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Thai security forces and anti-government protesters remained in a stand-off in Bangkok after clashes overnight in which one person died.

Shots and bangs were heard overnight as security forces moved to cut power and seal off access to the large protest camp in the city centre.

Earlier, a renegade general supporting the protesters was shot by an unknown gunman and is in a critical condition.

The protesters want Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to step down.

Streets which would normally be full of commuters were almost empty early on Friday, says the BBC’s Vaudine England in Bangkok.

Thousands of protesters, known as red-shirts after the colour they favour, have reinforced their barricades and vowed to maintain their camp in a commercial district of Bangkok until elections are called.

"The total seal-off measure took place since yesterday evening," army spokesman Col Sunsern Kaewkumnerd said.

"Metropolitan Electricity Authority has cut off the power around Ratchaprasong intersection last night," he said.

The authorities have also begun to cut public transport and some mobile phone service to the area occupied by the protesters.

The government has threatened for days to cut off power, water and food supplies to the red-shirt camp but the protesters have their own supplies and appear ready for a long siege, says our correspondent.

Commander Red shot

Early on Friday, a new clash was reported as protesters apparently threw stones and bottles, prompting soldiers to fire warning shots in the air.

Overnight, one protester was shot dead after a group of red shirts confronted armed security personnel on the outskirts of the barricaded encampment.

At least nine people were reported to have been injured.

The clashes followed the wounding of a renegade Thai general who had been organising the red-shirts’ security.

Khattiya Sawasdipol, better known as Seh Daeng (Commander Red), was shot in the head and seriously injured.

Seh Daeng is part of the protesters’ more radical wing and had accused red-shirt leaders – many of whom have distanced themselves from him – of not being hard-line enough.

Circumstances surrounding the shooting, near the Silom business area, are not clear.

A spokesman for the red-shirt movement blamed an army sniper but military officials said troops had orders to fire only in self-defence.

The protesters – who have been occupying parts of Bangkok for more than two months – want Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to dissolve parliament and call fresh elections.

Their camp stretches from the city’s shopping district south to its business hub.

Mr Abhisit is under severe pressure to end the protests, which have paralysed Bangkok since 14 March.

He had offered polls on 14 November – but the two sides failed to agree a deal because of divisions over who should be held accountable for a deadly crackdown on protests last month.

The 10 April operation left 19 protesters, one journalist and five soldiers dead.

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A 14-year-old Palestinian boy has been shot dead in the West Bank.

Palestinian witnesses and security sources say the teenager was shot by Jewish settlers after rocks were thrown at their car.

Israeli police are investigating but did not confirm that the boy, named as Ayssar Yasser from the village of Mizra al-Sharqiah, had been shot by settlers.

The Israeli army confirmed there was a shooting in the area, near Ramallah, the West Bank’s administrative capital.

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Prime Minister David Cameron is travelling to Scotland for talks with First Minister Alex Salmond.

Mr Cameron, who is making good his pledge to head north within days of an election victory, has promised to treat the devolved government with "respect".

Mr Salmond will press the prime minister to concede further cash and spending powers for Holyrood.

Mr Cameron wants a "new spirit of co-operation" between the Scottish Parliament and Westminster as a whole.

The head of the UK’s new Tory-Lib Dem government is also meeting Scottish opposition leaders.

Mr Salmond will call on Mr Cameron to bring forward £350m of capital spending to aid Scotland’s economic recovery, and will also argue Scotland is owed £165m over five years in "consequential" funding, as a result of public spending in relation to the London Olympics.

The SNP leader will also request the Treasury releases cash for Scotland held in the fossil fuel levy, worth £180m, and will press the case to give enhanced borrowing powers to Holyrood, as recommended by the Calman Commission review of devolution.

Mr Cameron will be accompanied by Danny Alexander, the Liberal Democrat MP who has been appointed Scottish secretary.

The visit comes after Scottish Tory leader Annabel Goldie said the public had grown tired of past rows between the Scottish and UK governments, which have often focussed on funding, the proposed independence referendum and more powers for the Scottish Parliament.

The prime minister has said Westminster would not seek to override Holyrood’s role on devolved matters, but also stressed the Scottish government must respect areas reserved to the UK parliament.

Mr Salmond said he would always support UK government policies which were in the "interest of the Scottish people", but added SNP ministers would, at all times, be making the argument to "advance the cause of Scotland".

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David Cameron has defended plans to change the rules on how an election is called, saying they will help the stability of his coalition government.

The Lib Dem-Tory deal agrees to fixed-term parliaments which can only be dissolved with support from 55% of MPs.

Labour MPs say it is a "fix" as 50% of MPs plus one can currently trigger a no confidence vote in the government.

Mr Cameron said he was the first prime minister to give up power to call an election and this was a "good change".

Speaking on a visit to the Scottish Parliament, Mr Cameron said there needed to be a "mechanism" to dissolve Parliament and the procedure he was proposing would help to secure a "strong and stable government" over the next five years.

"It is an important change and one I think should be welcome," he said, on a visit to Scotland to meet First Minister Alex Salmond and other party leaders.

"I’m the first prime minister in British history to give up the right unilaterally to ask the Queen for a dissolution of Parliament. This is a huge change in our system, it is a big giving up of power.

"Clearly, if you want a fixed-term Parliament you have to have a mechanism to deliver it.

"Obviously that is a mechanism that can be debated in the House of Commons, it can be discussed, but I believe that it is a good arrangement to give us strong and stable government."

Downing Street says Labour put through fixed-term laws in Scotland requiring 66% of MSPs to dissolve Parliament.

Five-year term

The prime minister has the power to ask the Queen to dissolve parliament at any time within a five-year period – which critics say benefits the ruling party.

The new coalition government has instead proposed to have five-year fixed term parliaments. But in a coalition agreement drawn up between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, it says legislation "will also provide for dissolution if 55% or more of the House votes in favour".

Currently a majority of MPs – 50% plus one – are needed to carry a vote of no confidence. In 1979 James Callaghan’s minority Labour government fell after losing a confidence vote.

Four senior Labour figures – and two Conservative backbenchers, Christopher Chope and Charles Walker, have expressed concern about the plans.

Mr Walker said: "This is perhaps just a little too much for our unwritten constitution to bear". And his colleague Mr Chope told BBC Radio 4’s World at One the coalition deal seemed to have been "cobbled together in quite a short space of time".

‘Totally unworkable’

He said: "It could mean in practice that if the present government was to lose its majority in Parliament, and wasn’t able to operate as a minority government because it didn’t enjoy the confidence of a sufficient number of MPs … that then what’s being suggested is that it would be able to carry on but that would be basically a recipe for anarchy, because it would mean that the government wouldn’t have a majority."

Former Transport Secretary Lord Adonis called it a "brazen attempt to gerrymander the constitution which calls into question the legitimacy of the coalition from day one".

Mr Straw said the plan was "completely undemocratic and totally unworkable" while Mr Blunkett described it as a "stitch-up".

Labour former Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer – a supporter of fixed-term parliaments told BBC Newsnight he feared it would result in a "zombie government" – as it would mean 53% of MPs could vote against a government but it would still continue until the fixed date.

But former Lib Dem MP David Howarth, a legal academic who drew up the original Lib Dem plans for a fixed-term parliament, told the BBC the vote of confidence and dissolution of Parliament were "entirely different things" and said Mr Straw was "totally confused".

In other countries with fixed-term parliaments, if a government lost a vote of confidence the parties would have to try to work out a new government within the fixed term, he said.

He said critics had got "entirely the wrong end of the stick" adding: "This dissolution vote, the 55% for a dissolution, is not the same as, for a vote of confidence."

‘Iffy politics’

A Downing Street spokeswoman said the old rule would still apply to no confidence votes – but should a government be defeated, it would not automatically trigger an election as a 55% vote would be required to dissolve parliament.

She said the details would all be debated and voted on in parliament and the former Labour government had put through the fixed-term legislation in Scotland which requires a 66% vote to dissolve parliament.

There is also some confusion among constitutional experts. Professor Peter Hennessy, of Queen Mary University of London University, told the BBC it looked like "very very iffy politics indeed" and there was a "certain brutal efficiency… about traditional confidence votes that one is enough and confidence votes under our system trump everything else".

But Professor Robert Hazell, director of the Constitution Unit think tank, told the BBC he understood the 55% threshold was intended to prevent the government from calling an early election without the consent of both coalition partners – effectively protecting the Lib Dems.

"It certainly won’t prevent the opposition from tabling confidence motions on which the normal threshold of 50% will and should, continue to apply."

Read a round-up of analysis by lawyers, MPs and academics

The Conservatives currently have 306 out of 649 MPs – a 47% share.

One seat, Thirsk and Malton, is empty, pending a by-election on 27 May, while Sinn Fein’s five MPs have not taken the oath of allegiance allowing them to sit in Parliament.

It would be impossible for opponents, even if fully united, to muster the 55% needed to dissolve Parliament, unless at least 16 Tories rebelled against their party leadership.

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Plans to erect a striking 116-metre beacon as a monument to the Battle of Britain have been unveiled.

The Battle of Britain Beacon will cost £80m and be taller than Big Ben.

The structure will be built at the Royal Air Force Museum in Hendon, north west London, and will house a permanent exhibition on the WWII air conflict.

The museum announced the scheme ahead of the 70th anniversary of the battle, which raged in the skies over Britain from July to October 1940.

The eye-catching building will be constructed out of steel and glass and feature a high speed lift.

Rebecca Dalley, the museum’s head of fundraising, said the exhibition would examine all aspects of the conflict.

She said: "It will look at the battle in its entirety. It will look at the involvement of the pilots who took part in the fighting and the impact it had on the entire country.

"The battle will be examined from both sides. We have a fantastic collection of aircraft from both sides of the conflict.

"The civilian aspect will also play an important part in the exhibition, including the Blitz."

She said several figures have already shown an interest in investing in the tower, which the museum hopes to complete within the lifetime of the remaining veterans from the conflict, now mainly in their 90s.

The project is set to be funded privately, with several potential investors already having shown an interest.

The museum is currently consulting on its plans.

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