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Mason fought between 1984 and 1994, with 37 wins

Former British boxing champion Gary Mason has died in a cycling crash in south London.

Mason, 48, was on his bicycle in Sandy Lane South, Wallington, on Thursday morning when he was involved in a collision with a van.

The retired fighter was pronounced dead at the scene.

A man has been arrested on suspicion of causing death by careless driving and bailed until March pending further inquiries.

The 43-year-old, who was driving a white Vauxhall “combi” van, had stopped at the scene.

Mason fought 38 times as a professional between 1984 and 1994, with 37 wins.

His only defeat was against future world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “Officers were alerted at about 6.15am yesterday to a van in collision with a bicycle on Sandy Lane South, near the junction with Woodcote Road, Wallington.

“The cyclist, aged 48 years, was pronounced dead at the scene.”

A post-mortem examination will be held at St Helier Hospital mortuary and an inquest will be opened at Croydon Coroner’s Court.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

The security threat level to the UK as a whole was raised to “severe” a year ago

The terrorist threat level specific to major UK transport hubs has been raised from substantial to severe, the BBC understands.

The move includes airports and London railway terminals, although there is no suggestion of any intelligence of an imminent attack.

The threat to the UK overall remains where it has been for the past year at the second-highest level, “severe”.

Security officials are stressing the change is precautionary.

The overall national threat level at severe means a terrorist attack is highly likely.

Beneath this are a series of threat levels for specific sectors of the national infrastructure which are not normally made public.

But it is understood the threat level for major transport hubs, including airline terminals and major railway stations in London, has been increased from substantial to severe.

Officials say if there was any intelligence of an imminent threat or a plot under way the threat level would be raised to its highest level, “critical”.

There have been concerns in recent months over the possibility of Mumbai-style gun attacks in Europe and the intelligence that led to this change is believed to cover Europe as a whole.

In practice, the move means more police are likely to be visible at airports and railway stations from Friday.

BBC security correspondent Gordon Corera said: “Officials are stressing that there is no intelligence of an imminent attack. This is more precautionary than anything else.

“If there was some kind of intelligence of a plot under way, or that there was a threat to these locations tomorrow, then the threat level would go up to the highest level which is ‘critical’. That’s not happening.

“These sector threat levels do change quite often. Normally the changes happen out of the public eye and officials don’t comment on them.

“But what we can expect to see is a greater police presence, particularly at airports and large railway stations.”

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: “The threat level to the UK is at severe, which means that an attack is highly likely, and has been since January 2010.

“We will police accordingly and use a range of covert and overt tactics which remain under constant review.”

The Home Office said there was a “continuing need for everyone to remain vigilant and to report any suspicious activity to the police”.

A spokesman for airports operator BAA said: “Security at our airports remains at a high level and we remain vigilant at all times.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Thousands of people were left without water during the crisis

The head of an independent review into Northern Ireland’s water services has said the team’s two reports were not acted on.

The review was set up by the assembly in 2007 after direct rule ministers advised that water services should be privatised.

Among its recommendations were that water charges should come in.

“We prepared the reports and they’re still sitting on somebody’s shelf somewhere,” Prof Paddy Hillyard said.

About 40,000 homes and businesses in Northern Ireland were cut off from the mains water supply during the Christmas period and the government-owned NI Water was severely criticised for its response to those in need.

Professor Hillyard said he “was very fearful it will happen again” because the water system “just cannot cope with heavy frost”.

On Thursday, it was announced that an investigation into the crisis had been widened.

The Executive has agreed to appoint two people to scrutinise the role of the Department of Regional Development, while the utility regulator will investigate NI Water’s performance.

Professor Hillyard said as the regulator has a role in approving or disapproving investment in the water infrastructure, the investigation was not independent.

Conor Murphy said measures were in place to avoid a repeat of the water crisis

“To ask the regulator to carry out a review when he is in fact part of the government’s arrangements will mean that it won’t be totally independent

“What the people of Northern Ireland need is a totally independent review,” he said.

“What worries me is that with the (assembly) elections coming up these reports are going to yet again be sitting on somebody’s shelf gathering dust and nothing will de done until after the election.

“We have so little time to prepare for another possible crisis like this winter and we have to move very fast to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”

Assurances

Earlier, Northern Ireland’s regional development minister said he had been assured that measures are in place to ensure there is no repeat of the water crisis.

Conor Murphy said NI Water had told the Executive and his department about “the immediate lessons they have put in place”.

“We also received a report from the Civil Contingencies Group – who span across all departments in terms of a response to an emergency situation – to tell us what suggestions they had put in place to allow other agencies and government departments to assist NI Water should any issue like this arise again.

“So there were very firm reassurances given to the Executive and the regional development committee that there have been a lot of immediate lessons learned and measures put in place to ensure we don’t have a reoccurrence of this this winter,” Mr Murphy said.

On Thursday, the Executive agreed to a twin track review of the crisis after hours of talks.

Mr Murphy said the investigation had been widened “to ensure that there was some confidence that there is a proper investigation into all of this”.

A thaw following an unprecedented spell of cold weather led to thousands of burst pipes

The Executive meeting came after senior officials from Northern Ireland Water were grilled by members of Stormont’s Regional Development Committee earlier on Thursday.

The chief executive of NI Water during the crisis, Laurence MacKenzie, was absent after he agreed to step down from his role in the early hours of Thursday morning.

The company’s director of customer services, Liam Mulholland, told the committee that it had received more than 1m contacts from the public over the Christmas period and that its systems had “simply been overwhelmed”.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Uwic says course closures and student and staff reductions are the result of funding cuts

Courses, staff and students are set to be reduced at the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, (Uwic) as higher education funding cuts and changes take effect.

The university will decide whether to close four courses at a meeting on Friday.

It is also proposed to cut 35 jobs and “significantly reduce” student numbers at the university’s school of art.

Uwic said the institution would try to “protect academic posts”.

The courses under threat include the university’s BA in interior architecture, BA sociology & criminology/popular culture, the BSc in music technology and design/sonic arts, and BA in media studies with visual cultures.

The university said they were responding to funding cuts and the assembly government’s desire to eliminate regional competition between universities.

They said the quality of learning and teaching for current students would not be affected.

Applications to the university’s interior architecture course have been suspended leading to an outcry amongst Uwic graduates and design professionals.

Interior Educators, an organisation established by academics to represent interior design/architecture courses in the UK, sent a letter signed by representatives from 37 universities and colleges to the university urging a re-think.

Graham Brooker, director of Interior Educators, said it was a “poor idea to remove such a highly regarded course”.

“Interior Educators represents the best interior design courses across the UK,” he said.

“In that group the Uwic course is regarded as one of the best so to close it is a real shock, we’re quite upset.”

Kimberley Johnson, who graduated from the course in 2010 and now works at a contemporary furniture supplier in Cardiff, said it has had great success in finding meaningful employment for students.

“I’m horrified that other people won’t get what I’ve got now,” she said.

“In the industry, if you say you’re from this course it’s highly regarded.”

Recruitment at Welsh universities will be capped this year for the first time as the assembly government seeks to control the number of students it supports.

An internal Uwic document, seen by BBC Wales, reveals that the number of students at the university’s school of art will be “significantly reduced” as a result of the new cap, with 25% fewer places available in future.

Student numbers at Uwic’s school of art will be ‘significantly reduced’ according to an internal document

The document also outlines proposals to reduce staffing at the school of art by over a third, meaning 35 jobs will be lost.

Russell Smith, who is the University and College Union (UCU) chief negotiating officer at Uwic, said he hopes the plans can be stopped.

“We don’t want any redundancies,” he said.

“We think they can make reductions through natural wastage and by offering voluntary severance.”

A spokepserson for the university said it realised that “changes of this nature will affect a number of current staff”.

“Previous restructures have shown that the university will do everything possible to protect academic posts and that all staff are supported throughout.

“Any changes reflect the desire of the Welsh Assembly Government for universities to plan their provision on a regional basis eliminating competition.”

Education Minister Leighton Andrews, has repeatedly called for mergers between universities and in December the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) published proposals to reduce the number of universities in Wales from 10 to six, with just two universities in south east Wales.

A Welsh Assembly Government spokesperson said: “Higher education institutions in Wales are autonomous bodies with sole responsibility for their own academic and administrative affairs.

“This includes course provision and staffing matters.

“It would not, therefore, be appropriate for us to intervene in matters which are for Uwic to determine.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.