst others, the leaders of jihad in Iraq to bin Laden and to the brothers or soldiers of jihad in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Palestine and other areas of the world.

"The terms in which it is written, we submit, expose that the defendant's position in his trial before you is a lie. The attacks he was planning were intended to kill. They were in revenge for the injustices as the defendant sees them that the British and American people and their armies visit on the Muslim communities."

Abdulla, who is on trial with a third man, Mohammed Asha, 28, was arrested at the airport despite attempting to fight off police officers and members of the public. His accomplice Ahmed, who drove the vehicle and helped fill it with gas canisters and petrol, died in hospital several weeks later from burns.

Abdulla, of Houston, near Glasgow, and Asha, of Newcastle-under-Lyme, worked as doctors at NHS hospitals in Scotland and Staffordshire. They deny conspiring to murder and cause explosions.

Abdulla and Ahmed launched the desperate suicide attack after attempts to detonate car bombs in London's West End in the early hours of the previous day failed, the court was told.

Mobile phone detonators in two Mercedes cars failed to ignite a potentially deadly cocktail of incendiary chemicals, including liquid petroleum gas and petrol.

Mr Laidlaw said CCTV footage captured the two men catching rickshaws to escape the scene after parking the vehicles - one outside the Tiger Tiger nightclub in Haymarket and the other in adjoining Cockspur Street. Ahmed was seen dumping an umbrella, which he had apparently been carrying to shield his face from security cameras, in a bin before the men met in Edgware Road.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

A bicycle used by the alleged gunman to flee the scene where schoolboy Rhys Jones was shot dead had the DNA of a teenager accused of his murder on it, a court has heard.

The satin silver Specialized Hardrock mountain bike, which was found dumped six months after the killing and handed to police following an appeal, was linked directly to Sean Mercer, 18, prosecutor Neil Flewitt QC said.

Football-mad Rhys, 11, was gunned down in the car park of the Fir Tree pub in Croxteth Park, Liverpool, on August 22 last year.

He was hit by one of three bullets blasted at members of north Liverpool gang the Nogga Dogz by opposing Crocky Crew gang member Mercer, of Good Shepherd Close, Croxteth, Liverpool Crown Court has heard.

Mr Flewitt told the jury that Mercer got the Specialized Hardrock mountain bike in April last year after his previous bike was stolen.

The jury heard that Leslie Shimmin saw the bike on the news and in the local paper and realised he had found the frame of the bike the day after Rhys's murder while cycling with his sons very close to an industrial unit used by co-accused Melvin Coy, 25, in Kirkby, north Liverpool.

The bicycle had been hidden less than 250 yards from the unit that Mercer and several of his co-accused allegedly visited hours after Rhys's murder.

Mr Flewitt said: "It will, perhaps, come as no surprise to you to learn that the serial number of the silver Specialized Hardrock mountain bike found by Mr Shimmin in Kirkby is the same as the serial number of the Specialized Hardrock mountain bike supplied to Sean Mercer in April 2007."

Furthermore, he said, DNA swabs taken from the alleged murderer matched DNA on the discovered bicycle.

The trial continues.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

A mother has been charged with the murder of her son and daughter, who were stabbed to death at home.

Sasikala Navaneethan, 36, is accused of killing five-year-old Shanjayan and four-year-old Sharani.

She was also charged with the attempted murder of her six-month-old baby daughter at the family's house in Carshalton, south London, in May.

Mrs Navaneethan and her 40-year-old husband, who are thought to be from the Tamil area of Sri Lanka, were arrested.

He was later released but she was detained under the Mental Health Act.

She will appear before magistrates in Sutton.

Paramedics were called to the detached house in a quiet suburb on May 30.

Neighbours reported seeing the children, covered in blood, carried from the house late at night.

The two older children were taken to hospital but both died within 90 minutes of the police call.

The baby girl was taken to hospital with serious stab wounds and given life-saving treatment.

-Ananova

[Slayer_X]

For the uneducateted please tell the country it has happened in .

[John]

Somewhere in the far east lol. Wow. What is this world coming to?

[JohnCenaFan28]

A British man has spoken of his grief at the loss of his wife and one of his twin daughters who died after being swept away by floods in Spain.

Mark Cullen, 49, said his wife Lorraine, 47, and daughter Lauren, 14, lost their footing as they tried to cross a swollen river with fellow twin Samantha, 14 and the girls' Spanish friend Gemma, 14.

The pair were trying to cross the River Clariano to get to their home in L'Olleria, near Valencia, but were carried off by the current. Their bodies were retrieved on Friday morning.

Mr Cullen, from Brighton, said: "My wife went to pick up Samantha from the town centre. When they drove back the water was up high over the bridge. They got out of the car, all held hands and started to walk across the river.

"It was only up to their knees, but one of them slipped and the others came crashing down. It carried them across the edge.

"My daughter Sam is quite strong and managed to grab hold of a tree and climb up. She saw Gemma and grabbed her, but Lorraine and Lauren were gone."

Mr Cullen flew out to Valencia on Thursday with his sons Daniel, 22, and Darren, 19, to be with his surviving daughter as she was treated at a local hospital.

He said: "When I saw Sam, she was absolutely covered in bruises. Nothing is broken but her body's a mess, I've never seen anything like it. It's a blur, you don't expect to lose two members of your family in one hit."

Mr Cullen said he and Lorraine had just celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary.

He said: "My priority is to see my wife and daughter and bring them back home. That's all I can do."

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

The financial turmoil is a "serious global crisis that requires a serious global response", President George Bush said.

Mr Bush was speaking after a rare meeting with international finance ministers, including chancellor Alistair Darling, at the White House.

The crisis talks came after the US government announced it would buy stock in troubled financial institutions in a bid to stabilise the global markets.

"As our nations carry out this plan we must ensure the actions of one country do not contradict or undermine the actions of another," Mr Bush said.

"In our interconnected world no nation will gain by driving down the fortunes of another. We're in this together, we will come through it together."

The president said that while nations must confront the challenges unique to their individual financial systems, they must also ensure their actions were "co-ordinated". He said the joint interest rate cut earlier this week was a good example of this collaboration.

"I'm confident that the world's major economies can overcome the challenges we face," Mr Bush said.

"There have been moments of crisis in the past when powerful nations turned themselves against each other, started to wall themselves off from the world. This time is different."

Speaking with the G7 finance ministers - from the UK, the US, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Canada - standing behind him in the White House Rose Garden, Mr Bush went on: "The leaders gathered in Washington this weekend are all working toward the same goals.

"We will do what it takes to resolve this crisis and the world's economy will emerge stronger as a result."

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Millions of people with pension schemes that invest primarily in shares may not be aware of the risks to their retirement nest egg, a non-profit organisation warned.

Some five million workers are paying into defined contribution schemes - and if they opted for the default fund, all their investments could be in shares, The Pensions Advisory Service (TPAS) said.

With such schemes, also known as "money purchase" plans, amounts paid out at retirement depend on the performance of shares.

Malcolm McLean, of the TPAS, told BBC Radio 5 Live: "My concern is people think the default fund has been recommended to them and that it's appropriate for them personally, which it may not be, because it may be 100% invested in shares.

"But they may actually be taking more risk than they know about and are comfortable with."

The value of personal pension funds had dropped by almost a fifth this year as a result of turbulence on the stock market, the TPAS said.

A recent report showed retirement savings have lost in excess of 10% of their value in the last month alone as credit-crunch hit investors attempt to offload their shares.

However, the National Association of Pension Funds said default funds should shift members' money away from shares to safer investments as they approach retirement.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

One of the UK's leading cancer treatment centres has revealed it could lose £7.5 million as more casualties of the Icelandic banking system's meltdown emerged.

The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, in Manchester, said the bulk of the money - £6.5 million - was made up of charity donations while the remainder deposited with Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander had come from the NHS.

The money had been put aside to fund research and service improvements in the next five years, the trust said in a statement last night.

The collapse of Iceland's major banks also caught out the Chelsea Building Society, which has some £55 million invested in the troubled country.

Local authorities have around £1 billion tied up, while charities stand to lose more than £120 million.

On Friday, Treasury officials arrived in Reykjavik for talks to try to settle the dispute over the Icelandic government's refusal to guarantee the deposits of British savers.

Caroline Shaw, chief executive of Christie NHS Foundation Trust, said: "I want to reassure everybody that our patients will continue to be treated as normal and we are working extremely hard to ensure that this money is returned to us."

The statement from the trust said: "This is money we have put aside to fund future service developments and research for cancer patients over the next five years.

"We have taken expert legal advice and are working closely with the Financial Services Authority to ensure that we protect these deposits."

More than 100 councils, as well as police forces, fire services and transport authorities, have deposits running into millions of pounds each in the crisis-hit institutions.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

A company which manufactures luxury motor boats and yachts is set to shed more than 290 jobs due to the global economic downturn.

Sealine, which has its headquarters in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, also confirmed that it plans to close its sites in nearby Hartlebury and in Burntwood, south Staffordshire, next year.

The firm, which currently employs around 630 people, stressed that it was entering into a 90-day consultation process with staff and would do everything it could to minimise the number of compulsory redundancies among its office and production workers.

In a statement, Sealine's managing director, Steve Coultate, said: "It is with great regret that we are planning these changes, but they are necessary given the current leisure marine market conditions and economic environment.

"We need to take action to protect the long-term prospects of both our company and our international dealer network."

Mr Coultate added that the action the company was taking would leave it well positioned to respond to a market upturn.

"We will seek to minimise the number of compulsory redundancies by inviting applications for voluntary redundancies and for all of those employees affected we will be providing a full consultation and counselling programme," he said.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Petrol retailers have called for a freeze on fuel duty to help reduce forecourt prices even further.

The cost of petrol is 9% less than three months ago as oil prices plummeted to their lowest level for a year, according to the AA.

This offers consumers a modicum of comfort during the turbulent financial situation, with a 50-litre refill now £5.33 cheaper than when unleaded reached a record high of 119.7p on July 17.

But prices are still over 11p a litre more than this time last year, an equivalent increase of £5.70 for a 50-litre refill.

Ray Holloway, director of the Petrol Retailers Association (PRA), said: "Gordon Brown always has the ability to reduce fuel prices through a fuel tax reduction, but avoids it.

"The price of fuel at the pump is influenced by a range of factors beyond just the price of a barrel of oil but despite this, forecourt retailers have still managed to reduce the cost of fuel to the motorist at the expense of their own profit margin during recent weeks.

"Prices for crude oil and forecourt fuel are obviously linked but they do not move in tandem. Therefore they do not automatically move up or down at the same time."

A PRA spokesman added that oil price changes typically take between six to eight weeks to filter down to forecourts.

Supermarket giant Tesco lowered unleaded and diesel by 3p across its 430 UK forecourts on Friday. It follows a penny cut by rival Asda at the start of this week, and price drops made by a host of retailers last month.

AA spokesman Paul Watters said: "The 3p drop in the price of petrol is very welcome, particularly with another supermarket taking the lead in price reductions. This should cut the cost of filling a tank by £1.50, which will help to offset grocery and domestic energy inflation."

-Ananova

[John]

Thanks For The News!

[JohnCenaFan28]

Gordon Brown is to urge EU leaders to copy Britain's blueprint for tackling global financial turmoil.

At a crunch summit in Paris, the Prime Minister will insist that co-ordinated international action along the lines of his £500bn bank bail-out is the only way to ease "extraordinary" turmoil on markets.

The meeting comes after the US set out a similar plan to the UK's, which will see the Government take significant stakes in banks and guarantee lending between them.

Writing in the Sunday Mirror, Mr Brown echoed the warning from US President George Bush yesterday that countries must not "turn against each other" or seek isolation amid the chaos.

"No country - not even the biggest - can make it just on their own at a time like this," he insisted. "We are all in it together and have to work to solve it together."

He said he knew people were "worried", but evoked the spirit of the Blitz in claiming that the UK would "lead the way through".

"I've seen in the cities and towns I've visited a calm, determined British spirit; that, while this is a world financial crisis that has started from America, Britain will lead the way in pulling through.

"And I know that we will come together as a country and emerge a fairer and more successful nation than ever before. Together, we can win the fight for Britain's future."

EU leaders were already due to meet in Brussels on Wednesday. However, Sunday's gathering of eurozone members in Paris was hastily arranged by French President Nicolas Sarkozy after a disastrous week on financial markets.

In a break with precedent, Mr Brown has been invited despite the UK not being part of the single currency.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

The Government has seized more than enough Icelandic assets to pay back British savers caught up in the country's banking collapse, it was revealed.

Some £4bn is understood to have been frozen using anti-terror laws last week, compared to the estimated £3bn that UK councils, charities and individuals stand to lose.

Treasury Chief Secretary Yvette Cooper insisted the assets would not be released until a deal had been struck with Iceland's authorities to return British money.

Asked if they could be sold in order to recover the investments, Ms Cooper told BBC1's Andrew Marr Show: "I think we need to have a proper process for doing this and that is why we sent a team over to Iceland on Friday in order to talk to the Iceland authorities about how that money can get back to the people whose money it really is.

"These discussions are under way at the moment and that is why we have frozen assets in the meantime until we know how people are going to get their money back."

The scale of the assets frozen emerged amid fears that the banking collapse may mean some councils cannot pay their staff this month.

Most of the estimated £1bn invested in Iceland by local authorities was capital, but according to the Independent on Sunday a handful deposited revenue budgets - which include payroll - in order to earn interest.

But an LGA spokeswoman stressed that all councils held reserves, and it was "highly unlikely" there would be any impact. "We are not aware of any councils which have immediate cashflow problems in terms of services or paying staff," she said.

The LGA is urging the Government to relax capitalisation rules for hard-hit councils and allow them to delay payments of business tax rates if necessary.

The Treasury delegation conducting negotiations in Iceland released a statement last night saying "significant progress" had been made. A deal has already been done in principle over an "accelerated" payment for small UK depositors, according to the statement. However, the situation with larger investors has yet to be resolved.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Some bright pupils are being asked to re-take GCSEs to boost the overall results of their schools, it has been claimed.

Independent tutoring expert Dr Mike Ryde claimed some of his young pupils were being asked by their own school to re-sit exams they had taken early at his college, because they had been awarded top marks.

He said: "I have had it a few times, pupils have come to me and said 'my school wants me to take it again'.

"This is because if they know a child is going to get a good mark then they want it to count towards their school's performance."

The performance of schools is judged in part on their GCSE results, which feed into annual national attainment tables.

Dr Ryde is the head of Ryde Teaching Services in Watford, which teaches children below the usual GCSE age. Children can take GCSEs with his college as it is also an assessment centre. But he claimed some schools were then asking pupils to re-take the exam at their own school.

He said: "I had one school call me and ask if they could say a pupil had taken the exam with them because he had got a good grade."

Dr Ryde said more schools should put pupils in for GCSEs early, to reduce the pressure on them to take all of their exams at the age of 16. But he claimed most fail to do so because results of exams taken by younger pupils will not show up in their attainment tables.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said: "Whether a pupil sits a GCSE exam early is a decision for themselves, their parents and the school to take.

"A school may suggest to a pupil that they re-take an exam if it is in the pupil's best interests because they are likely to get a better grade. We would be very surprised to hear of schools asking pupils to re-take exams for any other reason."

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

UK firms issued 111 profit warnings between July and September as the credit crunch hit retailers, media and support service firms, it emerged.

The figures from Ernst & Young are the highest for the third quarter since the same period in 2001 and almost a third higher than in 2007.

Keith McGregor, restructuring partner at Ernst & Young, said the findings from stock market listed firms were "deeply concerning."

He added: "The end of the third quarter and the start of the fourth brought some of the most turbulent weeks for banks and financial markets in a generation; weeks that have completely redefined the banking landscape and reminded us that the credit crisis is far from over."

Support services saw the most warnings to investors with 23 out of 209 companies in the sector, the highest ever recorded for this part of the UK economy. It comprises companies ranging from recruitment agencies to engineering services and Government contractors.

The research said the sector was exposed to industries currently in turmoil, such as the financial and property sectors. The Office for National Statistics recently said the service sector as a whole failed to grow for the first time in six years during the three months to July 2008.

General retailers are also expecting to be a casualty of current economic turmoil.

The sector issued 13 profit warnings out of 78 companies, almost double the number issued in the third quarter of 2007.

E&Y said retailers will struggle to make a profit this Christmas as they need increase their prices to balance escalating overheads at a time when consumers are spending less.

One fifth of the media sector has issued profit warnings in the year to date.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

The Government's controversial plans to increase the terror detention limit to 42 days will be effectively killed off by a defeat in the Lords, one of the measure's leading critics said.

Former shadow home secretary David Davis said he expected peers to overwhelmingly reject the proposals in a vote on Monday.

Mr Davis, who resigned as an MP to force a by-election over the Government's record on civil liberties, said: "I think it will be dead."

Peers will vote on increasing the pre-charge custody time limit for terror suspects from 28 to 42 days.

Mr Davis told BBC1's Andrew Marr Show: "I think it will be thrown out by a huge majority."

He said the measure, contained in the Counter-Terrorism Bill, no longer had support from the public and the Government would not have the political will to force it through using the Parliament Act to overrule the House of Lords.

The Tory MP said: "It was something that was profitable for the Government - they thought by having 42 days and us opposing it they would make us look weak and them look strong. That was when 70% supported it, now it's about 30% supporting the Government."

He continued: "Their own party probably won't support them in the Parliament Act, so I think it's probably over."

Gordon Brown narrowly got the measure through the Commons by just nine votes in a major test of his authority in June.

Mr Davis shocked Westminster by standing down as MP for Haltemprice and Howden in protest at the result and was re-elected after a campaign designed to highlight what he described as the "erosion" of civil liberties under Labour.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

A mother who is campaigning for justice after the rape and murder of her teenage daughter in India is being summoned to answer allegations of neglect, her lawyer has said.

Fiona MacKeown believes the authorities have made a number of attempts to cover up the death of Scarlett Keeling as an accident.

The body of the 15-year-old was found on Anjuna beach in Goa on February 19. She had been left in the care of a 25-year-old tour guide while the rest of the family went travelling.

Now Goa's Directorate of Women and Child Development has ordered Mrs MacKeown, 43, to appear before the courts on October 15.

Her lawyer, Vikram Varma, said she would not attend the hearing and the allegations had "no substance".

Mr Varma said powerful forces in Goa wanted to cover up Scarlett's death. He said: "They have prejudged her. They will try to ensure that Fiona does not come to India to give her testimony about Scarlett. They want what happened to Scarlett to be an accident."

Mrs MacKeown, from Bradworthy, Devon, went travelling with her six other children leaving Scarlett in Anjuna.

Police said initially that her death was an accidental drowning but, after a sustained campaign by Mrs MacKeown, the results were re-examined and a second post-mortem examination held.

The results revealed Scarlett was killed and a murder investigation was launched. The tests also showed that Scarlett was given Ecstasy, cocaine and LSD on the night she died.

Nerlon Albuquerque, the police officer who first investigated the death, was dismissed in April. Two men were arrested, Samson D'Souza, 29, and Placido Carvalho, aged between 30 and 35, who have appeared in court on suspicion of drugging Scarlett and assisting in the murder by that act.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams is to join Christian and Muslim scholars for the start of a conference aimed at promoting understanding between the two faiths.

Dr Williams and the Grand Mufti of Egypt Sheikh Ali Gomaa will be among those addressing A Common Word, a conference at Cambridge University involving academics from around the world.

The event coincides with the first anniversary of the publication of A Common Word Between Us and You, a letter from 138 Islamic scholars, clerics and intellectuals.

Addressed to Pope Benedict XVI and other Christian leaders, the letter warned that the survival of the world could be at stake if Muslims and Christians could not make peace with each other.

"If Muslims and Christians are not at peace, the world cannot be at peace. With the terrible weaponry of the modern world - with Muslims and Christians intertwined everywhere as never before - no side can unilaterally win a conflict between more than half of the world's inhabitants.

"Our common future is at stake," the letter said. "The very survival of the world itself is perhaps at stake."

The scholars also used quotations from the Bible and the Koran to illustrate similarities between the two faiths, such as the requirement to worship one God and to love one's neighbour.

In a letter of response published earlier this year, Dr Williams welcomed the document as a "significant development" in relations between Christians and Muslims.

The organisers of the conference said it would examine practical and "ground-breaking" steps that the two religious faiths could take to ensure they deepen mutual understanding, action and friendship.

The event comes after Dr Williams was heavily criticised earlier this year following a BBC interview in which he suggested that the adoption of some aspects of Islamic sharia law in the UK seemed "unavoidable".

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

A pedestrian died after two stolen cars collided and hit a block of flats, police said.

The cars hit the flats on the London Road in Bedford just before 4am.

A local 25-year-old man, believed to have been walking home after a night out in Bedford, was seriously injured and died at Bedford Hospital, police confirmed.

A Bedfordshire Police spokeswoman said his details would be revealed when an inquest is opened by the coroner.

The spokeswoman said six people have so far been arrested in connection with the incident, which involved a Ford S Max and a Hyundai Coupe, both believed to have been stolen overnight from the Bedford area.

She said all six had been arrested on suspicion of taking a vehicle without consent.

She said: "Three of the people that have been arrested are at Bedford Hospital South Wing, two of which are described as receiving treatment for serious but not life-threatening injuries."

She said the third was receiving treatment for minor injuries and the remaining three people arrested are being held at Greyfriars police station.

The impact of the crash caused extensive damage to the building, which is owned by Bedfordshire Pilgrims Housing Association.

The crash left a hole in the wall of one resident's bedroom and damage to a neighbouring flat and stairwell.

-Ananova

[Slayer_X]

SO........ were both cars stolen together ? Or did car theives collide ?

[Slayer_X]

Careful when you go to 3rd world countries kids . this is what happens .

[bob83b]

Wow!!! Good job.

[Black Widow]

Three men drugged and raped more than a dozen gay victims at sex orgies before injecting them with HIV-contaminated blood, a trial has heard.

Twelve of the victims, who range in age from their 20s to their 40s, are now HIV positive, the court in the Dutch city of Groningen was told.

The three HIV-positive suspects are accused of intentionally spreading the deadly virus at sex parties they promoted on the internet.

They face up to 21 years in jail if convicted of aggravated assault, rape, and the illegal possession of drugs.

The trio, aged 35, 48 and 49, were arrested in May last year after a number of their 14 alleged victims laid charges.

The prosecution alleges they were sedated with a combination of ecstasy and the date rape drug GHB before being raped and injected with a cocktail of their assailants' blood.

"The victims hope that their assailants will be punished," said the victims' lawyer Fred Kappelhof.

"They are hoping the trial will provide an answer to the question of why this happened to them."

If the men are convicted, the victims plan to launch civil proceedings for compensation.

In June 2006, health authorities reported a rapid rise in HIV infections among homosexual men in Groningen, and issued warning pamphlets at gay meeting areas.

The trial is expected to last a week.


sky news

[JohnCenaFan28]

That's awful...

[JohnCenaFan28]

Inflation hit a 16-year high in September but the year-long spiral in the cost of living could soon be over, experts said.

Economists said the Consumer Prices Index (CPI), which hit 5.2% last month because of soaring gas and electricity bills, would decline rapidly as the economy slows.

September's CPI was the highest since the benchmark was introduced in 1997 and the biggest since March 1992 by historic data. A year ago it stood at 1.8%.

After energy price hikes - and an earlier round of increases in January - electricity prices are up 30.3% and gas costs up almost 50% year on year.

Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at Global Insight, said CPI was "almost certainly now at its peak, or very near to it". "Very weak economic activity, rising unemployment and extended tight credit conditions will increasingly dilute underlying inflationary pressures," he said.

The Government also faces paying out billions more in benefits and pensions after the headline Retail Prices Index (RPI) reached 5%.

September's RPI - which was last higher in July 1991 - is used by the Government to calculate pension increases for the coming year. Pensions usually increase by 2.5% or headline RPI, whichever is higher. A 5% rise in the current £47 billion cost of the basic state pension could add more than £2 billion to Government costs.

The Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), which cut rates by 0.5% last weekonomy weakens. This left some economists warning of inflation undershooting the 2% target as oil and food prices drop back and businesses lower their prices to attract customers as the economy slows.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Yvette Cooper said: "Now that oil prices are coming down it's really important that utility companies pass on price decreases to customers as soon as possible."

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

David and Victoria Beckham's housekeepers are under police investigation after being accused of stealing property from the couple and trying to sell it on eBay.

Eric and June Emmett, who worked at the Beckhams' Hertfordshire mansion, were arrested on Friday on suspicion of theft from a private address. Their son Gareth, 25, was held on Monday night over the same alleged offence. All three were questioned and released on police bail.

Mr Emmett, 55, from Nazeing, near Waltham Abbey, Essex, said the allegations against him were "fabricated nonsense".

Suspicions were raised when memorabilia belonging to the former England captain and his pop star wife apparently appeared on the eBay auction website. Former Spice Girl Victoria's parents, Tony and Jackie Adams, reportedly spotted some of their daughter's designer clothes on offer to bidders, along with the footballer's worn boots, and then discovered the items were missing from the couple's Rowneybury House mansion.

Speaking at his large detached home in a leafy part of the Essex village on the edge of London, Mr Emmett initially said: "No comment", but added: "What is in the papers is fabricated nonsense. Totally fabricated, 99% of it is totally untrue."

Asked how the eBay site could be traced to his address, Mr Emmett said: "It doesn't involve myself, that is for sure."

Mr Emmett said he had run his own company for 30 years and had no need to steal from the Beckhams.

Later, the gate into the couple's driveway was sealed with plastic cable ties - thought to be intended to discourage reporters from knocking on their door.

A spokeswoman for eBay said they were still trying to establish with Hertfordshire Police which items were involved in the allegations and how they had been obtained. Items auctioned on the website have a clear paper trail back to the seller, she said, making it very difficult to get away with selling stolen goods. "Anyone stupid enough to try to sell anything that is not 100% legitimate makes a big mistake when they try to do it on our site," she added.

A spokesman for the Beckhams said: "There has been an incident and the matter is in the hands of the police."

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

"Another great plot" is being investigated by the authorities, counter-terrorism minister Lord West warned.

"There is another great (terrorist) plot building up again and we are monitoring this," he told peers during a debate on new security laws.

Lord West, the former head of the Royal Navy, revealed the existence of the plot as the House of Lords continued debating the Counter Terrorism Bill.

He gave no more details of the threat.

His warning came less than 24 hours after peers forced the Government to abandon plans to extend maximum pre-charge detention for terror suspects to 42 days.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith dropped the measure from the Bill after it was defeated in the upper house by 191 votes.

But she warned critics that they were exposing the country to a greater risk.

Shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve later described Lord West's comments as "reckless in the extreme".

"We are told the police have to strike a balance between early arrest during a developing terrorist conspiracy in order to protect the public, and waiting long enough to ensure there is enough evidence to secure a conviction," Mr Grieve said. "The minister's comments give us the worst of all worlds - cutting across both objectives."

A Home Office spokesman said: "We have always been clear - as has the director general of the Security Service (MI5) - that there are many plots, individuals and groups under investigation. We don't elaborate on specific plots or individuals."

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

National assessment tests for 14-year-olds have been scrapped by the Government.

Schools Secretary Ed Balls announced that they would be replaced by more frequent classroom assessments by teachers in years 7, 8 and 9.

The Key Stage 3 tests - introduced by the Tories in 1993 - had become "less and less relevant", he said.

Mr Balls said: "We need a more intensive focus in the early years."

He stressed that the compulsory national testing of 11-year-olds at Key Stage 2 were "here to stay".

Christine Blower, acting general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said the announcement was an "admission that the current testing system has failed". She said: "For too long, English, mathematics and science teachers in secondary schools have found themselves skewing everything to enable their pupils to jump through a series of unnecessary hoops.

"The marking disaster of this year's tests has clearly been the last straw. A mixture of incompetence and an endemic shortage of markers must surely have propelled Ed Balls to take the view that at least part of the testing system was unsustainable."

Parents welcomed plans to scrap Sats tests. Margaret Morrisey, of parents group Parents Outloud who used to work as an Ofsted lay inspector, said it was the "first sensible thing Mr Balls has done since becoming Schools Secretary". She said: "He should now scrap the whole lot. We are teaching the children to take these tests and supposing that all children are the same."

The school report cards, based on practice in New York, are intended to provide parents with a simpler and more comprehensive snapshot of a school's performance. They will be introduced in addition to existing assessments and Ofsted reports.

An expert group of headteachers and education specialists will be charged with working out the details of the reforms.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Nationalised lender Northern Rock has said that no legal action will be taken against former directors at the centre of the group's collapse last year.

Management said a review by lawyers and accountants into the previous regime, headed up by chief executive Adam Applegarth, had found "insufficient grounds to to proceed with any legal action for negligence".

Northern Rock also said it was "well ahead" of its Government loan repayment target, having paid back more than half the £26 billion owed to leave £11.4 billion outstanding as at September 30.

Before running into funding problems last summer, Northern Rock was one of the UK's biggest and most aggressive mortgage providers, advancing loans worth as much as 125% of home values.

It was forced to turn to the Bank of England for emergency support after the money markets froze, leaving the group facing a funding crisis.

Northern Rock's nationalisation in February led to 1,500 job losses as it scaled back activity to pay back the Government.

The lender has been reducing the size of its mortgage book in order to pay back its Government borrowing, and repaid £15.4 billion during the nine months to September 30.

But the group's mortgage arrears figure jumped by nearly 60% during the last three months, reflecting the fact that it has been left with poorer quality loans. The percentage of its estimated 600,000 mortgage accounts more than three months in arrears was 1.87% at September 30, up from 1.18% at the end of June.

Northern Rock also saw the number of properties in its possession jump 491 during the period to 4,201. Most of the repossessions were for properties secured with a "Together" mortgage, which allowed buyers to borrow up to 125% of the property's value.

Chairman Ron Sandler has warned that the bank, which racked up a near £600 million first-half loss to June 30, would be "significantly" loss-making this year.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

House prices dived by 2.7% during August as the number of first-time buyers getting on to the property ladder slumped to a record low, figures have showed.

The average cost of a home dropped to £211,410 during the month, driven down by a 5.1% fall in the value of flats and a 3% slide in the cost of terrace houses, according to Communities and Local Government.

The figures came as the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) said just 15,600 people bought their first home during the month, the lowest level since it began to collect data in 2002 and less than half the 34,800 who bought a property in August last year.

The drop was accompanied by a further tightening in lending criteria, with first-time buyers now putting down average deposits of 16%, the highest level recorded by the CML, and borrowing just 3.18 times their income - the lowest multiple since March 2006.

Across all buyers, a total of just 42,200 mortgages worth £6 billion were advanced for house purchase during August, both new record lows. Gross lending for the month, which includes all types of mortgages, totalled £19.7 billion, a 20% fall compared with July's figure and 42% below the sum advanced in August 2007. It was also the lowest monthly level since February 2005.

The mortgage squeeze is continuing to have an impact on the housing market, with estate agents now struggling to sell even one property a week. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said its members had sold an average of just 11.5 homes during the three months to the end of September, the lowest level since its survey first began in 1978.

At the same time, the number of surveyors reporting house price falls during September also increased for the first time since April. Overall, 84.2% more chartered surveyors reported seeing further price slides during the month compared with those who saw price rises, up on the figure of 81.8% more who reported falls in August.

Figures from CLG showed that house prices lost 3.4% of their value during the year to the end of August, after the annual rate of house price inflation fell for the 10th month in a row. The fall is far less severe than the drop of 12.4% recorded by both Halifax and Nationwide for the year to the end of September, but the CLG figures tend to lag other indexes, and further steep falls are expected in the months ahead.

Meanwhile, an economist told MPs that house prices could fall by a further 5% to 10% before the bottom of the market was reached.

Appearing before the Treasury Select Committee, David Miles, Professor of Finance at Imperial College London, said further falls of this level, which would leave homes around 20% cheaper than they were at their peak, could mean the housing market would stabilise.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Two track workers arrested 11 months ago over the Grayrigg rail crash, in which a woman died and 22 passengers were injured, have been cleared and will not face any action, their union announced.

The Rail Maritime and Transport union hit out at the arrests, saying the two men had been living under a "shadow of suspicion" for the best part of a year following the accident in Cumbria in February 2007.

The union said at the time it was "mystified" that the two men had been arrested, adding that they now deserved an apology.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said neither of the men was directly involved in maintenance on points in the area of the accident and neither had faced any disciplinary action.

"Both the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) interim report and Network Rail's own report have pointed clearly to management failings and lack of resources, and it is those structural failings that still need to be addressed.

"NR's spending targets have been slashed by 30% over the last five years and we have raised concerns about the workloads placed on individuals on a number of occasions. NR is still dogged by inappropriate practices brought in by private contractors and there is still too much emphasis on getting things done quickly and cheaply rather than properly and safely."

The union said there should be a joint public inquiry into the Grayrigg incident and the 2002 Potters Bar rail accident, with a remit to study the fragmentation of the industry.

Mr Crow added: "Our two members have been living under the shadow of suspicion for the best part of a year and the very least they deserve is an apology for arrests that should never have been made."

An 84-year-old woman from Glasgow died when a Virgin train from London to Glasgow derailed at a speed of around 95mph at Grayrigg.

An initial report by the RAIB blamed a faulty set of points for the crash. A later inquiry by NR released in September last year, found systematic failures in track patrolling and management.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

The mother of Rhys Jones has described cradling her son as paramedics fought to save his life.

In a witness statement read out at the trial of the teenager accused of Rhys's murder, Melanie Jones described being in a state of "total shock" after her son was shot and added: "I didn't take anything in."

Mrs Jones said she was told of the shooting by the coach of her son's football team.

They then drove to the Fir Tree pub in Croxteth, Liverpool, where Rhys was being treated by paramedics.

She said: "As I arrived at the Fir Tree I saw a number of people, including police and paramedics attending to my son, Rhys. I cradled him while the paramedics dealt with him. I then went with my son to Alder Hey Hospital where he was pronounced dead."

Rhys was killed on August 22 last year as he crossed the front car park of the pub on his way home from football training.

Sean Mercer, 18, of Good Shepherd Close, Croxteth, denies murder.

The prosecution claim Mercer blasted three shots across the car park after targeting members of a rival gang who had strayed onto his turf. The second bullet, the jury has been told, struck Rhys in the neck and the youngster died a short time later.

Mrs Jones, 43, added: "My son Rhys was a happy, outgoing child whose favourite sport was football. Rhys was a very good footballer. Football was his life and he had a very good circle of friends who he played football with. He had a very happy and stable family upbringing. We are a very close family."

Alongside Mercer in the dock are James Yates, 20, of Dodman Road, Croxteth, Gary Kays, 25, of Mallard Close, and Melvin Coy, 24, of Abbeyfield Drive, both West Derby, Liverpool, who are accused of assisting an offender with two boys aged 16 and 17, who cannot be identified. A second 17-year-old boy has been charged with assisting an offender and possessing a firearm and ammunition. All deny the charges.

-Ananova

[Black Widow]

A catering company boss has been banned for life from managing a food company after being found preparing kebabs just feet away from a dead man lying on a sofa.

Police officers called to the Pappu Sweet Centre in Wolverhampton to investigate the sudden death of a worker found Jaswinder Singh, 45, cooking opposite the corpse.

In court, Singh, of Prosser Street, Park Village, Wolverhampton, was fined £3,846 including costs and banned from managing a food business.

The court was also told that a dead rat had been found under a cooking pot and rat droppings were discovered during a health inspection at the business.

Mouldy food and flies were found and employees were seen smoking and spitting on the floor within food areas.

Commenting on the case, Wolverhampton City councillor Barry Findlay said it was one of the worst breaches of the law environment officers had witnessed.

"We are pleased that the council's actions have resulted in the courts banning this individual from ever running a food business again."

The council's Food and Environment Safety Service began investigating the Pappu Sweet Centre in October 2007 following the sighting of a rat.

The business is now under new management.


sky news

[Black Widow]

A CHILD told the Rhys Jones murder trial today that he saw a gunman on a bike fire the shots which killed the innocent schoolboy.

The 11-year-old, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was giving evidence in the trial of Sean Mercer, 18.

The jury at Liverpool Crown Court today heard a taped interview with the young witness who was sitting outside the Fir Tree pub in Croxteth, Liverpool, with his family on August 22 last year, when 11-year-old Rhys was shot.

The witness, who was ten at the time, said: “I was talking and then I saw the lad pointing a gun at something.

“I don’t know what he was pointing at, I couldn’t see. I thought it was nothing because it was light, it was only half seven.

“I carried on talking and then I heard a big loud bang. Then there was a pause and then there were another two shots from the lad.

Fled

“Then he went on the bike and I went into the pub.

“My dad went over (to Rhys) and all the people were around him.”

The boy could not see the gunman’s face but described him as dressed in a black jacket and tracksuit bottoms with a black hood over his head.

The boy said he watched the gunman for about three to five seconds before he fled by cycling down an alleyway.

Mercer, of Croxteth, denies murder.

The prosecution says he blasted the three shots across the car park after targeting members of a rival gang who had strayed on to his turf.

The second bullet, the jury has been told, struck Rhys in the neck and the youngster, who was returning home from football practice, died in his mother Melanie’s arms a short time later.

James Yates, 20, of Croxteth, Gary Kays, 25, and Melvin Coy, 24, both of West Derby, Liverpool, are accused of assisting an offender alongside two boys aged 16 and 17, who cannot be identified.

A second 17-year-old boy has been charged with assisting an offender and possessing a firearm and ammunition.

All deny the charges.


The Sun

[Black Widow]

A SCIENCE teacher who slapped a 14-year-old pupil’s bottom in class and called her a “naughty girl” was found guilty today of unacceptable professional conduct.

Trevor Towers was teaching a Year 10 class at Trevethin Community School in Pontypool, South Wales, when he walked up to the student who was bending over a printer.

The teenager, identified only as Pupil A, was slapped by Mr Towers, the General Teaching Council for Wales (GTCW) panel heard.

He was charged with indecent assault and sexual assault and was bound over to keep the peace after no evidence was offered at a trial at Cardiff Crown Court.

He did not attend today’s Professional Conduct Committee hearing, at the Holland House Hotel, to face the allegation.

The girl sobbed as the Cardiff hearing was told details of the July 2004 incident.

In a statement made to police read out at the hearing, she said: “The paper in the printer had jammed, and I leaned over to try to fix it.

“I then felt a firm slap to my bottom and heard Mr Towers say ’You naughty girl’ to me.

“I didn’t know where to turn. I felt incredibly embarrassed that he had done this to me in front of my classmates."

Smack

Her friend, referred to as Pupil B, told police: “I saw him smack Pupil A on the bottom, but he left his hands on her bottom for a couple of seconds.”

Mr Towers apologised to the teenager when the lesson finished, but told her he did not know why she was upset.

He dismissed the incident as end-of-term “banter”, the panel was told, but eventually admitted slapping the girl.

In her statement, the girl, now a receptionist, said: “I felt it was not right Mr Towers should treat me like that.

“I couldn’t understand what I had done to make him pick on me.”

The girl tearfully told her mother what had happened when she returned home and the pair went to the school together the following day, when Mr Towers again apologised.

The girl then reported the matter to police in Cwmbran.

She added: “I found this whole episode very distressing. I didn’t make my complaint to the police lightly.”

Her mother told the hearing today her daughter was so upset she tried taking an overdose before the matter went to court in 2005.

She said: “She has had a lot of problems since all this happened. She even tried to take an overdose.

“When the police took it to court in Cardiff it was just too much for her. She has been terrible over it all.”

Mr Towers, a teacher of 22 years’ experience, was dismissed from the school, which has since closed, in January 2006.

Headmaster Royston Toon told the dismissal hearing at the time: “I found it amazing that an experienced teacher would not understand why slapping a girl would upset her.

“Would I have any trust regarding him being left with children? The answer is no.”

Mr Towers told that hearing: “I said I was really sorry. I couldn’t understand why she was so upset.”

He described the slap as a “silly thing to do”, and said he had no sexual or violent intent.


The Sun

[Swinny]

I kind of agree with both sides in a sense. Yes, he definitely should have done it, it wasn't appropriate, but for her to because that emotionally distraught over it, to the point where she's trying to kill herself, that's just ridiculous.

[JohnCenaFan28]

Thanks for posting.

[JohnCenaFan28]

Thanks for the news.

[JohnCenaFan28]

Thanks for posting.

[JohnCenaFan28]

The Government has been warned that unemployment could spiral to three million after the biggest jobless rise since 1991 left 1.79 million people looking for work.

Unemployment soared by 164,000, more than 10%, in the quarter to August, while the number of people claiming jobseeker's allowance increased for the eighth month in a row.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown vowed to do all he could to keep people in jobs, pointing out that unemployment was higher in America, Germany, France and Italy than in Britain.

The Prime Minister said one way to tackle unemployment and climate change at the same time was to train people to install loft insulation.

He said: "We are training large numbers of additional people to do that work in insulation and that will become one of the unemployment programmes that will grow over the next period of time. So the need to meet climate change goals and cut people's gas and electricity bills will create work."

Unions and opposition politicians pressed the Government to halt its programme of Jobcentre closures and 12,000 job cuts in the Department for Work and Pensions in the face of lengthening dole queues.

In the Commons, shadow foreign secretary William Hague said it was a "grim day" for the British economy, and claimed that a Government promise of £100 million to help retrain the jobless had been previously announced, and would be spread over three years, working out at just £18 for each unemployed person.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "This is extremely bad news, and these figures do not even show the effects of the bank crash. After years when we could take reasonably full employment for granted, we are now in for grim times. This is the next big challenge for the Government."

Vicky Redwood, of Capital Economics, forecast that, at the current rate, the number of people claiming jobseeker's allowance would top a million by the end of this year. Total unemployment would rise by 1.5 million to about three million by the end of 2010, she predicted.

Job loss announcements include 800 redundancies in Scotland at US-owned computer chip firm Freescale Semiconductor and more than 500 in Grimsby through the proposed closure of a Mariner Foods factory.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Plans to gather and record millions of pieces of information about everyone's internet and telephone habits have been condemned as "Orwellian".

Measures to allow government agencies access to records of emails sent, websites visited and phone calls made amount to an "exponential increase in the powers of the state", it was claimed.

Police and the security services say terrorists and organised crime gangs are becoming more and more sophisticated in the way they use new technology to evade detection. They fear that without changes to how the government monitors communications data (CD), their ability to break up terror plots and gather evidence for criminal prosecutions could be undermined.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said the alternative to collecting more data was an expensive and intrusive "expansion" of surveillance. She pointed to the convictions of the July 21 bombers and Soham killer Ian Huntley as cases where electronic data collection was vital.

She said: "It may well be that the only other alternative to collecting that data would be a massive expansion of surveillance and other intrusive methods of tracking." Ms Smith added: "There are no plans for an enormous database which will contain the content of your emails, the texts that you send or the chats you have on the phone or online. Nor are we going to give local authorities the power to trawl through the database in the interests of investigating lower level criminality under the spurious cover of counter-terrorist legislation."

Measures which allow traditional phone companies to be compelled to provide information such as billing records for phone calls could be extended to other firms under the Data Communications Bill, which will go out for consultation in the New Year. Ministers are keen to stress they are not seeking bulk access to the content of emails or to record people's phone calls.

But opponents of the move fear the growth of the "Big Brother" state and question whether the government can be trusted to record personal information. Labour MP Keith Vaz said he would be asking the Home Affairs Select Committee, which he chairs, to review the proposals. He said: "Extreme caution needs to be taken when considering the extension of the State's surveillance powers."

Shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve said the plans would mean a "substantial shift" in the state's powers. He said: "The Government must present convincing justification for such an exponential increase in the powers of the state."

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said the plans were "Orwellian". "This Government has repeatedly shown that it cannot be trusted with sensitive data," he said, adding: "There is little reason to think ministers will be any less slapdash with our phone and internet records."

Gareth Crossman, policy director at Liberty, said: "There are huge dangers in the central collection of vast amounts of intimate information about everyone. The bigger the data haul, the greater the temptation to treat innocent habits as suspicious behaviour."

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Gordon Brown has called for an international conference before the end of the year to reshape the financial world order.

The Prime Minister said the post-war financial system shaped by the Bretton Woods conference 64 years ago - which included setting up the International Monetary Fund (IMF) - was no longer fit for purpose.

Mr Brown, architect of a British bail-out plan now being adopted across Europe to counter the financial crisis, tabled proposals at an EU summit for what he called "stage two" of the project which has won him unlikely hero status.

The document calls for tougher supervision of banks, a global "early warning system" for swift identification of future financial wobbles and agreement on a world trade deal to banish international protectionism.

It would all restore public confidence in the financial system, said Mr Brown, who added: "We have to respond to unique times and unpredictable circumstances and think in unconventional ways about what to do."

Closer supervision of banks would include "colleges of supervisors" to be set up within months to monitor 30 of the world's biggest financial institutions and the wholesale reform of the IMF to ready it for global markets and a global economy.

The seven-page Brown blueprint was produced as the summit in Brussels started amid continued plaudits for Mr Brown due to his lead in delivering a credible bail-out plan.

Mr Brown came to the rescue last Sunday, urging the EU's 15 "euro-zone" countries to adopt the UK's three-pronged formula to prop up banks. Within days, other European governments had mimicked the UK measures in a 2,000 billion euro (£1,579 billion) bail-out which has seen markets respond.

At the summit, the Brown "bounce" continued, with the Prime Minister holding centre-stage with the comprehensive longer-term plan he wants adopted before the meeting ends on Thursday afternoon.

The Bretton Woods-style conference would need full US backing, he acknowledged, and a world trade deal - which eluded Peter Mandelson as EU trade Commissioner last summer - was a vital piece of the jigsaw to end "beggar thy neighbour" protectionist policies across the world.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Consumers hit by the credit crunch had something to smile about at last when petrol dipped below the £1 a litre mark for the first time this year.

There was more cheer for travellers when two major UK airlines - British Airways and Virgin Atlantic - announced a reduction in fuel surcharges.

The welcome reduction in pump prices came when oil giant BP and supermarket chains Asda and Morrisons all cut the price of a litre of unleaded petrol to 99.9p, with BP saying the new price would apply "at a number" of its outlets.

Asda, whose petrol price had previously been 104.9p a litre, also reduced the cost of diesel from £116.9p a litre to 110.9p. A litre of diesel at Morrisons was cut to 111.9p, as was a litre of BP diesel.

In addition, supermarket Sainsbury's said: "We are planning a price cut and will continue to monitor prices daily."

This is the first time since last autumn that petrol has been under £1 in the UK, with unleaded going over 120p a litre and diesel over 130p during the worst of this year's price rises.

The price of oil on world markets has fallen from a high of around 147 US dollars a barrel earlier this year to a 14-month low of around 75 dollars today.

Damien Cox, senior analyst at energy adviser John Hall Associates, predicted further falls as the outlook for the worsening economies becomes clearer over the coming months.

He said: "With the economic situation looking the way it is, I don't think we have seen the bottom yet. There's still a little bit to come out of this over the next few months."

In September last year, unleaded cost an average 95.2p per litre, with diesel averaging at 96.9p.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

A vulnerable Muslim convert has admitted attempting to kill dozens of people in a suicide nail bomb attack on a busy family restaurant.

Nicky Reilly, 22, pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to attempted murder and preparing a terrorist attack at the Giraffe restaurant in Exeter. Police said he was encouraged and helped by at least two untraced Islamic extremists who contacted him via his YouTube webpage.

But the attack failed when child-like Reilly could not open the door of a restaurant toilet cubicle in the seconds after he set the bomb to explode. The court heard he intended to run out into the packed dining area clutching the caustic soda bottle bomb to his stomach.

But the delay caused the volatile nail-filled device to detonate in his hands, leaving him badly injured. Reilly, of King Street, Plymouth, converted to Islam about five years ago and appeared in court under the name Mohammad Rashid Saeed Alim. Police said Reilly began to plan the attack earlier this year as his interest in Islam became an obsession.

His mother Kim watched from the court's public gallery as Reilly appeared via video link from high security Belmarsh Prison in London. She told the BBC he was "brainwashed" by others who were left to walk free after he did their work.

Officers said he also used the internet to research how to make bombs using caustic soda, kerosene and nails. Police recovered pictures of the bombs taken by Reilly before he packed them in a rucksack and travelled by bus to Exeter. One senior investigator said he worshipped Osama bin Laden and quoted the al Qaida leader in a suicide note left at his home.

Explaining the prosecution case, Mr Justice Calvert-Smith said Reilly decided to target "ordinary citizens". He said: "He bought more than necessary equipment over those months to construct two types of improvised devices, one using caustic soda and the other kerosene. He appears to have tried to increase the potential for injury and death both to himself and others by putting chemicals in glass bottles and filling those bottles with a total of around 500 nails."

When Reilly arrived at the Giraffe restaurant at lunchtime on May 22 there were 24 customers and 11 members of staff inside. He was captured on CCTV as he purchased a drink and sat at a bar before entering the toilet at the back of the store. Footage from the restaurant shows customers fleeing in terror after three loud bangs were heard.

Prosecutor Stuart Baker said: "His recollection now is that he was unable to open the lock of the cubicle door and come out, by which time the first device had already exploded." Assistant Chief Constable Debbie Simpson said inquiries to trace his extremist contacts continued and declined to comment on rumours they may be in Pakistan.

Ms Simpson said: "There is no doubt that his intention was to kill and seriously injure many innocent members of the public in the Giraffe restaurant in Exeter. This was a criminal act, calculated to cause harm and spread panic. The two improvised explosive devices found in his rucksack contained a combination of explosive chemicals and nails with which he intended to kill many people. The incident in Exeter shows that terrorism remains a real and serious threat to all communities across the UK, and not just our major cities." Reilly will be sentenced at the Old Bailey on Friday November 21.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

A 15-year-old boy has been charged with the murder of two-year-old Demi Leigh Mahon.

The little girl was found with serious head injuries at an address in Liverpool Road, Salford, Greater Manchester, on July 15.

She died in hospital two days later.

A post mortem examination found she died as a result of a serious head injury.

The 15-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, will appear at Salford Youth Court.

A 53-year-old man arrested on suspicion of assault has been released without charge.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Seven friends who were on holiday with Kate and Gerry McCann when their daughter Madeleine vanished are to receive a "substantial" libel payout from a newspaper group, a source has said.

It is understood that Express Newspapers are to print apologies to the so-called 'Tapas Seven' and agree to pay them a total of £375,000 in damages in a High Court hearing.

The friends will donate the money to the official Madeleine's Fund, set up to help look for the missing child.

Apologies will be published in the Daily Express and the Daily Star and in the Sunday Express at the weekend, the source said.

The seven are couples Jane Tanner and Russell O'Brien, Rachael and Matthew Oldfield, Fiona and David Payne, and Mrs Payne's mother Dianne Webster.

With the McCanns, they made up the party staying in Praia da Luz in the Algarve in May last year when Madeleine disappeared nine days before her fourth birthday.

Despite a huge police investigation and massive coverage in the Portuguese and British media, the little girl has not been found.

The nickname for the group comes from the tapas restaurant where all nine adults were dining when Madeleine went missing from her family's holiday apartment nearby.

Express Newspapers paid Mr and Mrs McCann £550,000 in damages in March after alleging that the couple were responsible for the death of their daughter in a series of articles.

And in July four newspaper groups agreed a libel settlement worth at least £800,000 with Robert Murat, at one point an "arguido", or formal suspect, in Madeleine's disappearance, and two of his associates.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

A businesswoman crashed her partner's Jaguar in to a young couple at 113mph before telling police she had "killed someone", a court has heard.

Mary Butres, 47, was driving John Nichols' Jaguar XJ8 when it hit surface water, skidded and crashed into Mark Crompton, 20, and his 19-year-old girlfriend Jodie Brown, Nottingham Crown Court heard.

A jury was told the couple were phoning for help after their Ford Fiesta broke down in the A1's central reservation at Great Ponton, Lincolnshire, when the crash happened in May last year, killing them both.

Nichols, 58, was a front seat passenger in the car. The Jaguar's computer recorded that it was travelling at 113mph at the moment of the crash, the court heard earlier.

PC David Gordon was one of the first officers on the scene.

He said: "I went to where the Jaguar was. They didn't have any injuries and she (Butres) was saying 'Oh my God, I've just killed someone'."

Pc Stuart Jeffs interviewed Butres after the crash in his police car. He said: "She (Butres) smelt of alcohol. She said: 'All I could see was the car coming towards my lane. I reacted to that and swerved. I was travelling within the speed limit and I was not overtaking. I saw the car in the central reservation. I don't think it was my fault'."

Pc Jeffs said that initially Butres was unable to give a breath test at the side of the road because she was in shock but she was later tested at Grantham police station.

That test showed Butres, a boss at a packaging firm, was one and a half times the legal limit, the court heard.

Butres, of Stamford, Lincs, and Nichols, of Carlby, Lincs, both deny two counts of causing death by dangerous driving.

-Ananova