The prime minister remains convinced that reform of the NHS is needed
David Cameron will try to rally support for planned changes to the NHS in England, in a speech to health staff.
The prime minister is expected to focus on a need for “deep change”, warning of a “crisis” if reforms are blocked.
But he will also hint at some of the amendments that will be made as the result of a government consultation.
Plans to give GPs more control over budgets and boost the private sector role have angered some professionals and been criticised by Labour.
There is also political pressure in the coalition following significant unease within the Liberal Democrats. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has warned his party will block the Health and Social Care Bill unless it is altered.
In his address, Mr Cameron is expected to say: “We save the NHS by changing it. We risk its long-term future by resisting change now…
“It’s because I love the NHS so much that I want to change it. It needs to change to make it work better today and it needs to change to avoid a crisis tomorrow.”
Ministers promised “substantial” changes to the reforms outlined in thealth bill after calling a “pause” to its progress pending the results of a “listening exercise” involving patients, doctors and nurses.
Mr Cameron is expected to say that the “resounding message” from people he had met during the listening exercise was: “Yes, we love the NHS but yes, there are some real problems.”
He is also expected to say the NHS is providing the best service it ever has but there is waste and inefficiency and wide disparities of quality of service and of health outcomes across the country.
The prime minister will say that without changes, the NHS could face a potential funding gap of £20bn by 2015.
Labour has been seeking to exploit tensions in the coalition over the bill but Mr Cameron will stress that the plans will not be abandoned. He will also seek to quash opposition claims the reforms could lead to full privatisation of the NHS.
“Sticking with the status quo and hoping we can get by with a bit more money is simply not an option,” Mr Cameron will add.
“There’s only one option we’ve got and that is to change and modernise the NHS, to make it more efficient and more effective and above all, more focused on prevention, on health, not just sickness.”
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NYSE Euronext is planning a future under Germany’s Deutsche Boerse
US stock exchanges Nasdaq and ICE are dropping their $11.3bn (£6.9bn, 7.8bn euros) bid for rival NYSE Euronext.
The two exchanges concluded the proposed takeover would not be approved by US regulators.
NYSE Euronext had already rejected the unsolicited bid for the same reasons last month.
It said it would concentrate instead on plans to merge with German exchange Deutsche Boerse in a deal worth $10.2bn.
Nasdaq and ICE, an Atlanta-based futures specialist, said they had spoken with the anti-trust division of the Department of Justice.
“While we are surprised and disappointed in the anti-trust division’s conclusion, some of the uncertainty, at least as it relates to our joint proposal, has been resolved,” said Nasdaq chief executive Bob Greifeld.
Under the Nasdaq-ICE bid, ICE would have taken over NYSE’s derivatives business, while Nasdaq would have taken the stock exchanges and options businesses – thus combining two of the largest US stock exchanges.
The Deutsche Boerse bid itself is also likely to raise regulation issues anyway – a deal would create a massive presence in certain European financial products.
There is also some political opposition from those against the idea of a foreign company taking over a Wall Street brand.
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The Queen will visit the Republic of Ireland for a historic four day state visit. Some anti-war protesters plan to use her arrival to stage vocal protests.
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Mr Huhne has denied the allegations about a speeding offence in 2003, when he was an MEP
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A senior detective has been tasked with investigating claims Lib Dem cabinet minister Chris Huhne asked someone else to take his penalty points for a 2003 speeding offence, Essex Police say.
If it is found an offence has been committed, a formal investigation will be launched, Det Supt Tim Wills said.
It comes after Labour MP Simon Danczuk lodged a formal complaint with police.
Mr Huhne denies the allegation – which surfaced after an interview with his estranged wife Vicky Pryce.
Essex Police said: “We are aware of allegations around a speeding offence which is believed to have occurred in 2003. A senior detective from the Kent and Essex serious crime directorate has been appointed to establish if this offence took place and the allegations around it.
“We take allegations such as this one extremely seriously and will take action where necessary.”
Mr Huhne, MP for Eastleigh, is Energy and Climate Change Secretary in the coalition government – and was narrowly beaten to the Lib Dem leadership by Nick Clegg in 2007.
He has been in the spotlight recently for his criticism of the Conservatives over their behaviour during the recent campaign over changing the UK voting system – which saw the two government parties on opposing sides of the argument.
He confirmed last year he was splitting from his wife of 25 years, economist Vicky Pryce, and was in a relationship with another woman.
His office has denied the allegation about a speeding offence dating back to 2003, when he was an MEP, saying they had been made before and been shown to be untrue.
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Formula 1 teams agree to abandon plans for a dramatic change to the design of cars in 2013.
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Lady Gaga kept the audience waiting for 15 minutes at Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Carlisle
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Ahmed Haroun denies mobilising militias to attack civilians in Darfur
South Sudan’s ruling party has rejected the election victory of Ahmed Haroun, indicted for alleged war crimes committed in Darfur.
He has been declared the winner of the governorship poll in the oil-rich South Kordofan state, which borders potential flashpoints Darfur and South Sudan.
The ruling party in South Sudan, which is set to become independent in July, says the vote was rigged.
Analysts fear the dispute could spark yet another conflict in Sudan.
A civil war is still raging in Darfur, while some 1.5 million people died during decades of conflict between north and south.
The International Criminal Court accuses Mr Haroun of mobilising Arab militias to commit genocide against black African residents of Darfur when he was the minister there in 2003-4. He has denied any wrong-doing.
President Omar al-Bashir is also wanted on similar charges.
Mr Haroun defeated Abdelaziz al-Hilu, a senior official of South Sudan’s SPLM, according to the official results.
“We will not accept these results because the vote was rigged,” said Yasir Arman, head of the SPLM in the north.
The SPLM fought the north for two decades before a 2005 peace deal, which paved the way for independence for the largely Christian and animist region from the mainly Muslim, Arabic-speaking north.
But many residents of the Nuba Mountains region of South Kordofan also fought for the SPLM and it is feared they could take up arms once more.
“These people were fighting for 20 years and their aspirations are not fulfilled,” Hafiz Mohamed of the Justice Africa think-tank told the BBC’s Network Africa programme.
“The way things are going, it’s leading to a deadlock, which will end up with people carrying arms to release their frustration,” he said.
“If it starts, no-one can stop it – it will affect the south, it will affect the north. With the war in Darfur, we are heading for dangerous times.”
President Bashir has promised to accept South Sudan’s independence but tensions have been rising recently over the disputed area of Abyei, which also borders South Kordofan.
Sudan: A country divided
The great divide across Sudan is visible even from space, as this Nasa satellite image shows. The northern states are a blanket of desert, broken only by the fertile Nile corridor. Southern Sudan is covered by green swathes of grassland, swamps and tropical forest.
Sudan’s arid northern regions are home mainly to Arabic-speaking Muslims. But in Southern Sudan there is no dominant culture. The Dinkas and the Nuers are the largest of more than 200 ethnic groups, each with its own traditional beliefs and languages.
The health inequalities in Sudan are illustrated by infant mortality rates. In Southern Sudan, one in 10 children die before their first birthday. Whereas in the more developed northern states, such as Gezira and White Nile, half of those children would be expected to survive.
The gulf in water resources between north and south is stark. In Khartoum, River Nile, and Gezira states, two-thirds of people have access to piped drinking water and pit latrines. In the south, boreholes and unprotected wells are the main drinking sources. More than 80% of southerners have no toilet facilities whatsoever.
Throughout Sudan, access to primary school education is strongly linked to household earnings. In the poorest parts of the south, less than 1% of children finish primary school. Whereas in the wealthier north, up to 50% of children complete primary level education.
Conflict and poverty are the main causes of food insecurity in Sudan. The residents of war-affected Darfur and Southern Sudan are still greatly dependent on food aid. Far more than in northern states, which tend to be wealthier, more urbanised and less reliant on agriculture.
Sudan exports billions of dollars of oil per year. Southern states produce more than 80% of it, but receive only 50% of the revenue, exacerbating tensions with the north. The oil-rich border region of Abyei is to hold a separate vote on whether to join the north or the south.
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The data on the flight recorders may help piece together what happened aboard the doomed jet
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Flight recordings from an Air France jet that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009 have been preserved and are readable, French investigators have said.
They said the material from the voice and data recorders, retrieved earlier this month off the Brazilian coast, will now be analysed.
The readings include the last two hours of the cockpit voice recordings.
All 228 people on board were killed in the disaster.
“Following operations to open, extract, clean and dry the memory cards from the flight recorders, BEA safety investigators were able to download the data over the weekend,” the BEA air investigation agency said in a statement.
“These downloads gathered all of the data from the flight data recorder, as well as the whole recording of the last two hours of the flight from the cockpit voice recorder.”
Any information gleaned from the cockpit voice and flight data recorders will take months to process, investigators have said.
The report into the cause of the crash itself will not be ready before early 2012, although an interim report will be published in the summer, the BEA said on Monday.
Flight AF 447 went down on 1 June 2009 after running into an intense high-altitude thunderstorm, four hours into a flight from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil to Paris.
Those on board came from more than 30 countries, though most were French, Brazilian or German.
The wreckage of the plane was discovered after a long search of 10,000 sq km (3,860 sq miles) of sea floor.
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Sony discovered a breach in the PlayStation Network on 20 April
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Sony has announced that it will begin restoring its online PlayStation video game network on Sunday.
The phased restoration of services will begin in the US, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East.
The move comes more than three weeks after Sony discovered a huge security breach that led to the theft of personal data from millions of users.
The firm said its expects to have the network, including Qriocity services, fully restored by the end of May.
The restoration of Japanese and Asian services would begin soon, it added.
Sony said it had implemented “new and additional security measures” that would provide users with better protection.
These included increased encryption levels and additional firewalls.
“I’d like to send my sincere apologies for the inconvenience this incident has caused you, and want to thank you for all the kind patience you’ve shown as we worked through the restoration process,” said Kazuo Hirai, Sony’s executive deputy president.
He added the company was taking “aggressive action” to resolve the security issues and was making “consumer protection a full-time, company-wide commitment”.
The company said it would be offering a “welcome back” package to users that included some “premium content”.
Sony first discovered the security breach, which led to the theft of personal data from 100m online accounts, on 20 April.
Many users were upset about the company taking two days to contact the police and almost a week to inform those people affected.
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Memristors are of interest also because they are thought to function like the neurons of our brains
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A circuit component touted as the “missing link” of electronics is starting to give up the secrets of how it works.
Memristors resist the passage of electric current, “remembering” how much current passed previously.
Researchers reporting in the journal Nanotechnology have now studied their nanoscale makeup using X-rays.
They show for the first time where the current switching process happens in the devices, and how heat affects it.
First predicted theoretically in the early 1970s, the first prototype memristor was realised by researchers at Hewlett-Packard in 2008.
They are considered to be the fourth fundamental component of electronics, joining the well-established resistor, capacitor, and inductor.
Because their resistance at any time is a function of the amount of current that has passed before, they are particularly attractive as potential memory devices.
“Without this key information [about memristors], we are in ‘Edison mode’, where we just guess and modify the device at random”
Stan Williams Hewlett-Packard
What is more, this history-dependent resistance is reminiscent of the function of the brain cells called neurons, whose propensity to pass electrical signals depends crucially on the signals that have recently passed.
The earliest implementations of the idea have been materially quite simple – a piece of titanium dioxide between two electrodes, for example.
What is going on at the microscopic and nanoscopic level, in terms of the movement of electric charges and the structure of the material, has remained something of a mystery.
Now, researchers at Hewlett-Packard including the memristor’s discoverer Stan Williams, have analysed the devices using X-rays and tracked how heat builds up in them as current passes through.
The team discovered that the current in the devices flowed in a 100-nanometre channel within the device. The passage of current caused heat deposition, such that the titanium dioxide surrounding the conducting channel actually changed its structure to a non-conducting state.
A number of different theories had been posited to explain the switching behaviour, and the team was able to use the results of their X-ray experiments to determine which was correct.
Electronics’ ‘missing link’
The detailed knowledge of the nanometre-scale structure of memristors and precisely where heat is deposited will help to inform future engineering efforts, said Dr Williams.
He recounted the story of Thomas Edison, who said that it took him over 1,000 attempts before arriving at a working light bulb.
“Without this key information [about memristors], we are in ‘Edison mode’, where we just guess and modify the device at random,” he told BBC News.
“With key information, we can be much more efficient in designing devices and planning experiments to improve them – as well as understand the behavior that we see.”
Once these precise engineering details are used to optimise memristors’ performance, they can be integrated – as memory storage components, computational devices, or even “computer neurons” – into the existing large-scale manufacturing base that currently provides computer chips.
“With the information that we gained from the present study, we now know that we can design memristors that can be used for multi-level storage – that is, instead of just storing one bit in one device, we may be able to store as many as four bits,” Dr Williams said.
“The bottom line is that this is still a very young technology, but we are making very rapid progress.”
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The Queen is the first British monarch to visit what is today known as the Republic of Ireland in a 100 years, but is this a sign of the end of centuries of resentment, asks historian Diarmaid Ferriter.
When the Queen’s grandfather, King George V, arrived in Dublin in July 1911 he subsequently recorded his “feelings of joy and affection” inspired by the “wonderful reception” he was given by people lining the streets.
Over the course of the next decade, however, the political situation in Ireland was transformed, as were Anglo-Irish relations. It was the events of these tumultuous years, incorporating the War of Independence of 1916-21 and the quest for an Irish Republic, that meant 100 years would have to pass before the next visit.
In the midst of this war, the Government of Ireland Act of 1920 created a separate parliament for the six counties of Northern Ireland, partitioning the island in order to provide a solution to the problem of unionist opposition to any inclusion in an independent Ireland.
King George V’s visit to Ireland was the last by a British monarch for 100 years
The following year, the Anglo-Irish Treaty allowed for the creation of a 26-county Free State of southern Ireland within the British Empire. Of all the treaty’s provisions, the inclusion of an oath of allegiance to the British Crown to be taken by Irish parliamentarians was perhaps the most bitter, emotive and divisive and prompted civil war.
This did not mean that southern Ireland was not interested in the British monarchy. The interest has always been there and has remained – 1.3m people in Ireland watched the recent wedding of Kate and William.
Historically, the enthusiasm with which royals such as Queen Victoria, King Edward VII and King George V were greeted surpassed expectations and hostile nationalist opinion.
The geographic and cultural closeness of Britain and Ireland, the constant traffic of people between the two islands, the formal Act of Union of 1800, Dublin’s one time status as a significant city in the British Empire and the desire for some pomp and pageantry on its streets meant that there was a continued fascination with the royal family.
The Times newspaper’s view on King George V’s visit
“The Royal visit has begun most auspiciously. For the complete success of such an act of State two conditions are necessary – fine weather and a welcoming people…
The crowds along the route have been large, in some places very large, and their demeanour has been cordial, even enthusiastic…
Many times 40,000 gathered in the Dublin streets this morning and stood for hours behind the thin line of soldiers; they were gay, cheerful, expectant and when the time came cheered handsomely.”
In 1999, Irish writer Mark Hederman recalled his mother’s preoccupation with the Wallis-Simpson/ King Edward VIII abdication crisis of 1936. She was well informed about the scandal despite something of a news blackout in Ireland.
“When my mother began to tell people at parties in Dublin they thought she was off her head,” Hederman wrote. “Being a conscientious Catholic, she asked a Jesuit priest whether it was libel, detraction or scandal to be spreading news that was common knowledge in America but completely unknown over here. ‘I’m not quite sure which it is,’ he said, ‘but it’s very interesting. Tell me more.'”
One of the best selling books in Ireland in the 1930s was a handbook of the coronation of King George VI, and a number of private screenings of the coronation of the Queen were arranged in different parts of the country in the summer of 1953.
When Irish nationalists gained ground politically, affection for the royals went underground.
Those controlling the republican narrative also generally overlooked the tradition of Irish service in the British Army. More than 200,000 Irishmen fought in World War I and service in the British Army was a common family tradition, and was not seen by many as involving either a pro-British or anti-Irish stance. But such nuanced identities were, until more recently, conveniently ignored.
The civil war of 1922-23 left Irish society divided
The partition of Ireland and the subsequent establishment of the sovereignty of the new 26-county state in the 1930s witnessed nationalist Ireland adopt a constitution that jettisoned any reference to the British Crown and contained a territorial claim over Northern Ireland – eventually the 26 counties left the Commonwealth with the declaration of the Republic in 1949.
Given the political consensus about this exit from the Commonwealth, an international anti-partition tour by the country’s leading politician Eamon de Valera, and a subsequent IRA campaign against British rule in Northern Ireland – the IRA border campaign of 1956-62 – the political environment in Ireland in the 1950s and 1960s was not remotely conducive to a royal visit.
The Northern Irish state was policed by the overwhelmingly Protestant Royal Ulster Constabulary and with the outbreak of the Troubles at the end of the 1960s and the arrival of British soldiers, the activities of Crown forces created huge nationalist and republican resentment, just as they had during the War of Independence.
At times, this resentment was as intense south of the border; after Bloody Sunday in January 1972, when British troops from the Parachute Regiment killed 14 unarmed men taking part in a civil rights demonstration in Derry, protesters in Dublin attacked and set ablaze the British Embassy.
Troubled century1916: Easter rising in Dublin crushed1920: Parliament established for six counties of north1921: Anglo-Irish treaty ends War of Independence, establishes Irish Free State1922: Irish Civil War breaks out1949: Ireland declared a republic1969: British troops deployed to Northern Ireland1972: Bloody Sunday killings prompting burning of British embassy in Dublin1979: Lord Mountbatten killed by IRA1996: Irish President Mary Robinson lays WWI wreath in London and lunches with Queen1998: Good Friday agreement signed
A combination of these factors meant that any British royal presence in the 26 counties would not be politically possible or desirable.
The institution of the monarchy, because of its association with British military endeavour in Ireland, as distinct from the British people, came to represent for unionists, a touchstone of their loyalty to the United Kingdom but for nationalists, an emblem of unwelcome intervention.
Hostile references to it were presented in the context of historic claims of British monarchy to involvement and control of Irish affairs and a desire to coax the Irish out of their perceived irrational faith (Catholicism) and political allegiances, stretching back to the 12th Century and involving occupation, plantation, war and sectarian strife at various stages.
Such claims continued to be relevant into the 20th Century in what became a long, seemingly intractable Northern Irish conflict. One of the victims was Lord Mountbatten, an uncle of Prince Philip, and someone closely linked to the twilight years of the British Empire, who was assassinated by the IRA in Sligo in 1979.
It was not until the end of the 20th Century that a diplomatic thaw emerged, in the context of the peace process. Irish President Mary Robinson played her part in 1996 at Westminster Cathedral, by laying a wreath to commemorate the estimated 35,000 Irish who died in World War I and subsequently lunched with the Queen at Buckingham Palace.
Her successor President Mary McAleese took things a step further in 1998 when she stood alongside Queen Elizabeth to commemorate the Irish war dead of all traditions at the island of Ireland peace park at Messines in Belgium. Nothing like that was possible during the Troubles.
Lord Mountbatten was assassinated in Ireland in 1979
The impending visit was not deemed politically feasible until the peace process was bedded down, a process that included the abandonment by the republic of its territorial claim to Northern Ireland, and notwithstanding the ugly threats of the minority dissident republican groups, it essentially represents the success of that process.
The fact that the Queen will visit both the Islandbridge memorial in Dublin, commemorating the Irish who died in the service of the British Army, and the Garden of Remembrance, commemorating those who fought for Irish independence against the British empire, is an indication of the attempt to recognise, and respect, the different allegiances on the island.
Her visit to Croke Park is a significant act of reconciliation on both sides.
This is hallowed turf for Irish nationalists – headquarters of the Gaelic Athletic Association, and the place where British soldiers massacred 14 unarmed spectators in 1920 after the IRA had killed 14 British intelligence agents.
This is a visit from one head of state to another, as diplomatic equals, but there will be opposition to the visit by Republican Sinn Fein – which, unlike mainstream Sinn Fein, rejects the peace process – on the grounds of continued partition and because in its words: “The Queen of England is head of the British state which has brought only starvation, repression and suffering to the Irish people.”
There are others who find the prospect of the Queen visiting the Garden of Remembrance and Croke Park difficult to stomach given their strong allegiance to the ideals and sacrifices of the republicans who fought Crown forces during the War of Independence to achieve a united Ireland.
But at a senior political and diplomatic level, the preferred narrative now, and one accepted by most, is the one adopted by Bertie Ahern in May 2007, when he was the first Irish Taoiseach to address the Houses of Parliament: “No two nations and no two peoples have closer ties of history and geography and of family and friendship…we are now in a new era of agreement… solidarity has made us stronger. Reconciliation has brought us closer.”
Expect more of that kind of rhetoric during the royal visit as an attempt is made to bury some of the historic enmities.
Diarmaid Ferriter is Professor of Modern Irish History at University College Dublin and author of The Transformation of Ireland 1900-2000
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![Vision II [Picture by Davie Tait]](http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/52719000/jpg/_52719611_44882128.jpg)
