Category: news

Shares in HMV rise sharply on an unconfirmed report it has received a bid from a Russian billionaire for its bookshop chain Waterstone’s.

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At least three people were killed as thousands attended anti-government protests across Syria after Friday prayers, activists say.

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Piracy off the Somali coast costs the international community up to $8.3bn (£5.1bn) a year, and that could nearly double by 2015, a new study says.

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Ieaun WYn Jones making his announcement on Anglesey

Ieuan Wyn Jones has said he will stand down as Plaid Cymru leader in the first half of the assembly’s five-year term.

He said it had always been his intention to leave the role at some point before the next assembly election in 2016.

The announcement follows a poor showing for Plaid at last week’s election when it lost four seats.

Speaking on Beaumaris, Anglesey, he said it had been a “great honour” to lead the party over the last 11 years.

The timetable for his departure means Mr Jones will go some time in the next two-and-a-half years.

In a statement delivered in front of party colleagues, he said the “time was right” for him to make his plans clear.

He said it had been an honour to lead the party and to serve as deputy first minister in the last assembly.

“I have also witnessed many historic and momentous events during that period, not least leading the party into government for the first time in its 86-year history and the referendum on law-making powers,” he said.

Mr Jones was MP for Ynys Mon from 1987 to 2001 and has been the island’s AM since the first assembly in 1999. He first took up the party leadership in 2000.

Last week’s election saw Plaid slump to 11 seats – its worst tally since the assembly was established.

There has been criticism that the party’s campaign was too negative by attacking its former coalition partners in Labour.

Mr Jones said the result was a “disappointment”, adding: “As leader I take my share of the responsibility for those results.

“The party obviously needs time to reflect on the results, look long and hard at our message, our party structures and campaigning abilities.”

He said he was confident Plaid would recover “stronger and better, provided we understand the need to change and modernise”.

An immediate leadership election would not be in the party’s interest because of the need to review the election result, he said.

He thanked his family for their support, including his wife Eirian – “a rock through it all” – and his three children and four grandchildren.

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One of Wales’ biggest bus operators Veolia Transport is to close two of its depots ending many of its services across south Wales.

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Carlo Ancelotti is refusing to contemplate the possibility that Saturday’s match against Newcastle will be his last home match as Chelsea boss.

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Ministers say they will not ban wild animals in circuses but will enforce “high welfare standards” – but a charity says it does not go far enough.

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Two men who stabbed their victim and slashed his throat in a row over money are jailed for life.

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A British woman is stabbed to death in a shop in Spain’s Canary Islands in what officials say appears to be a random attack.

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China appears to rule out talks with the Tibetan government-in-exile and its new prime minister, saying it has “no legitimacy”.

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The US is expected to flood as many as three million acres in southern Louisiana to protect large cities on the Mississippi River.

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Network Rail’s predecessor Railtrack was responsible for the track at Potters Bar

Network Rail has been fined £3m for safety failings over the 2002 Potters Bar train crash.

The rail infrastructure company admitted breaching safety regulations over the crash which claimed seven lives.

Faulty points were to blame for the May 2002 crash in which a London to King’s Lynn express derailed just outside Potters Bar station in Hertfordshire.

Following the ruling, Network Rail said it was “truly sorry”.

Six passengers and a pedestrian walking near the station were killed.

‘Sense of justice’

Overall responsibility for the track lay with Network Rail’s predecessor company, Railtrack.

Last year, the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) launched proceedings against maintenance firm Jarvis and Network Rail under the Health and Safety at Work Act.

Both companies were accused of failings over the installation, maintenance and inspection of adjustable stretcher bars which keep the moveable section of the points at the correct width for train wheels.

Director of rail safety at ORR, Ian Prosser, said: “Today marks the end of a long process in which we have sought to gain a sense of justice for the families of the victims of the Potters Bar derailment.

“It is welcome that Network Rail, as the successor to Railtrack, pleaded guilty to health and safety breaches, demonstrating that, under its new management, it is now an organisation willing to take responsibility and learn from past mistakes.”

Speaking after the court case, Perdita Kark, the daughter of Austen Kark who was one of the victims, said: “It’s offensive that I pay a fine for something that killed my father.

“Directors of the two companies should have been in the dock as individuals and they should have paid out of their own purses.”

Ms Kark – whose mother, author Nina Bawden, now 86, was badly injured in the crash – added: “This fine is going to be paid by the taxpayer and will mean there is less money to be spent on the rail network.

“The crash has made my mother’s old age desperately difficult.”

How the Potters Bar crash happened

The WAGN service bound for Kings Lynn left Kings Cross at 1245 BST on 10 May 2002. The four-carriage train was not due to stop at Potters Bar, but it came off the rails as it approached the station, smashing into the canopy. The accident happened at about 1300BST, after the train crossed the points outside Potters Bar at close to 100mph. The fourth carriage derailed, sending debris onto Darkes Lane below. Six passengers and one passer-by were killed. A series of investigations found a faulty set of points was to blame. Two sets of nuts holding stretcher bars in place, were loose or missing. Rail investigators believe the first, or “lock” stretcher bar, fractured under the extra pressure. The ineffective stretcher bars failed to hold the points in place when the train passed over them. The right hand switch rail closed against its stock rail, leaving no room for the train’s wheels, sending the fourth carriage off the rails. After it derailed, the fourth carriage flipped over and careered down the track at right angles. It finally came to a halt under the station canopy. The front three carriages continued further down the track before stopping.

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The sandy soil in the region of Lorca worsened the impact of the earthquakes

The earthquake-stricken town of Lorca, Spain, is holding a funeral Mass for four victims of Wednesday’s disaster.

Nine people were killed when a magnitude-5.1 quake struck the town, just two hours after one measuring 4.4.

Spanish PM Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and Crown Prince Felipe and his wife Letizia are attending the funeral, held in a large hangar-style structure.

Thousands of buildings in the historic town have been damaged or destroyed and many residents have left.

Some have gone to stay with friends and family in other areas because their homes are unsafe or they fear aftershocks.

Troops and emergency workers have put up hundreds of tents for about 3,000 homeless people still in Lorca.

The funeral Mass is not being held in a church as earthquake damage has made them unsafe to enter.

Before the service began, Crown Prince Felipe and his wife consoled grieving mourners seated in front of four wooden coffins.

Hundreds of people are attending the service.

Funerals for other victims are being held elsewhere in Lorca.

Almost every building in the town of about 93,000 residents has been damaged, says our correspondent.

Inspection teams are going house to house assessing the damage before declaring which buildings are safe to return to.

On Thursday some residents were briefly allowed back into their homes to salvage what belongings they could from the rubble. Spanish TV pictures showed many were in tears.

Shops, restaurants and schools have been closed and a steady stream of cars left the town, in the Murcia region of southern Spain.

Bulldozers have been clearing streets of rubble and crushed cars. Many ancient buildings were among those badly damaged.

Many of those residents left behind are immigrant labourers who have nowhere else to go.

The Spanish government has deployed about 800 personnel to the town, including emergency units, troops and police, Mr Zapatero said on Thursday.

Seismologists say they expect smaller aftershocks in the area, which lies close to the geological fault line separating Europe and Africa.

The quakes were shallow and caused significant damage despite being relatively low in magnitude. The region’s sandy soil also made the impact worse.

Many of the town’s buildings may have had pre-existing structural problems, said Luis Suarez, head of Spain’s College of Geologists.

The quake was the deadliest tremor to hit Spain since 1956 when an earthquake killed 11 people in Albolote, Granada.

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Uganda’s parliament adjourns without debating a controversial bill which includes the death penalty for some homosexual acts.

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Milly Dowler disappeared as she walked home from a railway station after school in March 2002

A student has described how she was left scared and crying after a man accused of murdering Milly Dowler tried to abduct her when she was aged 11.

Giving evidence in the Old Bailey trial of Levi Bellfield, Rachel Cowles, 21, said she was offered a lift in a red car in Shepperton, Surrey.

She was walking home from school in Upper Halliford Road at the time.

Bellfield, 42, denies abducting and murdering Milly and attempting to kidnap Ms Cowles in March of 2002.

The prosecution has alleged that he drove off after trying to abduct Ms Cowles when he saw a police car, and that he went on to murder 13-year-old Milly the next day.

Ms Cowles told the court she had been walking alone when the car pulled up beside her with its window open.

She recalled how the driver leaned over to speak to her while the engine was still running, saying: “Hello. I have just moved in next door. Would you like a lift home?”

Ms Cowles said: “No thank you. It’s all right.”

Bellfield is also accused of trying to abduct Rachel Cowles the day before Milly disappeared

She told jurors the man was white, aged in his 30s to 40s, and skin-headed or bald.

“His head was rather chubby. He had a gold hoop earring in his left ear,” she said.

Asked if she had been comfortable with the man making that offer to her, she replied: “No.”

She recalled how she had felt confused and decided to go home “to see if I could see his car and if he was telling the truth”.

When she got there and looked around, there was no car. That was when she became scared as she realised “the enormity” of what had just happened, the court heard.

Her mother rang the police, and she said she had burst into tears as she spoke to a policeman on the telephone, the trial was told.

Ms Cowles agreed that she had told the police on the phone that she could not describe the man.

The court heard police did not take a statement from her until three years later, when her mother wrote to the chief constable after watching a police appeal for a red car, suggesting possible links with Milly’s death.

The court heard Ms Cowles failed to pick Bellfield out of a later identity parade.

Her mother, Diana Cowles, also gave evidence, denying that she or her daughter had been “prompted or influenced” by the report.

“No, I had already asked her what sort of car it was,” Mrs Cowles said.

Rachel Cowles was offered a lift as she walked home from school

However, she agreed that she had told police on an earlier occasion that the man was balding and had a beard.

Milly disappeared on 21 March 2002 in Station Avenue, Walton-on-Thames, near where Bellfield lived in Collingwood Place.

The jury has been told she had just called her father to say she was on her way home.

Her remains were found six months later.

Bellfield, a former wheelclamper and club bouncer, was convicted at the Old Bailey in 2008 of attacks on women in west London over a period of about two years.

He was convicted of killing Marsha McDonnell, 19, in February 2003 and Amelie Delagrange, 22, in August 2004, by striking them on their heads with a blunt instrument.

In May 2004, he attempted to murder Kate Sheedy, 18, by deliberately running her over in a car.

The trial was adjourned to Monday.

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