Category: news

Italy’s health minister has apologised to a woman for a fight between two doctors in the delivery room as she was about to give birth.

The authorities are investigating whether the woman suffered complications as a result of the row.

Laura Salpietro, 30, had her uterus removed and her baby boy suffered heart problems and possible brain damage at birth on Thursday in Messina, Sicily.

Her husband Matteo Molonia says the confrontation delayed a C-section.

After a heated exchange of words, one of the doctors seized his colleague by the neck and shoved him into a wall, according to Mr Molonia’s account to police, reports said.

The other doctor reacted by punching a window, which shattered, injuring his hand, they said.

Prosecutors have placed five doctors under investigation in total, reports also said.

Health Minister Ferruccio Fazio visited Ms Salpietro on Monday in the hospital to apologise.

“I tried to give her words of hope, and above all I tried to tell her that the government was with her and her family at this time,” he was quoted as saying by the Ansa news agency.

The clinic, which immediately suspended the two doctors, has said there is no link between the doctors’ fight and the complications.

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

Seven US soldiers have been killed in two bomb attacks in southern Afghanistan, the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) says.

Five troops were killed by a roadside bomb in one incident while two others died in a separate bomb attack, Isaf said in a statement.

Witnesses in Kandahar said a US Army vehicle hit a bomb in the early afternoon, the Associated Press said.

Fourteen US soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan in the last three days.

The US has sent an extra 30,000 troops to Afghanistan since December 2009 in an effort to defeat the Taliban.

News of the attacks comes a week after a senior US general in Afghanistan said President Barack Obama’s July 2011 deadline to begin pulling troops out of the country was encouraging the Taliban.

More than 1,200 US soldiers have died in Afghanistan since the conflict began in 2001.

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

Labour would be left in an “electoral cul-de-sac” if its next leader tried to create a pre-New Labour party, Lord Mandelson has warned.

Speaking to the Times in the week that voting begins for a new leader, he appeared to be criticising Ed Miliband.

Mr Miliband has said he can take the party beyond what he has called the “New Labour comfort zone”.

In an interview with the Independent, the leadership contender said Labour had became “cautious” in government.

He said his policies would appeal to the common sense of voters.

The leadership contender suggested New Labour had feared increasing taxes for high earners, as well as displaying an aversion to Old Labour’s anti-Americanism and suffering from an unnecessary desire to protect the public from the views of Labour members.

This led to a “control freak” style of party management and a “hollowed out” party.

Speaking to the Times, Lord Mandelson addressed Mr Miliband’s criticisms of New Labour.

He said: “I think that if he or anyone else wants to create a pre-New Labour future for the party then he and the rest of them will quickly find that that is an electoral cul-de-sac.”

The peer also accused Roy Hattersley and former leader Neil Kinnock of wanting to “hark back to a previous age”.

BBC political correspondent Ben Wright said: “A contest that has rumbled on for months in a roadshow of hustings for Labour party members has sparked into life.

“The five candidates know that this is a critical moment in their campaigns because ballot papers are posted out on Wednesday and voting begins.”

Mr Miliband’s brother, David, will hold a rally for supporters in London later in which he is expected to critique the government’s vision of a “big society”.

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

A man has been arrested after a double-decker coach ended up on its side up an embankment on the M40.

The Oxford Tube coach to London crashed at about 0200 BST on the southbound carriageway between junctions two and three in Buckinghamshire.

It is understood one of the 12 passengers on board tried to grab the wheel. No-one was seriously injured.

Shortly after the crash Thames Valley Police arrested a man nearby who had fled the scene. He remains in custody.

Stagecoach said although nobody was seriously hurt, its driver suffered a shoulder injury.

A statement from Stagecoach said: “We understand one passenger was taken to hospital as a precaution for a possible spinal injury, but is expected to be discharged later today.

“We would like to commend the driver for his brave actions in minimising what could have been a far more serious accident.

“Despite his injuries, he followed our procedures and made sure everyone was in a safe location outside the coach.”

The company went on to say the “passengers remained very calm throughout the incident” and it had provided police with “on-board CCTV footage to assist their investigation”.

Two lanes of the M40 were closed following the crash but have since re-opened.

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

Roger Federer, Kim Clijsters, Robin Soderling and Elena Baltacha are all in action on the opening day of the US Open at Flushing Meadows.

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

US consumer spending rose by a faster-than-expected 0.4% in July, as shoppers saved less of what they earned.

It was the fastest growth rate since March, though total spending remains well below its pre-recession highs.

Personal income however grew only 0.2%. Economists had expected both numbers to rise by 0.3%.

Wall Street was underwhelmed by the data, with the Dow Jones dropping some 38 points (0.4%) in early trading, before bouncing back slightly.

Investors appeared to be waiting for regional manufacturing due later, which may give further evidence of a slowdown in industrial production.

The spending data means that the savings rate in the US – the percentage of income that households choose not to spend – fell slightly to 5.9% from 6.2% in June.

Before the global recession, the US savings rate was close to zero, meaning that households spent nearly all they earned.

It rose during the recession however, resulting in a big fall in consumer spending.

Many economists expect the savings rate to remain at 6% or rise even further. Historically, the savings rate has been even higher – at 8%-12%.

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

The German government has condemned an official with the country’s central bank on the publication of his book on immigration issues.

Bundesbank member Thilo Sarrazin’s book, Germany Abolishes Itself, states that Muslim immigrants refuse to integrate and are a drain on society.

In a newspaper interview about the book, he said that “all Jews share a particular gene”.

The Bundesbank board was to make a decision on his future later on Monday.

“The government views the reputation of the Bundesbank as definitely harmed, domestically and abroad, by Mr Sarrazin’s comments,” said Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert.

“The Bundesbank must be concerned about this.”

On Sunday, Mrs Merkel said Mr Sarrazin’s remarks were “completely unacceptable” and urged the Bundesbank to act.

The Social Democratic Party, of which Mr Sarrazin is a long-standing member, said it was taking action to expel Mr Sarrazin.

Mr Sarrazin has defended his comments and his writing, saying: “I can’t imagine the chancellor has had the time to read my book.”

“It’s very balanced,” he said.

In the book he writes: “I don’t want us to end up as strangers in our own land, not even on a regional basis.”

He also writes that “most of the cultural and economic problems are concentrated in a group of the five to six million immigrants from Muslim countries”.

Germany has more than four million Muslims, most of them of Turkish origin.

Members of Germany’s Jewish and Turkish communities have condemned the book as racist.

Based on advance orders, it has shot to the top of Germany’s sales chart.

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

India has said it will delay a ban on Blackberry devices for 60 days while it reviews proposals from the gadget’s maker, Research in Motion (RIM).

A ban had been threatened from Tuesday, as India said its security services needed greater access to encrypted services.

It wants the ability to monitor secure e-mail and instant messaging services provided by the firm.

RIM has said it will support the country’s need for “lawful access”.

But it maintains that it does not do “specific deals” with countries.

The firm said earlier that it had offered to “lead an industry forum focused on supporting the lawful access needs of law enforcement agencies”.

It said that the forum – which would include other telecoms firms – would work with the Indian government to develop “policies and processes aimed at preventing the misuse of strong encryption technologies”.

India, along with many other countries, believes the device and the Blackberry infrastructure used by business customers are a threat to national security.

The country fears the device could be used by militants and insurgents in a repeat of the 2008 attack on Mumbai that left 166 people dead.

Blackberry handsets automatically scramble messages and send them to servers in Canada and other countries.

Authorities have said they want access to these messages and the keys to decrypt them in order to counter terrorism and criminal activity.

But RIM has said that it “does not possess a ‘master key’, nor does any ‘back door’ exist in the system that would allow RIM or any third party, under any circumstances, to gain access to encrypted corporate information”.

It said that “singling out and banning” Blackberry would be “ineffective and counter-productive” as many other networks used similar encryption techniques.

The firm said finding a solution to meet the needs of governments and prevent the misuse of encryption was an industry-wide problem.

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

At least one in 10 people will be unemployed in half of UK regions by 2015, an economic think tank has forecast.

According to the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), the unemployment rate will exceed 10% in Wales and the North of England.

The CEBR blamed expected huge cuts to public sector jobs.

London and the South of England are expected to escape the worst of the job losses, however.

The report warns unemployment could reach as high as 11% in Wales and the North East of England – both regions where many people are dependent on the public sector for work.

However the researchers predict south east and south west England will see jobless rates peak at 7% and 8% respectively.

London, the South East and the South West are expected to grow their share of the UK’s economic activity, the CEBR says, helping them to avoid the worst of the job losses.

London is expected to account for 20% of the economy by 2015, thanks to the expected continued growth in financial services.

In contrast, the rest of the UK is expected to see its share of economic activity fall, with the North West seeing the biggest fall.

Speaking to the BBC, the CEBR’s chief executive Douglas McWilliams said that Wales in particular could suffer because of the number of public sector jobs there.

“Those regions which are currently very dependent on the public sector are likely to suffer a lot more as the public sector gets cut,” he said.