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A deeply divided United Nation Security Council fails to agree on an EU-proposed statement condemning Syria’s violent crackdown against protesters.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Japanese automakers have been working at reduced capacity after the quake and tsunami Japan’s industrial output fell by record levels in March as disruptions in the supply chain continued to hit production.
Factory output fell by 15.3%, the biggest ever decline in production in the country.
The previous record was an 8.6% fall in February 2009 in the wake of the global financial crisis.
Japanese manufacturers have been hit by a shortage of parts in the aftermath of last month’s earthquake and tsunami.
There has also been a shortfall in electricity supply in some parts due to the damage caused to power stations by the quake and tsunami.
The combination of those two factors has resulted in production being suspended or curbed at factories of some of Japan’s biggest manufacturers.
Analysts say the situation is unlikely to return to normal any time soon.
“Industrial output may not return to where it was before the earthquake until October-December,” said Kiichi Murashima of Citigroup Global Markets.
“Companies have forecast a rise in output in the April and May, but I doubt companies can accurately forecast how soon supply chains will be restored,” he added.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Spectators have already begun to camp outside Westminster Abbey Final preparations are taking place ahead of the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton in London on Friday.
It comes after the couple attended a rehearsal at Westminster Abbey with the bride’s parents and Prince Harry.
William is due to spend the evening with the Prince of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall and Harry while Miss Middleton and her family will gather at a hotel.
Meanwhile, St James’s Palace has confirmed the Syrian ambassador to London is due to attend the wedding.
The Queen is hosting an event for British and foreign royals on Thursday night.
The drinks reception and dinner is taking place at the Mandarin Oriental hotel, near Hyde Park, in central London.
Among those thought to be attending are the Duke of York and his daughters Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, the Earl and Countess of Wessex, the Princess Royal and Zara Phillips with her fiance, England rugby player Mike Tindall.
The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall are expected to attend the reception before returning to Clarence House for their private dinner.
Some 50 foreign heads of state are among the 1,900 invited guests attending the wedding.
VisitBritain has predicted an extra 600,000 people will be in the capital on Friday, with some royal enthusiasts already beginning to pitch tents outside the abbey.
Schedule on the day Explore Westminster Abbey Seating plan Route map Video tour of the route Weather forecast
It is anticipated the events will be watched by up to two billion people worldwide on television. Thousands of media representatives have descended on London and makeshift studios have sprung up outside Buckingham Palace and along the wedding route.
At 1100 BST, a souvenir wedding programme will be available for downloading from the official Royal Wedding website. The booklet will be also be sold for £2 a copy along the processional route on the day of the wedding, with proceeds going to the Foundation of Prince William and Prince Harry.
On Friday, a carriage procession will pass along The Mall, Horse Guards Road, Horse Guards Parade, through Horse Guards Arch, along Whitehall, along the south side of Parliament Square and into Broad Sanctuary.
Up to 1,000 members of the military took part in a full-scale walk-through procession along the wedding route in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Later, the rehearsal saw the wedding party arrive at Westminster Abbey at 1930 BST in three silver-coloured people carriers with blacked-out windows.
The convoy, accompanied by police and security officials, drove into Dean’s Yard out of the sight of spectators but William and his fiancee, along with Harry, were captured leaving the vehicles by some TV crews.
Miss Middleton’s parents, Michael and Carole, had earlier left their Berkshire home for the drive to London, where they will be staying at the Goring hotel in Belgravia for the next three nights.
The abbey closed its doors to the public on Tuesday so that preparations could get under way.
Large containers of green cuttings have been arriving from the royal estates of Sandringham and Windsor and gardeners have set up an “avenue of trees” inside the abbey.
Six field maples and two hornbeams are to flank the route to the altar as part of Kate Middleton’s floral plans.
The Met Office says there is a 70% chance of rain on Friday, with heavier showers more likely later in the day. The forecasters expect temperatures will reach a high of 18C (64F).
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This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
It seems there’s some sort of big event taking place in London this week and no doubt that will draw the attention of thousands of snappers. Yet just a stone’s throw from Buckingham Palace in St James’s Park you will find another subject worthy of a picture or two.
There, photographer Stephen McLaren has been focusing his attention on the pelicans who inhabit the park, one of whom has been affectionately named William, or Willy, by his fans.
I asked Stephen about the work:
“Photographers are always on the lookout for obliging photogenic subjects, and even though I am a street photographer preferring to stay in the background and shoot unobserved, I often feel the need to directly connect with the subject of my camera’s gaze.
“It was in St James’s Park in London where I finally found my muse. His name, or so I’m told, is Willy, a five foot high male American White Pelican. We first met five years ago when I found him sitting regally on a bench having just swooped there from his usual home of Duck Island in the park’s lake.
“One day I came around the corner of St James’s park expecting a good view of the Palace and instead was confronted by a huge white bird preening itself on a park bench. Like virtually everyone else who has had that encounter I whipped out my camera and recorded my disbelief for posterity and have been taking pelican pictures ever since.
“The flock of pelicans residing in St James’s park was first introduced in 1664 as a gift from the Russian Ambassador. Although they technically belong to the Queen they are likely to become Boris Johnson’s responsibility if the management of the Royal Parks is transferred to the London Mayor’s office.
“Although they are wild animals with wings un-clipped, the pelicans have become increasingly inured to human beings. Indeed after spending several years of watching them at close quarters I have come to the conclusion that it is they who own and run the park, and us human gawkers are the beasts under inspection.
“It has become obvious to me is that the pelicans love having their pictures taken. Sometimes there can be upwards of 20 people at a time shoving phones and various flashing devices in their face. They never object, or peck, or throw a strop. Instead they will adjust their pose as required, shifting from full frontal to coquettish side-on ‘you looking at me’ stance. This always requires the wide-angle lens. Willy, in particular, loves the attention of cameras and must be the most photographed animal in London.
“Although I love photographing the pelicans the longer I did it the more I realised that I was just as interested in the people that were drawn to them. Alongside the flotsam and jetsam of tourists and lunchtime snackers, there is a community of older people who adore all the animals in the park, but save particular affection for the white giants.
“There is Dave who brings his pet snake and polecats to add to the menagerie, there is a gentleman who wheels a bag full of animal feed through the park, and there is Michael who has somehow trained Willy to follow him through the park and who will talk to him while reading the newspaper.
“As for the tourists, they are the ones most beguiled by Willy and his pals. Russian ladies and well-marshalled groups of Chinese people seem particularly thrilled by their antics. Bread, biscuits and nuts are often proffered as snacks but these are usually treated with disdain as favoured foods include worms, and any careless pigeons that get too close.
“For those who want to see these magnificent animals up close, the best opportunity is at 1430 every day when the Royal Parks staff bring buckets of fish for those huge beaks and gullets to devour. It’s one of London best wildlife spectacles and for those on a budget it beats going to the zoo. But be sure to bring your camera, you never know what might happen.”
So once you’ve waved at William and Kate, perhaps you could turn your attention to the pelicans in the park.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Mr Coulibaly and his men had refused to obey an order to disarm An Ivory Coast militia leader has been killed by forces of the country’s new President Alassane Ouattara.
The leader of the so-called Invisible Commandos, Ibrahim Coulibaly, was killed in an offensive on Wednesday, a defence ministry spokesman said.
The Commandos had helped Mr Ouattara gain control of parts of Abidjan during a post-poll dispute.
But they had since fallen out and their respective forces clashed on Wednesday in the city, Ivory Coast’s largest.
“I can confirm that Ibrahim Coulibaly was killed during fighting today,” defence ministry spokesman Capt Alla Kouakou Leon told Reuters.
A comander of the defence ministry’s fighters said they had found Mr Coulibaly’s body when they seized his headquarters.
Order to disarm
Mr Coulibaly, who had said he wanted recognition for his role in overthrowing Mr Gbagbo, had sought an audience with Mr Ouattara. But he refused a presidential order to disarm beforehand.
Government forces launched an offensive in Abidjan’s northern Abobo district to dislodge Mr Coulibaly’s forces.
Mr Kouakou added that two government troops and six fighters loyal to Mr Coulibaly men were also killed during the raid, which took place in a poor neighbourhood in the district.
His fighters had began battling the troops of fallen strongman Laurent Gbagbo in February, after they fired mortar shells and rockets into Abobo.
Mr Ouattara’s predecessor, Laurent Gbagbo, was captured two weeks ago by pro-Ouattara forces after he refused to step down following his defeat in last November’s presidential elections.
The former president and his wife Simone have been put under house arrest in separate towns in the north of the country.
Thousands are believed to have been killed and wounded during the recent crisis.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
John Paul II’s beatification this weekend is the quickest of modern times – what does it take to be fast-tracked to sainthood?
Catholics may believe there is something supernatural about their Church, but as the 13th Century theologian St Thomas Aquinas taught, it is not exempt from the normal realities of human nature – including the laws of psychology, sociology, and even politics.
Beatification, the final step before sainthood, arose as a way of authorising veneration to a candidate in the local area where she or he lived. It entitles the candidate to be called “Blessed”. After 1 May, Catholics in Poland and in Rome will celebrate a feast in honour of “Blessed John Paul II” every year on 22 October. In a special decree issued in April, the Vatican has also given Catholics all over the world one year to celebrate Masses in thanksgiving for the beatification of John PaulCanonisation is the formal act of declaring someone a saint in the Catholic Church
If that is true of the Church writ large, it is also true of the business of declaring saints. That fact will be on clear display on 1 May, when Pope John Paul II is beatified, the final step before sainthood, in a ceremony in Rome that is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of people to St Peter’s Square.
John Paul’s beatification comes just six years and one month after his death in 2005. The perception of haste has puzzled some observers, especially those inclined to question the late pope’s record on combating the scourge of clerical sexual abuse.
Formally speaking, the Vatican’s explanation is that all the traditional criteria have been met. There is a popular grassroots conviction that John Paul was a holy man – an exhaustive four-volume Vatican study concluded that he lived a life of “heroic virtue” – and a miracle has been documented as resulting from his intervention.
The miracle involves the healing of a 49-year-old French nun from Parkinson’s disease, the same affliction from which the late pope suffered.
Without questioning any of that, it is probably fair to say that institutional dynamics and even a degree of politics also help explain the rapid result.
John Paul reformed the sainthood process in 1983, making it faster, simpler, and cheaper. The office of “Devil’s advocate” – an official whose job was to try to knock down the case for sainthood – was eliminated, and the required number of miracles was dropped.
The idea was to lift up contemporary role models of holiness in order to convince a jaded secular world that sanctity is alive in the here and now. The results are well known: John Paul II beatified and canonised more people than all previous popes combined.
Opus Dei’s Josemaria Escriva had a powerful lobby pushing his cause Since the reforms took effect, at least 20 cases qualify as “fast track” beatifications, meaning the candidate was beatified within 30 years of death. Taking a careful look at that list, aside from lives of holiness and miracle reports, at least five factors appear to influence who makes the cut.
First, successful candidates have an organisation behind them with both the resources and the political savvy to move the ball. The Catholic movement Opus Dei (of Da Vinci Code fame), for instance, boasts a roster of skilled canon lawyers, and they invested significant resources in their founder’s cause. St Josemaria Escriva was canonised in 2002.
Second, several fast-track cases involve a “first”, usually to recognise either a geographical region or an under-represented constituency. Italian lay woman Maria Corsini was beatified in 2001, just 35 years after her death, along with her husband Luigi Beltrame Quattrocchi. They were the first married couple to be declared “blessed”. Nicaraguan Sr Maria Romero Meneses was beatified in 2002, 25 years after her death, as the first blessed from Central America.
The process, which cannot begin until at least five years after the candidate’s death unless the pope waives that waiting period, involves scrutinising evidence of their holiness, work and signs that people are drawn to prayer through their example:
First stage: individual is declared a ‘servant of God’Second stage: individual is called ‘venerable’Third stage (requires a miracle attributed to candidate’s intercession): beatification, when individual is declared blessedFourth stage (requires a further authenticated miracle): candidate is canonised as a saint for veneration by Church
It is also striking that 12 of these fact-track beatifications have been women. That is arguably related to an effort to counter perceptions that the Church is hostile to women.
Third, there is sometimes a political or cultural issue attached to the cause. For instance, Italian lay woman Gianna Beretta Molla was beatified in 1994, 32 years after she died in 1962. (Molla was canonised in 2004). She is famous for having refused both an abortion and a hysterectomy in order to save her unborn child.
In other cases, the perceived issue is internal to the Church. Maria de la Purisima, a Spanish nun, was beatified in 2010, just 12 years after her death in 1998. Vatican officials hailed her as a model of preserving tradition in a period of “ideological turmoil” following the Second Vatican Council (1962-65).
Fourth, Church officials may feel a personal investment in a cause. For instance, two Polish priests moved through the process swiftly under John Paul II: Michal Sopocko, the confessor of St Faustina Kowalska, a mystic and founder of the Divine Mercy devotion, and Jerzy Popieluszko, a Solidarity leader murdered by the Polish Communists.
Supporters of John Paull II may not have to wait too long before he is made a saint Fifth, fast-track cases generally enjoy overwhelming hierarchical support, both from the bishops of the region and in Rome. Chiara Badano, a lay member of the Focolare movement, was beatified just 20 years after her death in 1990. Focolare is admired for its spirituality of unity and its ecumenical and inter-faith efforts, not to mention its loyalty to the Church.
All five criteria are clearly in place with John Paul II. He has got powerful institutional backing both in Poland and in Rome, and virtually all of the officials making sainthood decisions today are John Paul II proteges. There is also a push to canonise not just John Paul the person, but also his papacy, especially its emphasis on recovering Catholicism’s missionary muscle.
Those criteria suggest that it won’t be terribly long before the canonisation arrives, and St John Paul II is formally added to the Church’s list.
If so, both nature and the supernatural will, again, have had their say.
John L Allen Jr is senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter and author of “The Future Church: How Ten Trends are Revolutionizing the Catholic Church (Doubleday, 2009).
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The government wants to reduce the number of long-term claimants of incapacity benefit Three-quarters of people who apply for sickness benefit are found fit to work or drop their claims before they are completed, official figures show.
Department for Work and Pensions figures showed 887,300 of 1,175,700 employment and support allowance (ESA) applicants over a 22-month period failed to qualify for assistance.
Of those 39% were judged fit to work, while 36% abandoned their claim.
Employment Minister Chris Grayling said the welfare system needed changing.
He said the figures underlined the need to reassess people still on the old incapacity benefit – a process which the government began rolling out last month.
“Once again we have clear evidence of the need for change in our welfare system.
“We now know very clearly that the vast majority of new claimants for sickness benefits are in fact able to return to work. That’s why we are turning our attention to existing claimants, who were simply abandoned on benefits.
“That’s why we are reassessing all of those claimants, and launching the work programme to provide specialist back to work support,” he said.
“We will, of course, carry on providing unconditional support to those who cannot work, but for those who can it’s right and proper that they start back on the road to employment,” Mr Grayling added.
The DWP figures cover the period from 27 October 2008 – when ESA was introduced by the former Labour government – to 31 August 2010.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Nick Clegg is making his first Holyrood campaign visit to Scotland Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg is making his first election visit to Scotland, as one of several Westminster big-hitters to join the campaign trail.
The deputy prime minister is addressing business people in Edinburgh, a week before voters go to the polls on 5 May.
Labour leader Ed Miliband is also campaigning in the Scottish capital, while UK Education Secretary Michael Gove is in the north east.
SNP finance secretary John Swinney is campaigning on the low carbon economy.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Annakurban Amanklychev is said to have been tortured in jail Turkmenistan is one of the world’s most repressive dictatorships in the world – so why is the EU considering closer economic ties with the Central Asian republic?
For almost four years Selbi Amanklychev did not know where her husband was, what state he was in, or if he was even alive.
All requests for information about Annakurban Amanklychev, a geography teacher turned human rights activist, were ignored by the authorities. His wife was warned not to mention his name in public.
When she finally saw him, it was inside a notorious prison in the desert bordering the Caspian Sea.
“It was a very emotional reunion,” said Tadzhigul Begmetova, a fellow activist and founder of the Turkmenistan Helsinki Foundation. “Annakurban was horribly thin, almost unrecognisable.”
His fate is one of the topics that will be raised by members of the European Parliament (MEPs) travelling to Turkmenistan this week, as the EU decides whether to sign a trade deal with the country.
I met Mr Amanklychev when I visited Turkmenistan undercover in the autumn of 2005, to find out what it is like to live in one of the 21st Century’s most repressive dictatorships.
He helped me with my radio documentary and drove me around the capital city, Ashgabat.
In his battered car, we visited run-down neighbourhoods away from the showcase centre with its gleaming marble facades and gold-plated statues.
Turkmen jails are notorious for their overcrowding and rampant disease In June 2006, six months after my trip, he was arrested while working for a French film crew. At first he and a fellow activist, Sapardurdy Khadzhiev, were accused of spying. Later, the charges were changed to illegal possession of firearms and ammunition.
According to Mr Amanklychev’s family, the security services planted cartridges in his car. No witnesses were allowed to testify at the closed trial.
On state television, the men were accused of “gathering slanderous information to spread public discontent” and denounced as traitors. They got seven-year sentences.
Conditions in the prison near Turkmenbashi where he is held are said to be deplorable, with chronic overcrowding and a lack of food, medicine and clean water.
The climate is extreme, with winter temperatures plummeting to -20°С and summer heat waves of up to +50°С.
According to a report last year by a group of exiled Turkmen lawyers, the prison has the highest mortality rate of all the country’s penitentiary facilities. Several inmates have died of tuberculosis and other infectious diseases.
Following his arrest, his wife lost her teaching job and her eldest child was expelled from his Ashgabat school. Other relatives were punished with dismissals.
Deprived of an income, the mother of three had to sell the family’s possessions to survive. She was repeatedly harassed by agents of the MNB, the secret police.
“They just wanted to show that there are some shortcomings in our country that need to be addressed and even our officials agree with that,” said Ms Begmetova, who is also Sapardurdy Khadzhiev’s sister-in-law.
“Talking about social issues and problems in education and health doesn’t mean that you are betraying your country.”
Tadzhigul Begmetova, founder of the Turkmenistan Helsinki Foundation, now lives in exile in Bulgaria Many hoped Turkmenistan would change for the better after the death of the eccentric president-for-life Saparmurad Niyazov. When his successor Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov took over in December 2006, he released a handful of political prisoners.
Since then, however, the Turkmen government has refused to review any other cases and has not even acknowledged the existence of political prisoners. It is unknown how many people are languishing behind bars on politically motivated charges.
Last month a fresh wave of arrests of civil society activists took place, including that of an 80-year-old contributor to Radio Free Europe who was forcibly confined to a psychiatric hospital.
“There are hardly any positive signals coming from Turkmenistan when it comes to respect for human rights or the rule of law”
Heidi Hautala Finnish MEP
A delegation of MEPs has just arrived in Ashgabat to assess the human rights situation in the country and to determine whether Europe should consent to deeper trade ties.
In June, the full parliament is expected to vote on whether a Partnership and Co-operation Agreement should go ahead.
This would provide better access to Turkmenistan’s vast gas reserves. The EU’s top diplomat, Baroness Catherine Ashton, has lobbied vigorously for it.
Last November she argued that the agreement provides the EU with “additional leverage to… promote its values, including human rights.”
But Heidi Hautala, a Finnish MEP from the Green Party and a member of the visiting delegation, is sceptical.
“There are hardly any positive signals coming from Turkmenistan when it comes to respect for human rights or the rule of law,” she said before her departure.
Apart from meeting government officials and President Berdymukhamedov, the delegation will also ask to visit political prisoners. They believe there is almost no chance of their gaining access to prisons like the one where Mr Amanklychev and Mr Khadzhiev are detained.
Last year the UN declared the men’s imprisonment a violation of international law. A brief note sent to the US embassy in Ashgabat about medical and family visits is the only recent information about the men.
According to Ms Begmetova, Selbi Amanklychev was only granted permission to see her husband after pressure from organisations outside the country, including the European Parliament.
She added that relatives of political prisoners are praying that the delegation of MEPs coming to Ashgabat this week will “show a real commitment to human rights” and push the Turkmen government for more than “empty rhetoric”.
You can hear more on Turkmenistan in Crossing Continents on BBC Radio 4 on Thursday 28 April at 1100 BST and on Monday 2 May at 2030 BST. You can also listen on the iPlayer or download the podcast.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The move comes as Ofgem consults on plans for clearer billing Consumers must now be told about energy price rises 30 days in advance, rather than being notified up to two months after the event.
The changes made by regulator Ofgem strip away previous rules that meant suppliers had 65 working days after prices had risen to tell customers.
The rule also covers any change to a contract that leaves a customer significantly worse off.
The changes came into force on Thursday.
The 65-day statutory deadline was supposed to be a backstop.
After notice was given, customers had 20 days to switch supplier if they wanted to avoid paying the increased price. Under the new rules, they can now do this before the rise comes into effect.
“Ofgem is determined to ensure that supply companies play it straight with consumers. Giving customers advance warning of price rises is one way of ensuring a fairer deal for them,” said Andrew Wright, Ofgem’s senior partner for markets.
Campaigners said that the move was overdue.
“It is absurd that providers have been able to announce price rises retrospectively,” said Mark Todd, director of energyhelpline.com.
“Imagine going to a supermarket and being charged £90 for groceries and then being told three months later that actually the price was £100 and that they now wanted an extra £10. There would be uproar.”
Hannah Mummery, of watchdog Consumer Focus, said: “The challenge now is for energy firms to deliver the changes needed to make switching work for consumers and give them confidence that they are being asked to pay a fair price. The regulator must keep the pressure on until they do.”
Energy UK, which represents the major UK suppliers, said customers were already getting advance notice of changes, before the rules came into effect.
“In the last six months, the leading energy companies have all provided advance notice to customers of their price changes, going beyond the legal requirement at the time,” said Energy UK director Christine McGourty.
“A priority now is to ensure that mailings to millions of homes can be managed effectively to ensure the best possible service for customers.”
The Liberal Democrats first raised the issue of the 65-day rule in January 2010, and the Labour government then vowed to reduce the delay to 10 days. The coalition government said it would change the rules after coming into power. However, the regulator went further than any of the parties suggested.
Following a recent review of the UK energy market, Ofgem told energy firms they must offer simpler tariffs to help consumers compare prices.
The regulator said that customers were “bamboozled” by a complex system of tariffs, which have increased from 180 to more than 300 since 2008.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Average termly fees, excluding nursery fees, were £4,393 or £8,384 for boarders Private schools are weathering the recession, according to a body representing more than 1,200 of them.
The Independent Schools Council’s annual census shows a 1% fall in pupil numbers, from 511,886 in January 2010 to 506,500 in January 2011.
ISC chief executive David Lyscom said its schools were showing “remarkable resilience” in a difficult economic climate and providing value for money.
The proportion of pupils from abroad rose 5.5% to more than 24,500.
Of these, 38% were from Hong Kong and China and 34% were from Europe.
The next-largest single group of pupils came from Germany – 9.6% of the total.
In total, 24% were from an ethnic minority background.
The census reveals that nearly 139,000 pupils (27%) received help with fees from their schools – on average £1,324 per pupil.
Average termly fees, excluding nursery fees, were £4,393 and £8,384 for boarders.
The proportion of boarders at independent schools also rose – by 1.7% to 68,102, a total of 13.4% of all pupils there.
Mr Lyscom said: “ISC independent schools are showing remarkable resilience against a difficult economic background, reflecting the high quality of education that our schools offer to parents, and the value for money that this represents.”
He said the census showed many pupils benefited from means-tested bursaries, and he urged the government to think carefully about its approach to university admissions.
“It would be very wrong to discriminate against these pupils when they apply to university just because they went to a particular type of school,” he said. “Our schools help promote social mobility – our statistics show how socially diverse they may be.”
Mr Lyscom also welcomed the rise in overseas pupil numbers, which he said showed “the ability of our schools to attract high-quality applicants from overseas in the face of fierce competition from other countries”.
He added: “This underlines the importance of the UK having a proportionate visa regime which is capable of distinguishing between independent schools and their pupils and other student migrants.
“So we are pleased that the UK Border Agency has listened to ISC’s message and has granted all independent schools automatic ‘highly trusted sponsor’ status.”
The census, completed by 1,232 independent schools in the UK and two in the Republic of Ireland, also revealed that more than 60,000 pupils had been identified as having special education needs (SEN) – the most common being dyslexia or dyspraxia.
And a total of 2,449 ISC pupils had been granted a formal statement of SEN.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Spring babies have a slightly higher incidence of anorexia nervosa. Babies born in spring are slightly more likely to develop anorexia nervosa, while those born in the autumn have a lower risk, say researchers.
A report published in the British Journal of Psychiatry suggests temperature, sunlight, infection or the mother’s diet could be responsible.
Other academics said the effect was small and the disorder had many causes.
The researchers analysed data from four previous studies including 1,293 people with anorexia.
The researchers found an “excess of anorexia nervosa births” between March and June – for every seven anorexia cases expected, there were in fact eight.
There were also fewer than expected cases in September and October.
Dr Lahiru Handunnetthi, one of the report’s authors, at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, said: “A number of previous studies have found that mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression are more common among those born in the spring – so this finding in anorexia is perhaps not surprising.
“However, our study only provides evidence of an association. Now we need more research to identify which factors are putting people at particular risk.”
The report suggests seasonal changes in temperature, sunlight exposure and vitamin D levels, maternal nutrition and infections as “strong candidate factors”.
Dr Terence Dovey, from the Centre for Research into Eating Disorders, at Loughborough University, said: “Anorexia is a very complex multifaceted disorder,” adding that the study looked at just one aspect.
“Should we concentrate screening methods to those born in the winter months? No, we should not. It leaves too much error of margin and the potential significant difference is only small.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Orlando Bosch died on Wednesday in Miami aged 84 Prominent Cuban anti-Castro militant Orlando Bosch, 84, has died in the US city of Miami.
Mr Bosch was arrested in Venezuela for the bombing in 1976 of a Cuban airliner, in which 73 people died.
He was later acquitted of the charges, first by a military court, and later by a civilian court.
Speaking in 2005, Mr Bosch said the truth about the bombing would be revealed in a tape and documents to be made public after his death.
The cause of his death has not yet been released.
Revolutionary past
Orlando Bosch was a paediatrician but gave up his job to pursue the struggle against communist rule in Cuba.
After first supporting the Cuban revolution which toppled the then-leader Fulgencio Batista in 1959, Orlando Bosch soon became disillusioned with the leaders of the revolution, Fidel Castro and Che Guevara.
In his 2010 autobiography, Mr Bosch wrote that his opposition to communist rule was triggered when revolutionary leader Che Guevara refused Mr Bosch’s request not to execute two men accused of being spies for Fulgencio Batista unless they were tried first.
Mr Bosch left Cuba for Miami in 1960, from where he allegedly organised a series of sabotage acts aimed at destabilising the Castro government.
In 1968, he was found guilty of participating in an attack on a Polish freighter and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Shortly after being released on parole after serving four years of his sentence, Mr Bosch fled the United States.
He spent time in hiding in Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominica Republic and Venezuela.
In 1976, he was arrested in Venezuela in connection with the bombing the same year of a Cuban airliner, in which 73 people died.
Mr Bosch and fellow Cuban militant Luis Posada Carriles were believed to be the masterminds behind the bombing.
The two men have always denied the charges, and both were acquitted by a Venezuelan military court in 1980.
They were subsequently tried in a civilian court, which also acquitted them.
Mr Bosch returned to Miami in 1988, from where he continued to raise money for the anti-Castro cause.
His wife Adriana said he died after a lengthy hospital stay in Miami.
She said he had been suffering from complications from various illnesses and had been in hospital care since December 2010.
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Heart attack is a life threatening condition requiring urgent medical attention People who have a heart attack in the morning tend to fare worse than those who have one at other times of the day and night, experts have discovered.
Heart attacks occurring between 0600 and noon are more likely to create a larger area of damaged heart tissue.
The findings in Heart journal come from a study of over 800 patients in Spain.
Experts say the body’s natural sleep-awake cycle could explain the differences seen, but advise more research to confirm the findings.
It is well established that a person’s 24-hour body clock can influence heart attack risk.
For example, doctors know that people are more likely to have a heart attack around the time when they are waking up from sleep than at other times, but what is less known is the extent of damage that this leads to.
“Regardless of the time of day, the quicker someone having a heart attack is treated, the less the damage they will have”
Judy O’Sullivan British Heart Foundation
To investigate, Dr Borja Ibanez and colleagues analysed data on 811 patients at their hospital who had suffered a type of heart attack known as an ST elevation myocardial infarction, which occurs when there is a prolonged period of blocked blood supply to the heart muscle.
The researchers split the patients into four groups based on what time segment of the 24-hour clock the heart attack occurred.
They found that one group in particular – the 0600 to midday or “morning” heart attack group – had the most severe heart attacks.
This morning group had much higher levels of an enzyme in their blood that is a marker of dying heart tissue than patients whose heart attack had occurred in the evening (between 6pm and midnight).
Judging by the blood enzyme levels, the researchers estimate that the area of the heart damaged in the morning group was, on average, a fifth larger in comparison.
Judy O’Sullivan, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: “This study provides some interesting observations on the association between the time of day a heart attack occurs and the degree of subsequent damage to the heart muscle.
“However further research is needed before we can draw firm conclusions.
“Regardless of the time of day, the quicker someone having a heart attack is treated, the less the damage they will have, which is why it is essential that anyone who experiences heart attack symptoms should call 999 immediately.”
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Hundreds of images have been taken of the Air France wreckage Search teams say they have discovered part of a flight recorder from the Air France plane that crashed in 2009, off the coast of Brazil.
But they say they have yet to find the section containing crucial data which could reveal the cause of the crash.
The Air France Airbus plane went down in the Atlantic on 1 June 2009, killing all 228 people on board.
The recorder section was recovered a day after a salvage ship began working to retrieve bodies.
“During the first dive by the Remora 6000 which lasted more than 12 hours, the chassis of the flight data recorder was found, without the module protecting and containing the data,” France’s Bureau of Investigation and Analysis said in a statement.
They said a second dive was under way.
A spokeswoman for the bureau explained that though only the outer chassis of the flight recorder had been found, the flight data recorder itself, if recovered, could still be in a condition to be read.
“The memory module is like a sarcophagus – the information is very well protected,” she told Reuters.
Investigators and Airbus stress that without the “black box” flight recorder, the mystery of the plane’s last moments may never be solved.
The wreckage of the flight was found on a fourth attempt, using robots capable of operating 4,000m (13,120ft) below the ocean’s surface.
Those who died on the Paris-bound Air France jet, which came down hours after it took off from Rio de Janeiro came from more than 30 countries, though most were French, Brazilian or German.
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