Category: news

A government department warned that a flagship Conservative policy on welfare reform could result in 20,000 people being made homeless across the UK.

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Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah rejects indictments of four of its members by the UN-backed tribunal over the 2005 assassination of Lebanon’s former PM Rafiq Hariri.

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Eurozone finance ministers agree to release a further 12bn euros of emergency aid to Greece to help it avoid bankruptcy.

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Rafel Nadal can gain revenge for losing his world number one ranking to Novak Djokovic when the pair meet in Sunday’s Wimbledon final.

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The Libyan rebels welcome an African Union offer to open talks without the direct involvement of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

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Former Brazilian President Itamar Franco dies in Sao Paulo aged 81 after complications from leukaemia.

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Teaching unions have criticised plans to make school trips easier to organise amid government fears about the over-zealous application of safety laws.

The Department for Education is publishing new guidance to help schools ditch “unnecessary paperwork”, and has cut 150 pages of guidelines to eight.

But the National Union of Teachers (NUT) said it feared reducing best practice could lead to more accidents.

Education Secretary Michael Gove said it was a “more common sense” approach.

Amanda Brown, of the NUT, said: “What we wouldn’t want to do is to see a reduction of guidance which could lead to a lot more accidents.

“What we want is advice which is very clear and straightforward but long enough to cover enough of the detail so that people do feel secure.”

The NASUWT teachers’ union said cutting back guidance could reduce parents’ confidence and make teachers more nervous about school trips because it provided a safeguard.

“The decision to scrap over 140 pages of guidance is potentially reckless and could increase litigation against schools and teachers,” said general secretary Chris Keates.

“There is no evidence demonstrating the need for the previous guidance to be abandoned, and no educational reason for doing so.

“Schools and teachers organise educational visits when it is clear that there is an opportunity to enhance and enrich pupils’ learning and when they assure themselves that children will be safe.

“The dilution of guidance for schools is likely to reduce rather than increase the number of educational visits.”

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said it hoped the new guidelines would dispel legal “myths”.

Chairman Judith Hackitt told the BBC it was “time to out those who hide behind red tape and procedures and often blame us and health and safety as the reason why they can’t do these things”.

She said guidelines had ended up being overly bureaucratic because of a fear of civil litigation, cost-cutting and because it was an easy way to avoid work that was regarded as more difficult.

Teachers were intelligent people and should be trusted to use their common sense, she added.

Ministers said school trips could broaden children’s horizons but fear of prosecution was too often used as an excuse not to organise them.

In the past five years only two cases had been brought against schools for breaches of health and safety law on a visit, they said.

Employment minister Chris Grayling said: “We’ve got a crazy situation at the moment where, very often, headteachers and teachers think that actually the rules are such that it’s not a good idea to plan school trips.

“There’s too much bureaucracy, too many health and safety rules and a risk of prosecution if something goes wrong,” he told the BBC.

“There is no reason – and never was – why children should be prevented from going on school trips by over-enthusiastic misinterpretation of rules,” he said.

A Labour Party spokesman said health and safety rules needed to be applied sensibly.

The new guidelines clarify that written parental consent is not needed for each activity and encourage schools to use a new one-off consent form signed once when a child starts at a school.

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Britain’s David Haye takes on Wladimir Klitschko in a heavyweight unification fight in Hamburg.

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A Yorkshire pub has set a new world record for the largest serving of fish and chips.

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A Swiss couple have been kidnapped in south-western Pakistan, the Swiss foreign ministry says.

It said Pakistan’s officials had notified Swiss diplomats about Friday’s abduction in Balochistan.

The pair were travelling by car when they were seized by gunmen in the Lorali district, some 150km (90 miles) north of Quetta, Islamabad said.

Pakistan has now launched a search operation and requested help from tribal leaders in the volatile region.

The kidnapping was the first such incident involving Swiss nationals in Pakistan, the Swiss foreign ministry said.

The pair’s identities have not been disclosed.

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Syrian TV has broadcast footage of anti-government protesters on the streets, blaming what it called “armed, criminal gangs” for the recent unrest.

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A 13-year-old boy charged with raping a five-year-old boy has been released on bail.

The south Belfast teenager, who cannot be identified because of his age, did not appear at Belfast Magistrates Court.

He is charged with raping his alleged victim on two occasions this year.

He was granted bail on the condition that he has no contact with other children, will not leave home without a parent or be left home alone.

He is also not allowed to contact the alleged victim or prosecution witnesses.

District Judge Amanda Henderson granted bail but ordered the boy to appear again on Monday.

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Six people have been lynched and killed by members of an indigenous community in northern Guatemala, officials say.

Emergency services said local residents of San Pedro Carcha in Alta Verapaz province marched five men and a woman to a corn field, where they were beaten, blindfolded and shot dead.

The villagers suspected the six of killing a local businessman.

Prosecutors say 194 people have been lynched since 2004, mainly in areas where there was little police presence.

Guatemala’s Prosecutors Office for Human Rights says the cases of lynchings have been rising year on year, with a marked increase in indigenous communities, where there is little trust in the authorities.

In the latest case, villagers tracked down a man known as The Clown, who they believed was behind the murder of local businessman Nicolas Choc on Thursday.

They beat him until he confessed and revealed the names of his five alleged accomplices, who were then also hunted down and shot dead.

Police said the locals prevented them from entering the village, but did allow emergency services to take the bodies to the morgue.

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Monaco is preparing for the religious ceremony to celebrate the marriage of Prince Albert II to South African former swimmer Charlene Wittstock.

The pair married in a civil ceremony in the tiny principality on Friday.

Earlier in the week, the palace denied reports in the French press that Ms Wittstock was having second thoughts about the wedding.

Some 3,500 guests, including royalty, celebrities and supermodels are due to attend Saturday’s lavish celebrations.

The Catholic ceremony will take place at the royal palace, followed by a lavish dinner prepared by a multi Michelin-starred chef.

The guest-list includes the kings of Spain, Sweden, Lesotho and Belgium, the presidents of France, Iceland, Ireland, Lebanon, Malta, Germany and Hungary, France’s richest man, celebrated opera singers, top models and racing car divers.

‘Jealous rumours’

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the heir to the Spanish throne, as well as fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld and supermodel Naomi Campbell, are all expected to attend.

All the ingredients for the lavish celebratory meal, created by Alain Ducasse – himself a Monaco citizen – will come from within a 10km (6-mile) radius of Monaco.

More than 1,000 journalists from around the world have been accredited to cover the festivities in the principality whose citizens number just 7,618.

After Friday’s ceremony, Ms Wittstock, 33, who swam in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, is now Her Serene Highness Princess Charlene.

The tiny principality, which covers about 2 sq km (less than one square mile), is the world’s smallest independent state after the Vatican City.

Prince Albert II, 53, has been the ruler of Monaco since the death of his father, Prince Rainier III, in 2005.

Friday’s event was clouded by press reports suggesting that Ms Wittstock had come close to returning to South Africa, after learning secrets about Prince Albert’s private life.

The royal family dismissed the claims, as well as suggestions she had only turned back after royal aides persuaded her to stay as “jealous rumours”.

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Revellers take to the streets of London for Gay Pride parade

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