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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) agrees a $3bn (£1.8bn) loan deal with the interim government in Egypt.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The rally in Trafalgar Square will remember the 1984 attack on Golden Temple Sikhs from across the UK have begun a march through central London to mark the anniversary of an attack on their holiest shrine in India.
The Remembrance March from Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square is to commemorate the 1984 attack on the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab, north India.
Indian armed forces stormed the holiest Sikh shrine 27 years ago to flush out militants from the temple premises.
Leaders will also call for the right to self-determination at the rally.
The Sikh Federation UK, which organised the event, said they expected up to 25,000 people to attend the Freedom Rally at Trafalgar Square.
Organisers said Liberal Democrat MP Simon Hughes and Green MP Caroline Lucas were expected to speak at the rally which will also be addressed by leaders from the Sikh community in the UK and Europe as well as representatives from India.
The attack on the temple complex – Operation Bluestar – had been personally approved by Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, to flush out militants who wanted an independent homeland of Khalistan.
There has never been agreement on the numbers killed, but Sikhs say thousands were massacred by Indian troops, many of them innocent bystanders.
Mrs Gandhi was assassinated four months later by her Sikh bodyguards. Following her death anti-Sikh rioting erupted in India which left about 3,000 Sikhs dead.
Events are also being held in Vancouver in Canada and in California to mark the 27th anniversary of the attack.
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Mary Travers was murdered by the IRA in 1984 The SDLP and Ulster Unionist Party have backed a review into the way special advisers are appointed to Northern Ireland government departments.
First Minister Peter Robinson has asked the Finance Minister Sammy Wilson to look at the appointment process.
It comes after Sinn Fein appointed Mary McArdle as a special adviser to the new culture minister.
Ms McArdle was part of an IRA gang which murdered Mary Travers in south Belfast in 1984.
Ulster Unionist Ross Hussey said the main concern for his party was that “a former terrorist” had been appointed to the role.
“That’s totally wrong for the family concerned and the party concerned. Sinn Fein should consider seriously the actions they took.
“A political advisor has a role to under take and we in the Ulster Unionist Party for example advertise within our group of people to apply for the post and they will be examined by their ability to do the job.”
SDLP MLA Conall McDevitt also said Sinn Fein should review its decision.
“I know how the people feel in south Belfast, Catholic people, nationalist people feel about what has happened and what Sinn Fein have done,” he said.
“They have misjudged absolutely the mood, not only of the people of Northern Ireland but particularly the mood of Nationalism on this issue.
“I think its not too late to review that decision.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Artist Aelita Andre might only be four-years-old but that has not stopped her opening her first art exhibition in New York.
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Aer Lingus has extended the period for passengers to change bookings free of charge.
Passengers can now cancel flights they have booked from Tuesday until Friday. The airline expects widespread disruption to its operations this week.
Negotiations attempting to resolve a row with pilots over working rotas collapsed on Saturday.
Flights to and from Belfast are unaffected but the dispute will affect flights out of Dublin and Cork.
Aer Lingus chief executive Christoph Muller said it could lead to a full cancellation of operations from Tuesday.
Travellers from Northern Ireland intending to use Dublin Airport next week for onward connecting flights are advised to check the Aer Lingus website.
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The number of servicemen killed in operations in Afghanistan since 2001 stands at 370 A Royal Marine has been killed while on patrol in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence said.
The member of 42 Commando Royal Marines was shot dead by insurgents on Sunday.
The MoD said his next of kin have been informed. Three hundred and seventy UK personnel have died during operations in Afghanistan since 2001.
It follows the death of Cpl Michael John Pike, from 4th Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland, in a clash in Helmand on Friday.
A spokesman for Task Force Helmand, Lieutenant Colonel Tim Purbrick, said on Sunday: “He was on joint patrol to meet local people and to disrupt insurgent activity in the Adensee area of Nahr-e-Saraj District in Helmand Province when he was fatally wounded by small arms fire this morning.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Around 30 people are injured as Delhi police break up an anti-corruption protest led by controversial yoga guru Baba Ramdev.
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Andy Newell was shot by a rogue policeman in Afghanistan Forces’ charity Help for Heroes is set to reach £100m in public donations, after three and a half years of work.
It is hoped a fundraising bike ride through the battlefields of France will push through the barrier, raising £1m.
Around 300 of the charity’s supporters will start the bike ride from Portsmouth on Sunday afternoon, finishing in Paris on Friday.
The charity builds specialist recovery centres for soldiers injured in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Some of the cyclists have lost limbs and will be using their hands to operate their bikes.
Andy Newell, who was one of the soldiers who inspired the charity, is taking part in the ride.
He was shot through the arm by a rogue Afghan policeman while he served in Afghanistan and spent months in hospital.
The retired Para told the BBC: “People stepped up to the mark for me when I needed it, from Help for Heroes and other soldiers I knew and didn’t know helped me, so I want to do my bit for them.”
The charity’s founders, Bryn and Emma Parry, say they are amazed at the public’s generosity.
But they urged people to continue their support to ensure it could provide a lifetime of support for men and women who have sustained life-changing injuries.
Bryn Parry, said: “It has really restored my faith in humanity – that people are prepared to do this, and they’re not just giving money, they’re giving of themselves, and most of the money we raise is people doing something.”
They said when they launched the charity they expected to raise a few thousand pounds.
Emma Parry said: “One of my very special memories was opening, or a cheque being opened in the office, for £98,000 in January 2008. We’ll never forget it.
“We opened the cheque and read the amount – I think someone had to come and check that it was the right amount – it was just phenomenal to think someone would be generous enough to do that.”
The rehabilitation complex, Headley Court in Surrey, which was opened by Prince William last year, cost millions of pounds and the charity is building several other recovery units across the UK.
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The interactions that form comparatively large moons like our own were thought to be rare About one in 10 rocky planets around stars like our Sun may host a moon proportionally as large as Earth’s, researchers say.
Our Moon is disproportionately large – more than a quarter of Earth’s diameter – a situation once thought to be rare.
Using computer simulations of planet formation, researchers have now shown that the grand impacts that resulted in our Moon may in fact be common.
The result may also help identify other planets that are hospitable to life.
A report outlining the results will be published in Icarus.
Last year, researchers from the University of Zurich’s Institute of Theoretical Physics in Switzerland and Ryuja Morishima of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado in the US undertook a series of simulations to look at the way planets form from gas and smaller chunks of rock called planetesimals.
Our own moon is widely thought to have formed early in the Earth’s history when a Mars-sized planet slammed into the Earth, resulting in a disc of molten material encircling the Earth which in time coalesced into the Moon as we know it.
The team used the results from their initial study as the input to a further “N-body simulation” to find out the likelihood that large-scale impact events could form large satellites in the same way.
Their results showed that there is about a one in 12 chance of generating a system comprising a planet more than half the Earth’s mass and a moon with more than half that of our Moon (taking into account the errors in the simulation, the full range of probabilities was between one in 45 and one in four).
Sebastian Elser of the University of Zurich said the new estimates for the likelihood of Moon-sized satellites could inform the hunt for extrasolar planets.
Such large moons can confuse the measurements that spot the planets, and knowing that large satellites may be common could make the measurements easier.
The cataclysmic impact that resulted in the Moon still presents a number of computational mysteries Also, our Moon has served to stabilise the tilt of the Earth’s axis – or its obliquity – which could otherwise have varied drastically over relatively short time scales. That in turn would wreak drastic changes to the way heat from the Sun is distributed around the planet.
It thus can be said that the Moon’s presence made a more stable environment in which life could evolve, Mr Elser said.
“Checking for the possibility of an obliquity-stabilising moon is a good thing if you’re trying to find out how many habitable worlds are out there in the galaxy,” he told BBC News. “But it’s surely not the only one and not the most important.”
Eiichiro Kokubo is a planet formation expert who has published widely on the mechanics behind the development of both the planets in our Solar System and the Moon.
He called the result an “interesting estimate” but cautioned that there are several as-yet unknown parameters “which greatly affect lunar formation and evolution and thus the probability of hosting a large moon”.
He told BBC News that, for example, it is still impossible to put numbers to the effects of a planet’s initial spin before impact, or how the disc of material is formed and evolves after it.
“I think we should take the paper as a trial calculation based on what we know about formation of terrestrial planets and moons today,” he said.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
President Saleh had promised to step down but failed to sign a deal to do so Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh has flown to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment, a day after he was wounded, Saudi officials say.
Uncertainty surrounded Mr Saleh’s whereabouts for much of Saturday.
Sources in Yemen told the BBC that Mr Saleh had a piece of shrapnel below his heart and second-degree burns to his chest and face.
An uprising demanding that Mr Saleh leave power has led to violence bringing Yemen close to civil war.
The Yemeni president arrived in the Saudi capital Riyadh aboard a Saudi medical plane.
A Gulf nation diplomatic source told BBC Arabic that the decision to transfer Mr Saleh to Riyadh was taken after Saudi doctors consulted with a German medical team.
A source told Reuters news agency that Mr Saleh walked off the plane after arriving in Riyadh, but had visible wounds to his face, neck and head.
A second plane carried members of the president’s family, AFP news agency said, quoting an unnamed Saudi official.
Mr Saleh and several senior officials were praying at the al-Nahdayn mosque inside the presidential compound in the south of Sanaa on Friday afternoon at the time of the attack.
The mosque was originally thought to have been hit by rockets, but there are now suggestions someone may have planted a bomb there.
The attack on the mosque left seven of Mr Saleh’s bodyguards dead and several officials wounded The president broadcast an audio message on Friday after he was wounded but did not appeared in public.
In the broadcast, he blamed the attack on an “outlaw gang” of his tribal foes – an accusation denied by Sheikh Sadeq al-Ahmar, the head of the Hashid tribal federation, whose fighters have been clashing with security forces.
More than 160 people have been killed in the fighting that began on 23 May and has brought Yemen to the brink of civil war.
After reports of a Saudi-brokered ceasefire, Sanaa was calm for much of Saturday.
But overnight fighting resumed, with the sounds of heavy shelling in the northern parts of the capital, freelance journalist Iona Craig, in Sanaa, told the BBC.
The prominent Ahmar family has been financing the opposition and helping sustain protesters, who have been demanding Mr Saleh’s resignation since January despite a crackdown that has left at least 350 people dead.
Western and regional powers have been urging Mr Saleh to sign a Gulf Co-operation Council-brokered deal that would see him hand over power to his deputy in return for an amnesty from prosecution.
He has agreed to sign on several occasions, but then backed out.
With Mr Saleh out of the country, it is not clear who is in charge. The constitution calls for the vice president, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, to take over, including command of the armed forces and security services.
But Mr Saleh’s son Ahmed commands the elite Republican Guard and other relatives control security and intelligence units.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
A volcano has erupted in southern Chile, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of people living nearby.
Large columns of smoke have been seen rising from the Puyehue volcano, about 800km (500 miles) south of the capital Santiago.
Witnesses also reported a strong smell of ash and sulphur. A dozen small earthquakes were recorded before the eruption began.
The officials have issued a red alert – the maximum warning level for the area.
Evacuation orders were issued for some 3,500 people, the local authorities said.
They added that the residents would be relocated in shelters in safe areas.
So far there have been no reports of any injuries.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The UK’s Supreme Court ruled on Nat Fraser’s murder conviction A group of experts has been established to look at the impact of the UK Supreme Court on Scotland’s legal system.
First Minister Alex Salmond set up the review after raising his concerns about the role of the London-based court.
The four members appointed to the review group include a former solicitor general for Scotland.
Their initial findings will be debated at the Scottish Parliament in time for the summer recess.
The debate over the Supreme Court was brought to life by its decision that Nat Fraser’s conviction for murdering his wife Arlene in Elgin was unsafe.
The court had previously cast doubt on a large number of criminal convictions in Scotland in a ruling which came to be known as the Cadder judgement.
This concerned the rights of a suspect to legal representation during questioning by police.
The experts who were appointed to the expert group are Lord McCluskey, a former solicitor general; Sir Gerald Gordon, a former professor of Scots Law at Edinburgh University; Charles Stoddart, who has acted as interim Sheriff Principal; and Professor Neil Walker, an expert in constitutional law.
The first minister has asked them to look at the roles of the High Court of Judiciary in Edinburgh and the UK Supreme Court in London, and to advise on possible options for reform.
Mr Salmond said: “This expert group is a stellar cast of some of the leading names in the Scottish legal firmament.
Supreme Court justice Lord Hope has been criticised by politicians “We have called upon specialists of the highest calibre and asked them to use all their experience to bring forward proposals for reform.”
The first minister defended Scotland’s independent legal system, which he said was being affected by “aggressive” intervention from a different jurisdiction.
But members of the Scottish government have been criticised for politicizing the discussion of the Supreme Court, and particularly for focussing on the role of a Scottish judge at the court, Lord Hope.
A spokesman for the Scotland Office, part of the UK government, said evidence on the issue from a previous review had been passed on to the Scottish government.
The spokesman said: “The responses to the expert group set up by the advocate general showed overwhelming support for the Supreme Court maintaining its important role in devolution issues.
“There has been a great deal of misinformation about the role of the Supreme Court in recent weeks.
“The idea that the independence of Scots law is under threat is simply wrong.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Can the virtual world help you lose weight in the real one? Regular visits to a health club in the online virtual world Second Life appear to help shed the pounds in real life, say exercise scientists.
Participants in two 12-week weight loss programmes – one real, and one online – lost similar amounts of weight.
Indiana University researchers told a conference that confidence and motivation built in the virtual gym continued in normal life.
A UK psychologist said mixing online and real world support might work best.
Second Life, launched in 2003, allows individuals to create online personae and explore an online world, interacting with others.
Dr Jeanne Johnston, who led the study which was presented at the American College of Sports Medicine Conference in Denver, worked in partnership with a Second Life interactive weight loss community called Club One Island to devise a weight loss programme.
Overweight and obese people were recruited to take part in either this programme, or a similar programme delivered more conventionally in a face-to-face setting.
Both courses involved four hours a week at meetings either in Second Life or the real world.
Most of those taking part were women, with an average age of 46 in the Second Life programme, and 37 in the face-to-face group.
Over the 12-week period, both groups achieved similar weight loss – losing 10 pounds on average.
However, when the groups were surveyed on whether their overall behaviour had changed, those using Second Life appeared to have made more changes towards healthy eating and physical activity, suggesting that they might fare better in the future.
Dr Johnston said: “It’s counter-intuitive, the idea of being more active in a virtual world, but the activities that they do in a virtual world can carry over into the real world.
“The virtual world programme was at least as beneficial as the face-to-face programme, and in some ways, more effective.
“It has the potential to reach people who normally wouldn’t go to a gym or join a programme because of limitations, such as time or discomfort with a fitness centre environment.”
Dr Jeff Breckon, a researcher in exercise psychology at Sheffield Hallam University, said that there might be a role for virtual support of this type.
He said: “There is still evidence that one-to-one sessions can lead to successful outcomes.
“There may be a place for this, perhaps as an adjunct to these sessions, rather than a replacement.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Mucus in the lungs can lead to infection UK scientists say pioneering research into cystic fibrosis has been delayed by funding problems caused by the economic downturn.
The researchers were hoping to begin a trial later this summer, using gene therapy to try to protect patients’ lungs from potentially fatal damage.
They are due to receive a prestigious award for medical innovation on Monday.
The Cystic Fibrosis Trust says public donations for this type of work have fallen in the tough economic climate.
The Medical Futures Innovation Awards celebrate some of the best ideas for new treatments and help them attract funding.
But that is proving especially challenging at the moment.
One of the winners – a team looking at pioneering gene therapy for cystic fibrosis (CF) – says plans were in place to begin the world’s biggest trial of its kind later this summer.
Funding Shortfall
But this has been put back while efforts continue to meet a shortfall of six million pounds.
The UK CF Gene Therapy Consortium has spent ten years working on a novel way of treating the disease, which is caused by a faulty gene that controls the movement of salt and water through cells.
When this gene fails internal organs become clogged with sticky mucus which attracts infection. Most people with the disease die of chronic lung damage.
The scientists have developed a way of delivering droplets containing healthy genes into the lungs. They have completed initial safety trials, and say the early findings are “hugely encouraging”.
“You need a large critical mass of people doing the research, getting scientists and doctors working as a team, recruiting patients and making the material for the trial. It’s been a decade of effort. No one else is capable of doing it. It is completely unique. ”
Professor Eric Alton UK CF Gene Therapy Consortium
However they say problems with funding mean the next trial to test clinical effectiveness will not get under way until March next year at the earliest.
Delay for patients
Professor Eric Alton, who is heading the research, says without further fresh backing the project could disintegrate.
“This project cannot be parked. If we do not get the funding patients will become more unwell. Some will die. A huge amount of hope and effort and science has been invested in this.”
The consortium is talking to potential partners from the pharmaceutical industry and has applied for a grant from the National Institute for Health Research.
So far nearly all the £30m funding has come from the Cystic Fibrosis Trust. But the charity has seen a decline in annual public donations from about £10m in 2008, to about £8m now.
It is launching a fresh appeal targeting corporate and wealthy donors to try to meet the shortfall.
The charity’s chief executive, Matthew Reed, says it would like to find a commercial partner.
“Cystic fibrosis undermines the quality and length of life This is a really significant moment in the history of the disease. We are very close to a clinical trial to test for efficacy. A lot of people are doing all they can to make it happen,” he said.
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The Pope has said Croats need not fear a loss of identity or religion if they join the EU Pope Benedict XVI is due to make his first visit to the Balkans with a two-day trip to largely-Catholic Croatia.
The Pope has been a supporter of Croatia’s bid to join the EU, which would add another devoutly Catholic nation to the bloc.
But many Croats say they fear a loss of their national identity and religion if Croatia joins the EU, which is a possibility for 2013.
There have been criticisms of the $6m (£3.6m; 4m euros) cost of the visit.
The Vatican has long had a special relationship with Croatia, says the BBC’s Vatican correspondent David Willey.
On Saturday, Pope Benedict is scheduled to meet Croatian leaders and then give a speech.
Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said he expected the Pope to make “references to this bigger theme of the culture, tradition and identity of the Croatian people and their hopes of entering the EU”.
That hope may have flagged somewhat recently, say analysts, amid anger at the conviction in April by The Hague war crimes tribunal of Gen Ante Gotovina. He commanded Croatian forces during the war for independence from Yugoslavia in the early 1990s.
Pope Benedict has previously said that Croatia need not worry about losing its identity by joining the EU and that the bloc needs to be reminded of its Christian history.
On Sunday, the Pope is scheduled to pray at the tomb of the controversial Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac, who led Croatia’s church during World War II.
The cardinal was accused of collaborating with Croatia’s Nazi-allied rulers during the war and was sentenced to 16 years in prison following the war’s end.
Pope Benedict’s predecessor John Paul II put Cardinal Stepinac on the road to sainthood by beatifying him during a 1998 visit, one of three he made to Croatia.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.