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Catherine couture

Experts believe Kate Middleton will become a fashion taste-maker

The royal wedding has been one of the most hotly discussed topics since Prince William announced his engagement to Kate Middleton.

Photographs of the prince’s bride-to-be – and fellow former University of St Andrews student – have adorned every British newspaper on a regular basis since the engagement was announced.

Everything from her hairstyle to her weight has come under scrutiny.

But like Diana, Princess of Wales, the clothes she has been pictured in have become the main talking point.

With just under three weeks to go until the big day, the designer of Ms Middleton’s dress has yet to be unveiled.

Judging by the way copies of her £399 Issa engagement dress were snapped up, it looks like the future princess could already be on her way to becoming a huge fashion trend-setter.

“Whenever any important figure wears fashion it’s going to influence people all over the world, and obviously this is her moment, so anything that she chooses is going to be of huge interest,” says Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of American Vogue.

“Obviously Kate Middleton is going to be put under a microscope in terms of the press coverage, and how important she’ll be is really her call,” she adds.

Ms Middleton’s style has been described as “classic, stylish and conservative”, and most high street stores are scrambling to sell copies of Ms Middleton’s key outfits.

‘English rose’

But Whistles, a chain that Ms Middleton has frequently shopped at, is not following the future Queen’s fashion sense quite as closely as others.

Speaking to The Telegraph last month, chief executive Jane Shepherdson said: “She’s very pretty, an English rose, but she’s not necessarily who we’re aiming at.”

“She will have a huge impact on the British fashion industry”

Harold Tillman Chairman, British Fashion Council

Despite Prince Williams’ fiancee choosing to wear a Whistles embroidered blouse in her official engagement portrait, Ms Shepherdson insists they have not seen a spike in sales.

“I don’t think Kate’s made a difference to sales. Maybe a few hundred pounds. A pretty dress is a pretty dress, it’s going to sell, regardless.”

Elsewhere famous females are making a sartorial impact.

Last October it was reported that Michelle Obama boosted the economic value of the brands she chooses to wear by $2.7bn (£1.7bn).

The First Lady helped propel young designer Jason Wu into the limelight after wearing a dress of his to an official engagement in 2009.

US store J Crews also reported share prices had soared since Ms Obama admitted to being a fan during an interview.

Globally popular

Harold Tillman, chairman of the British Fashion Council, believes that with the world watching Ms Middleton, she is likely to overshadow everyone.

“I don’t think we’ve got anybody else in the world that actually has that stature.

Kate Middleton’s engagement dress was quickly reproduced

And just like Ms Obama, the 29-year-old will undoubtedly “make careers” if she allows unknown designers to dress her.

“I’m sure that so many designers will want to dress her. and I hope that more than one gets a chance to do so,” Mr Tillman says.

“She will have a huge impact on the British fashion industry. I’m confident she will support it – not deliberately – but purely through her own taste.”

Members of the Royal family setting trends goes back centuries, says Dr Joanna Marschner, Senior Curator at Historic Royal Palaces.

Queen Victoria made tartan globally popular, and children were dressed in sailor outfits for years after her eldest son was seen wearing one.

“Every so often you will find a person in the family come along, who has it,” says Dr Marschner.

“I don’t know what it is – is it charisma, an eye, a kind of confidence that particularly attracts all of us and becomes that figure that we all aspire to be?”

Ms Wintour insists with fashion being so wide-ranging nowadays, there is a trend-setter for everyone.

“I think there’s room for Kate Middleton and Lady Gaga,” she says.

“I think that the days are long gone where everyone wanted to dress the same. It’s much more about individual spirit and individual statement and I think that is part of the enjoyment of fashion today that is it so eclectic.”

Whatever dress Ms Middleton has chosen to walk down the aisle in on her big day, the style will be the biggest fashion watermark for weddings this season.

But with such close scrutiny for years to come, Ms Wintour says that the future consort is sure to make “some very wise choices”.

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

…and how beer could stay fresh for longer

Tricyclocohumol (Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry)

Molecules like this one (tricyclocohumol) are largely responsible for the taste of stale beer

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Scientists have identified the chemicals that lead to the bitter aftertaste of stale bottled beer.

Chemicals present in beer’s hops break down over time, forming other compounds that result in the unpleasant taste.

Researchers reporting in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry say the trick to avoiding the taste is to avoid that breakdown.

That can be done by adjusting beers’ acidity when it is produced, and by always keeping it cool.

The idea that the naturally-present, slightly bitter-tasting compounds are the source of the more bitter, more long-lasting flavours of “aged” beer is not new.

But the exact catalogue of compounds that are responsible and how they develop over time has remained a mystery until now.

Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have been looking into the particulars of beer chemistry for a number of years.

For the recent study, they stored a number of commercially available, pilsner-style beers for as much as 10 years in order to compare the chemistry of aged beers with that of freshly-obtained samples.

The primary offenders are what are known as trans-iso-alpha acids, which over time degrade into a number of chemicals that lead to bad taste – and it is these that the TUM researchers hope to address.

Recent studies have shown that the level of acidity, or pH, has a strong effect on the degradation of trans-iso-alpha acids, but the new study indicated that pH in aging beer was incredibly stable – so the researchers asked a commercial brewer to make batches of beer with slightly varying pH levels.

They found that by making beer that was incrementally less acidic, the trans-iso-alpha acid degradation process could be much reduced.

However, the reactions that transform the acids into the ingredients of a stale-tasting beer are accelerated at higher temperatures, so the simplest route to keeping beer tasting fresh is to keep it cool.

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

Why cheap wines can taste expensive…

The wines tested were priced up to £30 a bottle

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Wine costing less than £5 a bottle can have the same effect on the palate as those priced up to six times as much, a psychological taste challenge suggests.

The blind test at the Edinburgh Science Festival saw 578 members of the public correctly identify the “cheap” or “expensive” wines only 50% of the time.

They tasted a range of red and white wines including merlot and chardonnay.

University of Hertfordshire researchers say their findings indicate many people may just be paying for a label.

Two champagnes costing £17.61 and £29.99 were compared, alongside the bottles costing less than £5 and vintages priced between £10 and £30.

The other varieties tasted were shiraz, rioja, claret, pinot grigio and sauvignon blanc.

The participants were asked to say which they thought were cheap and which were expensive.

By the laws of chance, they should have been able to make a correct guess 50% of the time – and that was the exact level of accuracy seen.

The findings demonstrate the volunteers cannot distinguish between wines by taste alone, the organisers of the test say.

Lead researcher psychologist Professor Richard Wiseman said: “These are remarkable results. People were unable to tell expensive from inexpensive wines, and so in these times of financial hardship the message is clear – the inexpensive wines we tested tasted the same as their expensive counterparts.”

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

Report on holiday jet fuel leak

A pipe coupling at the fuel pump in the left engine was the cause of the leak

Pilots managed to land a UK-bound holiday flight safely after losing more than a tonne of fuel from an engine leak, an air accident report has shown.

The Thomas Cook Boeing 757-200, with 226 passengers and eight crew on board, flew to Gatwick Airport, in West Sussex, from Turkey in June last year.

The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) report said considerable amounts of fuel lay on the Gatwick runway.

All movements at the airfield were halted for a time after the incident.

The captain estimated about 2,860lb (1,300kg or 1.3 tonnes) of fuel had leaked from the left engine – a Rolls-Royce RB211.

A fuel warning sign had come on as the plane entered French airspace about two hours and 20 minutes into the flight, the report said.

The captain considered diverting to Paris Charles de Gaulle airport but decided to alert Gatwick and the plane was cleared for an immediate approach.

The Gatwick fire chief advised passengers to evacuate using the right-hand side slides only “due to the considerable amount of fuel spilled on the runway, taxiway, left engine and brakes”, the report said.

Engineers later traced the source of the fuel leak to a pipe coupling at the fuel pump in the left engine.

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

SNP launching Holyrood manifesto

Alex Salmond is challenging for a second term as Scottish first minister

The SNP is launching its Scottish election manifesto with the promise of a £50m fund to help young people and pay for a national football academy.

The pledge will come as the party makes its bid for a second term in government, following its win at the polls in 2007.

SNP leader Alex Salmond has pledged to protect vital, front line services while promoting economic recovery.

Voters go to the polls in the Scottish Parliament election on 5 May.

The SNP said its young Scots fund formed part of the £250m Scottish futures initiative, which the party said would be paid for after making savings in the cost of building the new Forth Road Bridge.

Nicola Sturgeon, the party’s deputy leader, said that with the Glasgow Commonwealth Games being held in 2014, young sports stars needed help to realise their potential.

“This is a manifesto brimming with exciting and innovative policies to take Scotland forward, such as our young Scots fund, and which we are confident will help re-elect an SNP government working for Scotland,” she said.

“This £50m fund will help more talented young Scots realise their potential, in sports, business and the arts.”

Ms Sturgeon added: “There are many thousands of youngsters across the country who have huge gifts but never get the chance to make the most of them.

“This fund will help change that by investing in the facilities we need to make the very most of our young talent.”

Elsewhere, the SNP has pledged to protect police numbers and health spending, while ruling out tuition fees or graduate contributions for university students.

The party also wants to stage an independence referendum, for which it did not have enough support in the last parliament, and maintain the small business bonus scheme with a £450m investment.

The minority SNP administration also froze council tax throughout the last parliament, with a pledge to extend it for a further two years, if re-elected.

And the nationalists want to see 10% of journeys on bike by 2020 and establish a green bus fund to reduce public transport carbon emissions.

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

OAPs ‘struggle with living costs’

Age UK says as much as £5.4bn in pensioner benefits goes unclaimed each year

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Pensioners are finding it hard to cope with rising living costs, with 47% saying they are “just getting by”, research suggests.

In a study for Age UK, 11% described themselves as finding it difficult or “really struggling” to cope.

The face-to-face survey of 1,258 people suggested 19% cut back on heating this winter in order to manage their money.

Age UK is launching a campaign for over-60s to claim all the benefits they are entitled to receive.

The research found some 26% pensioners said they were buying cheaper or less food and 19% going out less.

Among poorer pensioners, the figures rose to more than a third, or 35%, buying cheaper or less food, and 21% going out less.

A total of 11% said they were in debt through mortgage, credit cards or bank loans.

The findings were released to coincide with Age UK’s More Money in Your Pocket campaign, which says as much as £5.4bn in pensioner benefits goes unclaimed each year.

The charity says this is often because people are unaware of the help available.

It says just under a half of pensioners are entitled to pension credit but a third of people eligible do not claim, while up to 1.97 million pensioners are also missing out on council tax benefit worth £1.5bn a year.

Michelle Mitchell, Age UK charity director, said: “At a time when so many people are struggling financially, it is unacceptable that vital benefits are failing to reach some of the poorest and most vulnerable older people in our society.

“This is money that could make a huge difference to people’s quality of life. Ultimately, the best way to ensure that people receive the benefits they are entitled to is for them to be paid automatically.

“But in the meantime, the evidence shows that clear, independent information and advice and face-to-face communication are key to improving the take-up of benefits.”

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

Zeta Jones ‘has bipolar disorder’

Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones have two young children

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Catherine Zeta Jones has received treatment for bipolar disorder after dealing with the stress of her husband’s battle with throat cancer.

Zeta Jones, 41, made a decision to check into a “mental health facility” for a brief stay, said her publicist.

Michael Douglas, who was diagnosed last year, said in January his tumour had gone and he was beating the disease.

Last September, Zeta Jones said she was “furious” that doctors failed to detect the cancer earlier.

Bipolar, also known as manic depression, causes severe mood swings, that usually last several weeks or months.

Zeta Jones’s publicist Cece Yorke said the actress sought treatment for the condition following the stress of her husband’s cancer fight.

“After dealing with the stress of the past year, Catherine made the decision to check in to a mental health facility for a brief stay to treat her bipolar II disorder,” said Yorke.

“She’s feeling great and looking forward to starting work this week on her two upcoming films.”

It is unclear when Zeta Jones, who is from Swansea, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder or where she received treatment.

What is bipolar disorder?

Bipolar, also known as manic depression, causes severe mood swings that usually last several weeks or months and can be:

Low mood, intense depression and despairHigh or “manic” feelings of joy, over-activity and loss of inhibitionsA “mixed state” such as a depressed mood with the restlessness and over-activity of a manic episode

Exact causes of are not known, but it is thought the following play a part:

Genes seem to be important; if you have a relative with bipolar disorder, your chance of developing it is higherThere may be a physical problem with the brain systems which control moodStress can trigger mood swings

People suffering Bipolar II have more than one episode of severe depression, but only mild manic episodes

Source: Royal College of Psychiatrists

Ouattara vows Ivory Coast justice

Laurent Gbagbo on the day of his capture - 11 April 2011

The new president said Laurent Gbagbo should be treated with respect

Ivory Coast’s former President Laurent Gbagbo is being held in a “secure location” in the country, his successor Alassane Ouattara has said.

Mr Gbagbo was captured on Monday by Mr Ouattara’s forces after he refused to accept he lost elections in November.

Mr Ouattara confirmed his rival had been moved from the hotel in Abidjan where he was taken after his capture and was now in a “secure villa”.

He said the ex-head of state would face trial like others behind any violence.

During the four-month stand-off between Mr Gbagbo and Mr Ouattara about 1,500 people were killed and a million forced from their homes.

“Mr Laurent Gbagbo is a former head of state, he must be treated with consideration,” President Ouattara told journalists on Wednesday.

He said he had phoned South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma for advice about setting up a credible and independent truth and reconciliation committee.

It would be asked to consider atrocities from the 1990s to the present day.

“Reconciliation has to happen with justice,” 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.

Libya group urges Gaddafi to go

A Rafale fighter jet returns from a mission over Libya to France's flagship Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier, in the Golf of Sirte, off the Libyan coast, 12 April 2011.

International airstrikes have failed to break the military deadlock in Libya

International delegates are to hold talks on the conflict in Libya, amid calls for Nato to intensify its campaign there.

At the talks in Qatar, delegates from the “contact group” on Libya will hear from leaders of the rebels seeking to topple Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi.

Ahead of the meeting, the French and British foreign ministers said Nato should be doing more in Libya.

But a Nato general said the alliance was doing a “great job”.

The talks come amid a worsening humanitarian crisis in the rebel-held city of Misrata, where pro-Gaddafi forces have continued to launched fresh attacks.

The last rebel-held area in the west, Misrata has been under siege for more than six weeks, with rights groups warning of a shortage of food and medical supplies.

On his way to the talks, British Foreign Secretary William Hague noted that the military situation had gone back and forth, telling the BBC that more pressure – both political and military – could be necessary.

“What may appear at the moment a military deadlock is not a deadlock in the world of diplomacy and sanctions, the isolation of the regime, and I hope the recognition of many in the regime that it has no long-term future,” he said.

The BBC’s James Robbins says many countries meeting in Qatar believe Col Gaddafi has to go, and want that made explicit in a joint statement at the end of the meeting.

But he says that agreeing such a position may prove hard.

France and Britain both want more Nato states to contribute combat aircraft to the mission in Libya, with French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe saying on Tuesday that Nato’s efforts in Libya were so far “not enough”.

“Nato must play its role fully. It wanted to take the lead in operations,” he said.

Airstrikes have so far failed to tip the military balance decisively against Col Gaddafi’s regime.

Dutch Brig Gen Mark Van Uhm, head of Nato operations in Libya, said he felt Nato was doing well “with the assets we have”.

The alliance had been successful in establishing a no-fly zone, protecting civilians and enforcing an arms embargo, he said.

Earlier this week the rebels’ Transitional National Council (TNC) rejected an African Union proposal for a ceasefire in Libya, because it did not provide for Col Gaddafi’s immediate departure from power.

The plan included a call for an immediate end to hostilities, unhindered humanitarian aid, protection of foreign nationals, dialogue between opposing sides and an end to Nato air strikes.

Among those due to attend the talks in Qatar will be former Libyan foreign minister Moussa Koussa, who fled to the UK late last month.

He is expected to meet rebels and the Qatari government on the sidelines of the talks and offer “insights” on the current situation in Libya, according to British officials.

Mr Koussa is a former head of Libyan intelligence and has been accused of being involved in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.

A spokesman from the UK government said that Mr Koussa was “a free individual, who can travel to and from the UK as he wishes”.

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

Fujitsu offers UK fast rural net

Many rural areas lack access to fast broadband technology, such as fibre optics.

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Fujitsu is to create a superfast broadband network for rural parts of the UK, rivalling BT’s service.

Virgin Media and TalkTalk have already said they will use it to provide internet services. It will also be open to local authorities.

Much of the system will be built on BT infrastructure, such as underground ducting and phone poles, which it has been forced to open up to competitors.

Fujitsu wants £500m of government money to help fund the project.

The announcement comes as research suggests just 1% of UK households currently have access to superfast broadband.

The Fujitsu network will offer fibre optic cabling directly to homes – so-called Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH). That could bring speeds in excess of 1Gbps with the potential to go even faster.

The system would be more sophisticated than BT’s superfast network, which relies mainly on slower Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) technology. FTTC offers speeds of up to 40Mbps.

ISPs, community groups and local authorities will be able to take advantage of the network.

Duncan Tait, chief executive of Fujitsu thinks it could breathe new life into rural communities.

“If done correctly this can be a key vehicle to accelerate recovery in the UK and bring genuine choice to generations of communities staved of participating fully in the UK economy,” he said.

Virgin Media’s chief executive Neil Berkett described it as: “a once in a lifetime opportunity to make the ambition of a digitally enabled society a reality beyond the country’s cities and towns”.

It is estimated that a third of the UK will not be served by existing commercial broadband solutions because it is not economically viable to offer them in remote areas.

Communication minister Ed Vaizey said the planned network was “exactly the sort of ambition and innovation” that the government wanted to stimulate.

However, one sticking point could be the price BT is proposing to charge for access to its ducts and poles. It was forced to open them up to rivals but ISPs, including Virgin Media and Sky, have written to the government asking it to reassess the price.

In the letter, sent earlier this month, Virgin Media said it would be more cost-effective to build an entirely separate duct and pole network than pay the prices being asked by BT.

The government has said it wants to make the UK the best place in Europe for superfast broadband by 2015, but new research suggests that it is being adopted at a relatively modest pace.

Broadband analysis firm Point Topic found that just 1% of homes currently have broadband speeds of 25Mbps or above.

By the end of 2010, there were 175,000 superfast broadband lines, the majority made up from the 118,000 Virgin Media customers signed up for its 50Mbps broadband service. The rest came from BT or alternative operators.

“At that rate we should pass the quarter of a million milestone sometime between now and the end of April,” said Point Topic chief analyst Tim Johnson.

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

Rider Toole ‘critical but stable’

Jockey Peter Toole is “critical but stable” on Wednesday after his fall at Aintree.

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

Suicide bomber kills Afghan elder

A suicide bomber has killed at least 10 people in an attack on tribal elders in eastern Afghanistan, the interior ministry has said.

Police say civilians and elders were among the dead in the blast in Kunar province near the Pakistan border.

A police spokesman told the AP news agency that the target of the attack was Malik Zarin, an influential pro-government tribal elder who was killed.

A Taliban spokesman denied the group carried out the attack.

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

Budget airline pulls out of city

Bmibaby operates a fleet of 14 Boeing 737s

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Budget airline bmibaby is to halt its operations from Cardiff Airport from this autumn, it has been announced.

The firm, which employs 69 people there, blamed the economic climate, saying it would focus on airports with strong growth opportunities.

It said it would be redeploying aircraft to Northern Ireland and the Midlands.

The airline, which is also withdrawing from Manchester, started operating out of Cardiff in winter 2002.

It started with 12 destinations and more than 100 flights a week to UK and European destinations from the city, having first launched at East Midlands airport earlier that year.

The airline said it currently operates nine routes from Cardiff – to Geneva, Faro, Belfast City, Malaga, Murcia, Alicante, Ibiza, Palma and Mahon.

A bmibaby spokesperson said: “In the current economic climate it is essential for bmibaby to focus on airports where the airline already has a strong market presence and where there are strong growth opportunities for the bmibaby business.”

The company said it would transfer two Boeing 737 aircraft currently based at Cardiff, and two more based at Manchester, to Belfast, Birmingham and East Midlands airports.

The spokesman added: “bmibaby will therefore cease operations from Cardiff Airport and from Manchester Airport from the end of the summer 2011 flying schedule.

“It is essential for bmibaby to focus on airports where the airline already has a strong market presence”

bmibaby spokesperson

The firm said it would be entering into a minimum 30-day consultation process with all of the respective unions.

Cabin crew and pilots based at Cardiff and Manchester would be offered the chance to redeploy to the Midlands.

The airline said its 69 staff working for bmibaby at Cardiff Airport had been told on Wednesday they are at risk of redundancy.

Some 44 cabin crew, 24 pilots and one manager had been given 30-day redundancy notices.

However, the company said it had enough similar positions at East Midlands and Birmingham Airports for them all to directly transfer to if staff decide they want to.

The airline has announced seven new routes from George Best Belfast City Airport.

Flights to Malaga, Alicante, Palma, Faro and Ibiza will run from March 2012, and go on sale on Wednesday.

A year-round service to Amsterdam will also operate from October 2011, along with winter flights to Geneva for 2011.

Cardiff Airport has been asked to comment.

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

Zeta Jones quits as event patron

Catherine Zeta Jones quits as patron of Swansea Bay Film Festival, in the wake of fellow actor Michael Sheen resigning as vice president.

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

Obama to spell out deficit plan

US President Barack Obama at the White House on Monday

President Barack Obama will preview the proposal for congressional leaders at the White House

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US President Barack Obama is to outline his budget deficit-reduction plan in a speech today, in an effort to draw a contrast with Republican proposals.

He will propose to reduce spending on healthcare programmes for the poor and elderly and on defence, and to raise taxes on the wealthy, aides have said.

Republicans are certain to reject Mr Obama’s tax increase proposals and call for deeper spending cuts, analysts say.

The contrasting ideas are expected to play heavily in the 2012 campaign.

The US government budget deficit is expected to reach $1.4 trillion (£860m) this year, and both Democrats and Republicans say curbing spending should be a top priority.

Buoyed by the fiscally conservative Tea Party movement, Republicans have won a series of policy victories, including forcing $38.5bn (£23.6bn) in government spending cuts for the remainder of the current fiscal year.

Mr Obama hopes to retake momentum from Republicans on the issue as the 2012 presidential campaign warms up, analysts say.

On Tuesday morning, Mr Obama is expected to preview his proposal before a bipartisan gathering of congressional leaders at the White House, and later, he is to make a speech at George Washington University in Washington DC.

In a pre-emptive attack on Tuesday morning, Republican House Speaker John Boehner called any proposal to raise taxes “a non-starter”.

Republican Congressman Paul Ryan, the powerful chairman of the House of Representatives budget committee, has outlined a 2012 plan that would slash $6.2 trillion from government spending over the next decade, in large part through cuts to government programmes that serve the elderly and the poor, analysts say.

His plan would also drastically reduce taxes for wealthy Americans, analysts say.

The House is due to vote on Mr Ryan’s proposal on Friday.

US political analysts expect the fight over the government budget for the fiscal year beginning 1 October to be bruising, as Republicans and Democrats push their competing visions.

Last week, the US government came within an hour of shutting down as Republican and Democratic leaders battled to reach an agreement on a budget deal for the next six months.

The agreement reached just before midnight on Friday cut $38.5bn from the budget to 30 September.

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