Category: news

The number of people employed in the UK financial services sector rose in the second quarter by the fastest rate since the financial crisis began.

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Dozens of lawmakers in India’s southern Andhra Pradesh state resign en masse to add force to their demand for a new state called Telangana.

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An attempt by the PSNI to seize interviews given by former paramilitaries to an American College could disrupt attempts to find the bodies of the remaining Disappeared.

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Mr McCrea’s car was burnt outside his home

The car of DUP Mid Ulster MLA Ian McCrea has been destroyed by fire.

Mr McCrea found the car in flames outside his home at about 0400 BST on Sunday. He said it was only yards from his home and a gas cylinder.

“Nothing will remove the terror of this event from the minds of my three young children who had to be lifted from their beds and taken to safety.

“I expect to be the target of verbal criticism but targeting my family home is outrageous,” he said.

Mr Crea thanked the police and fire service for their “swift response”.

“Whilst no one was injured, this situation could have been a lot different had the gas cylinder exploded or the house caught fire,” he added.

“We could be dealing with several fatalities.”

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Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher were close allies during the 1980s

A statue of former US President Ronald Reagan will be unveiled in central London at a ceremony outside the American embassy.

The invited guests include former UK prime minister Baroness Thatcher – who was a close ally of Reagan when they were both in power in the 1980s.

The 10-foot bronze statue was specially commissioned to “recognise Mr Reagan’s contribution to ending the Cold War”.

A piece of the Berlin Wall will be installed in front of the plinth.

The statue will stand outside the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square, opposite the statue of President Dwight Eisenhower.

Lady Thatcher famously described Mr Reagan as “the second most important man” in her life.

Foreign Secretary William Hague and former US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice will speak at the unveiling, which falls on US Independence Day.

Mr Reagan famously described the Soviet Union as the “evil empire” and kept up a hardline strategy but he left the White House in January 1989, shortly before the collapse of communism.

Mr Reagan died in 2004, aged 93, after suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for many years.

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Lindsay Ann Hawker’s body was found buried in sand in a bathtub in a flat near Tokyo in March 2007

A Japanese man has admitted raping and killing a British teacher whose body was found buried in a bathtub.

Tatsuya Ichihashi, 32, is accused of murdering Lindsay Ann Hawker, 22, from Brandon near Coventry.

Her body was found in a sand-filled tub at the defendant’s home east of Tokyo in March 2007.

At the opening of his trial Mr Ichihashi admitted raping Miss Hawker and causing her death but said he did not intend to kill her.

Miss Hawker taught Mr Ichihashi English at a private language school in the city of Chiba.

After her death, Mr Ichihashi, published a book in which he confessed to the killing and described how how he spent two-and-a-half years on the run and underwent plastic surgery to change his appearance.

He was eventually arrested in the city of Osaka in November 2009.

Miss Hawker’s parents, Bill and Julia, are attending the trial at Chiba District Court and under the country’s legal system they will be entitled to question the defendant but at the discretion of the court.

In a statement read by Mr Hawker when the family left England for the trial, he said: “We’re hoping to get justice for our daughter.

“That has always been our only aim.”

A verdict is expected before the end of the month.

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A group of British tennis fans who could not get tickets to Wimbledon have been celebrating in Serbia after Novak Djokovic beat Spain’s Rafa Nadal in the mens’ singles final.

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The crisis in Libya will be a key theme in talks between Russia – a vocal critic of the Nato campaign in Libya – and Nato in the southern Russian resort of Sochi.

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Four other people were hurt in the incident in Carlisle

A motorist who police say jumped off a bridge in Carlisle after a head-on car crash has died in hospital.

Cumbria Police said the car in which the 30-year-old was travelling was spotted speeding late on Friday.

When blue lights were used the car went along the wrong carriageway of Castle Way and struck two other vehicles.

A force spokesman said the man, who has not been named, left the car and jumped from a bridge. He died overnight in Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary.

Four other people were injured in the incident and taken to hospital.

The police spokesman said: “It is believed that the vehicle entered the wrong carriageway and travelled towards oncoming traffic.

“The police vehicle remained on the correct carriageway and attempted to warn other road users.

“The man’s family was with him in hospital when he died.”

An investigation is continuing and police have appealed for witnesses.

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Breaking sports news as it happens – Andy Murray inspired by Novak Djokovic win

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Social care is currently means-tested

Social care costs in England should be capped so people do not face losing their assets, a review is to say.

Council-funded home help and care home places for the elderly and adults with disabilities are currently only offered to those with under £23,250 of assets.

The independent Dilnot report, being published later, will say the threshold should rise to £100,000 and suggest a £35,000 cap on costs would be “fair”.

But ministers have indicated the level of any cap will need to be discussed.

Last year the coalition government asked economist Andrew Dilnot to look into how the system of funding social care in England could be changed amid concerns it was getting harder for people to get access to state support.

The ageing population and squeeze on councils budgets have led councils to impose stricter criteria on who can get help.

It means while 1.8m are getting state funding, another 1m-plus either have to pay for support themselves or go without.

Instead of this system, Mr Dilnot’s commission will recommend a partnership between the state and individual whereby the high costs are covered by the government – one in 10 people aged over 65 faces care costs of more than £100,000 over their lifetime.

But the individual should be liable for the first tranche of care with a cap in costs set at between £25,000 and £50,000, the report will say. It will suggest £35,000 as the ideal figure.

The hope is that with the state paying for the high-cost cases, the insurance industry would be encouraged to develop polices which would cover any care costs below the cap.

Means-testing should remain so that the poorest would not have to pay, the commission will recommend, but it will say the threshold should be raised for those going into residential care.

At the moment, people with assets, including the value of their house, of over £23,250 pay for all their care.

The commission will say this should be increased to £100,000 to better reflect the rise in property value seen over the past 20 years.

The report will also call for an end to the ever-tightening restrictions being placed on access. Instead, it will say that there should be a national standard so everyone has the same access no matter where they live.

However, an overhaul on this scale is likely to cost the government more.

It has been suggested an extra £2bn will be needed immediately – on top of the £14bn that is already spent by councils – although this would increase in time with the ageing population.

The Treasury is known to have doubts whether more money can be found in the current financial climate.

Speaking before the publication of the report, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said ministers were likely to give it a “positive response” and “treat it as the basis for engagement”.

However, he said the level of any cap, how it would paid for and the threshold for means testing were among a “range of issues that need to be resolved”.

Michelle Mitchell, of Age UK, said action was long overdue: “Social care is at crisis point. Vulnerable people are going without care and that means their conditions are worsening and they are ending up in hospital and costing the government more. We cannot go on as we are doing.”

Age UK was one of 26 charities which wrote to the Sunday Telegraph calling for politicians to hold cross-party talks on the issue and “not let reform fall off the table for another generation”.

Any overhaul of the system would take about five years to introduce.

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Prince William and his wife Kate are on the most easterly point of their tour of Canada, Prince Edward Island, where they are due to take part in a dragon boat race.

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The report said there was an urgent case for more investment for disadvantaged children

Society will suffer “immense penalties” unless more money is spent improving the lives of children from deprived backgrounds, a report has warned.

The prime minister asked Labour MP Graham Allen to look at the benefits of intervening to improve the life chances of children from poorer backgrounds.

In his second report, Mr Allen said more investment was needed urgently.

Mr Allen suggested more money could be raised through private sources, given constraints on public spending.

He called for “political commitment” from Prime Minister David Cameron to turn talk into action.

Mr Allen, the MP for Nottingham North, was asked by Mr Cameron to assess how children from disadvantaged backgrounds could be given the best start in life.

In his first report earlier this year, he advocated “early intervention” by the government to help the social, emotional and intellectual development of pre-school children from deprived backgrounds.

In his second report – Smart Investment, Massive Savings – he turned his attention to how to pay for this.

Mr Allen said in an accompanying letter to the prime minister that there was an “urgent case” for greater investment.

His argument is that there would be a “deadweight to the economy” of having to meet the costs of underachievement and poor educational attainment in the future.

This could be avoided by improving children’s development in the very early years of life.

He said such early intervention should be seen as the best deficit reduction programme available to governments.

Recognising the current constraints on spending, he suggested more money could be raised from private sources through an Early Intervention Foundation which would have close links to the Big Society bank.

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Corruption has become endemic in the Indian system

India’s political parties have agreed that a “strong and effective” anti-corruption law should be ready before the next session of parliament, which begins in August.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made the announcement on Sunday after an all-party meeting to discuss the law.

Civil society and the government have been deadlocked over how powerful a new anti-graft ombudsman should be.

India has recently been hit by a string of high-profile corruption scandals.

Civil society members, led by activist Anna Hazare, have been pushing the government for a strong ombudsman that will have the power to investigate corruption charges against the prime minister, senior judges and MPs, among others.

The government has reportedly refused to include the prime minister and senior judiciary under the purview of the ombudsman.

But the government has said it is committed to draft a “strong and sound” Jan Lokpal Bill (Citizen’s Ombudsman Bill) by the end of June.

Media reports said that representatives of opposition parties criticised the government at Sunday’s meeting for “bypassing established procedures” of law-making and engaging civil society representatives in preparing the anti-corruption law.

“I must also add that while a good law and a strong institution are necessary to tackle the problem of corruption, these alone would never suffice. Along with these, we need to focus on simplifying procedures, reducing discretion, eliminating arbitrariness and increasing transparency in the way the government functions,” Manmohan Singh told the meeting.

Mr Singh also said that that the ombudsman would have to function within the ambit of the constitution.

“It has to add [to], and not detract from, the legitimate role and authority of other institutions in our democratic structure,” he said.

Mr Hazare has threatened to resume his fast from 16 August if an effective anti-graft law was not introduced in parliament.

Some of the recent corruption scandals to have rocked India include a multi-billion dollar alleged telecoms scam, alleged financial malpractices in connection with the Commonwealth Games, which India hosted, and allegations that houses for war widows were diverted to civil servants.

Critics of the government say that recent scandals point to a pervasive culture of corruption in Mr Singh’s administration – adding to the difficulties of a politician once seen as India’s most honest.

A recent survey said corruption in India cost billions of dollars and threatened to derail growth.

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A statue of Ronald Reagan is being unveiled in London on Tuesday, but are there any other global figures, past or present, who deserve the same accolade?

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