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Prince William and Kate Middleton attend a private rehearsal at Westminster Abbey ahead of their wedding ceremony on Friday.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Judd Trump thrashes Graeme Dott 13-5 to reach the World Championship semi-finals, where he will face Ding Junhui, a 13-10 winner over Mark Selby.
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By Jonathan Amos
Helicopters dropped water on the fire The Kennedy Space Center in Florida became enveloped in smoke on Wednesday as a fire raged on brushland close to the spaceport’s media complex.
At one point, the smoke was so thick it obscured completely the view to shuttle Endeavour sitting on its launch pad.
As helicopters dropped water on the blaze, Nasa said there would be no impact on lift-off preparations.
The US shuttle Endeavour is due to begin its final mission this Friday to the International Space Station (ISS).
It will be delivering a $2bn (£1.2bn) particle physics experiment called the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer.
Before the drama of the fire, mission managers said they were very pleased with the progress of pre-launch activities.
“We had a management team meeting this morning, a standard meeting on launch minus two days – just to review our status and see where we’re at,” explained Mike Moses, chair of the mission management team.
“Everything’s in great shape; [it was a] very short meeting. The teams all polled ‘ready to go’ and proceed with the countdown.”
Shuttle Endeavour will be using a relatively old external tank for its final launch.
ET-122, as it is known, was originally built in 2002, but was damaged during Hurricane Katrina at its New Orleans manufacturing facility.
The orange tank for Endeavour looks a little darker than most shuttle tanks It has been refurbished for this mission, not just to repair the storm defects but also to incorporate measures designed to limit the amount of insulation foam that can fall off a tank during launch – a persistent hazard down the years, and one that fatally damaged the Columbia shuttle on launch in 2003.
Mr Moses said Nasa had no reservations about using ET-122.
“If you take a look at it out on the pad, it looks a little more suntanned than other tanks because the [sunlight] makes that orange foam insulation turn a little darker, and it’s got some repair spots. But it’s in more than good shape to fly.”
In what he said was a tribute to re-usability in the shuttle programme, he also revealed that components in the Solid-fuel Rocket Boosters for Endeavour were also used in the very first shuttle flight in 1981.
The huge interest in the end days of the shuttle programme means large crowds will again gather around the Kennedy Space Center on launch day.
For the Discovery orbiter’s final lift-off in February, up to half a million people lined local roads and beaches. The police are expecting perhaps up to 750,000 people to do the same on Friday.
There will be about 40,000 guests inside KSC. These are likely to include President Barack Obama and his family.
Also present will be Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, the wife of Endeavour’s commander, Mark Kelly. Ms Giffords is currently recovering from a gunshot wound to the head, sustained during a shooting spree by a gunman in her constituency on 8 January.
Mission managers promise these visitors will not prove a distraction to the launch teams as they prepare the second-from-last shuttle mission.
Only the Atlantis orbiter will be left in active service once Endeavour returns. Atlantis is expected to make it final journey into orbit sometime in June or July.
All of Nasa’s ships are being retired to make way for astronaut “taxis” to be provided by the private sector later this decade.
“The end of the programme is coming one at a time,” said shuttle launch director Mike Leinbach. “Discovery is now being taken apart and being made safe for final display, and that will start on Endeavour when she gets home.
“It’s kinda sad to see the end, of course, but we’re dealing with it. I just hope the next programme comes more quickly than a lot of people are expecting.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Ben Bernanke will give his first press conference later The Federal Reserve has kept interest rates at between zero and 0.25%, as chairman Ben Bernanke prepares to hold his first press conference.
The Fed said “economic recovery is proceeding at a moderate pace” while the labour market “improves gradually”.
It added it would continue its monetary stimulus policy until June.
Mr Bernanke will outline later the views of central bank board members on rates as well as give his overall outlook for the US economy.
Investors around the world will be watching his words closely.
In its interest-rates statement, the Fed said household spending and business investment in equipment and software continued to grow. However, it highlighted the fact that the housing market remained depressed.
It also said it would continue with its stimulus policy, known as quantitative easing, and would complete its second round of purchases totalling $600bn (£363bn) as scheduled by the end of June.
In his first press conference, Mr Bernanke is likely to discuss the recent move by international ratings agency Standard & Poor’s to put the US on a negative outlook.
It said the US could lose its top-level credit rating due to the lack of a plan to bring down its growing deficit and tackle its debt.
Although the Fed is not responsible for the US government’s high debt levels, the media will expect Mr Bernanke to hold strong views about how and when this should be addressed.
The introduction of regular press conferences by the chairman of the Fed is seen as a way for the bank to explain its policy decisions and address directly criticisms of its handling of the financial crisis, and even its inability to prevent it in the first place.
The US economy grew by an annualised rate of 3.1% in the final three months of last year, but some economists expect the rate of growth to have slowed in the first quarter of this year.
The January to March GDP figures are published on Thursday.
The US unemployment rate is also falling, and hit a two-year low of 8.8% in March. However, inflation jumped sharply last month to 2.7%, largely due to big rises in food and petrol prices.
This mixed picture is the main reason why the Fed kept rates at a record low of zero to 0.25%, where they have been since December 2008.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
David Cameron told Angela Eagle: ‘Calm down dear’
Labour is demanding an apology after David Cameron apparently told a female MP to “calm down dear” in the Commons.
The prime minister borrowed the catchphrase made famous by Michael Winner during a row about NHS reforms.
Labour say he aimed the remark at Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Angela Eagle, and accused him of being a sexist bully.
But a Downing Street aide said it was a popular advert and a humorous remark was being “over-analysed”.
The clash came as Mr Cameron used the words of former Labour MP – and GP – Howard Stoate to defend his plans to introduce GP commissioning in the NHS in England.
Mr Stoate, who stepped down at last year’s general election, wrote in the Guardian that discussions with his colleagues revealed “overwhelming enthusiasm for the chance to help shape services for the patients they see daily”.
But it was Mr Cameron’s suggestion that Mr Stoate had been beaten during the election that riled some on the Labour benches.
“I have to say it’s not the kind of language which sets a good example in the 21st Century”
Ed Balls Shadow Chancellor
Amid shouts of “he stood down”, Mr Cameron paraphrased the famous car insurance advert starring film director Michael Winner: “Calm down dear, calm down, calm down. Listen, listen to the doctor. Calm down and listen to the doctor.”
Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls could be seen challenging the remark and pointing to Ms Eagle in the Commons – Mr Cameron replied: “I’m not going to apologise, you do need to calm down.”
Speaker John Bercow had to step in to quieten the Labour benches, telling MPs: “There’s far too much noise in this chamber, which makes a very bad impression on the public as a whole.”
But Labour MP John Woodcock stoked up the row later, telling MPs the prime minister was “losing his rag because he is losing the argument”.
BBC News Channel chief political correspondent Laura Kuenssberg said Labour MPs reacted angrily to the remarks, with one saying: “It’s pure Bullingdon Club” – a reference to the exclusive Oxford University society of which Mr Cameron was a member.
Mr Balls told BBC Radio 4’s World at One the remark had been a joke but it was “pretty silly” of Mr Cameron, adding if he had said it to his wife, Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, she would have “clocked me one”.
“I thought that David Cameron should have apologised to Angela Eagle,” he said. “I have to say it’s not the kind of language which sets a good example in the 21st Century.”
Lib Dem Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander defended his cabinet colleague Mr Cameron in an interview with the same programme.
He said: “If it has caused offence, obviously that was not right and I hope it hasn’t caused offence… because it was a joke.”
Mr Alexander added that he had thought the remark was directed at Mr Balls, who liked to “chunter from the front bench”.
A Downing Street aide told reporters: “I think you will find it is a popular advert. I think you are maybe over-analysing a humorous remark.
“They [Labour] will do anything to avoid talking about the economy after the good growth figures.”
At the last prime minister’s questions before the Easter break, Mr Cameron sparked a row with Labour after calling Mr Balls “the most annoying person in modern politics” during noisy exchanges.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Flowers have been left at the station where the 16-year-old died after being struck by a train on Monday night Floral tributes have been left on the platform of a train station close to where a teenager died on Monday.
Gabby Joseph, 16, was struck by a train at Briton Ferry railway station in Neath Port Talbot.
A governor at Ysgol Gyfun Ystalyfera, where she was a former pupil, said she was talented and popular with many friends.
British Transport Police said the teenager’s death was not being treated as suspicious.
School governor Alun Llewelyn said: “Everyone associated with the school will be very very sad to hear the news.
“She was a very talented young lady and had a lot of friends.
“She had completed her GCSEs. We are thinking about her family and friends.”
Transport Police said they were called to the station along with South Wales Police and paramedics at 2129 BST on Monday.
The force said in a statement: “A female was pronounced dead at the scene and the incident is currently being treated as non-suspicious.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Five teenage boys are arrested in connection with a scrapyard fire in north London that led to the closure of the M1 in both directions for several days.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Three men are charged with murder in connection with the deaths of an elderly couple in Wolverhampton.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Entries for the London 2012 Olympics lottery have closed, and it’s clear some people have gone for many events to avoid drawing a blank. But if they get everything could they be left with a bill of thousands?
Right. The 100m with Usain Bolt. Click. And the opening ceremony. Click. Tom Daley diving and Victoria Pendleton cycling. Click click.
Lots of people will also be applying for these events, so how about adding, um, the canoe slalom preliminary rounds? Click. The men’s shot put – at least I’ll be in the stadium. Click. Click click. Click.
With the final bill only defined by the outcome of next month’s lottery for oversubscribed events, it’s all too easy to get carried away.
And when payment is taken next month, some will be in for a nasty surprise if they’ve won more than expected. Nor will they know for which events until 24 June, and they won’t be able to offload unwanted tickets until the official resale portal opens in early 2012.
“People bet big and hope to win small”
Matt Bath, of Which?
The organisers insist that, throughout the process, they have urged the public to only bid what they can afford. But anecdotal accounts suggest many risk overstretching themselves.
One person worried about this is Ruth, who has applied for £22,000 worth of tickets.
“What my husband decided was the chances of getting tickets would be low, so we applied to get our 20 lots, and he got his sister to do it and his dad to do it. So we’ve applied for all these tickets using up three people’s quotas,” she told BBC Radio 5 live.
Athletics fan Cameron Duncan, who lives in London, is desperate to see the 100m but has also applied for tennis, gymnastics, diving and boxing, among others.
“I had a rough plan of what I wanted to buy, but I did get carried away. I bought back-ups for each event but they’re not really back-ups as you could get them all. I also went for a wider price range than I envisioned.
“I was a bit shocked at the end when I totted up what I’d put myself down for. It was an escalation though – as I went along I kept thinking ‘oh it doesn’t matter, just go for it’ and it built up along the way.”
Cameron plans to resell only duplicate tickets he gets, and thinks he will get family and friends to take any spares.
“We’re a family of four so we’ve applied for about 240 tickets. We’re just really hoping that we won’t get them all.”
The ticketing system is akin to reverse gambling, says Matt Bath, the technology editor at Which?
“People bet big and hope to win small.”
Paul Deighton, chief executive of the London Organising Committee, says most people have been “generally sensible” about their ticket buying. “We have made it clear from the beginning that you should only apply for and budget for the tickets you can afford, and I think that’s what people have generally done.”
But consumer organisations beg to differ.
“I would say that everyone I’ve spoken to, it’s been the morning after the night before. They’ve all got an Olympic tickets hangover,” says Bath. “That’s the thing with lotteries, people tend to bet more than they can afford. We’re hearing stories of people putting down £2,000, £3,000, even £5,000. If they win them all, I think they’re going to be in for a massive shock.”
Many say they became caught up in the Olympic spirit. After applying for events they’d particularly like to attend, they worry that they might not get these tickets, and add less popular events.
“But these are less likely to be oversubscribed, and they are more likely to get tickets for those events,” says Bath. And it won’t be until 2012 that they can start getting rid of them.
It’s “mood” spending, says former bank manager Brian Capon, of the British Bankers’ Association. “The excitement, anticipation and desire to be part of one of the greatest international sporting events in the world focuses people’s mind on the goal rather than the consequences.”
Tickets were sold via a lottery system for the Games in Beijing and Athens too, but with one crucial difference. People were told which events they’d been allocated before having to pay for the tickets.
Organisers want to avoid scenes like this from Beijing “That’s why some events were so poorly attended,” says Bath. “The 2012 system has been created to encourage people to opt for as many tickets as possible. By taking the money first – and making the tickets only resellable through the official portal – people are committing to attend. That’s good news for the organising committee.”
There has been plenty of advice about the ticket buying process, but there has also been a lot of confusion – not least because the payment-first system is unfamiliar.
“I’ve had people saying they had no idea they couldn’t sell their unwanted tickets,” says Bath. “It may be that the Olympic committee has not been as clear as they think they’ve been. And people get caught up in the enthusiasm.”
For those in line for a hefty credit card bill, is there any recourse?
“No. The terms and conditions are all there,” says Bath. “The only thing you can do is make sure you’ve got the overdraft limit or the cash in your account to cover it. That, and hold on to any unwanted tickets and really hope you can find a buyer for them once the resale portal reopens.”
Sport, news and more 2012 informationBBC London 2012
In the meantime, he says, that money will apparently be gathering interest in the organisers’ account.
But the organisers insist that this is the right way to sell tickets. “We looked at all sorts of different ways to do this,” says Deighton. “This was the fairest possible way for giving people a chance to apply for all the tickets they might want to think about it in terms of their budgets and assess their own probabilities of getting them.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The White House has released President Barack Obama’s birth certificate, in response to persistent rumours he was not born in the US.
Mr Obama had previously released an official “certification of live birth” showing he was born in Hawaii.
But fringe “birther” theorists have insisted Mr Obama was actually born in his father’s native Kenya, making him ineligible to be president.
Recently potential Republican candidate Donald Trump has revived the rumour.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
London 2012 organisers reveal they received applications for more than 20 million tickets from 1.8 million people for the Olympic Games.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Air traffic at the airport was not affected by the killing, officials said An air traffic controller has been found stabbed to death at the EuroAirport outside Mulhouse, France, near the Swiss and German borders.
Police say the 34-year-old was found in a pool of blood in an office in the control tower that is accessible only with an identity badge.
Prosecutors have opened a murder investigation, French reports say.
The victim, a married father of one who has not been named, was a senior controller at the airport.
He was found shortly after 0800 (0600 GMT) by an employee of the airport.
Police sources said he had been stabbed in the throat, lung and chest, AFP news agency reports.
No suspects have been arrested and the murder weapon was not found at the scene.
Air traffic at the airport, which serves Basel, Switzerland, Mulhouse, France and Freiburg, Germany, was not affected, an airport spokesperson said.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The UK economy has recovered ground lost in the last quarter of 2010 but construction remains a worry The UK economy grew by 0.5% in the first three months of the year.
The Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) first estimate of economic activity shows a recovery from the 0.5% contraction recorded for the last three months of 2010.
The news alleviates fears of a so-called double dip recession.
However, the Chancellor, George Osborne, who saw the figures on Tuesday, has already warned “we are not out of the woods yet”.
Although activity in both the manufacturing and service sectors increased during the first three months of the year, construction – one of the worst hit areas in the last quarter of 2010 – was down by 4.7%.
Economists had previously warned that growth of less than 1% in the first quarter would be disappointing and raise concerns over the economy’s ability to withstand the coalition government’s austerity measures.
However, the low rate of growth is likely to ease the chance of an interest rate rise to combat inflation.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The ‘Invisible Commandos’ have been told to disarm by the new president Fighting has broken out in the Ivorian city of Abidjan between forces loyal to the new president and the “Invisible Commandos”, a rival militia.
The Invisible Commandos helped Alassane Ouattara to power and gained control of parts of Abidjan during the four-month dispute after November’s poll.
A witness told the BBC he heard gunshots in the militia’s stronghold.
A militia spokesman said they were being attacked as they were about to disarm as requested by Mr Ouattara.
Mr Ouattara’s predecessor, Laurent Gbagbo, was captured two weeks ago by pro-Ouattara forces after refusing to step down when he lost the elections.
The backbone of these forces swept down through the country from their northern bases, three months into the stalemate.
In Abidjan, they were joined by Ibrahim Coulibaly, who led the Invisible Commandos to gain control of northern parts of the city in the weeks before the main offensive against Mr Gbagbo began.
However, the two groups clashed in the city last week as Mr Coulibaly said he wanted recognition for his role in overthrowing Mr Gbagbo.
The new government says an investigation into alleged crimes committed by Mr Gbagbo and his associates has begun.
“The Republican Forces are attacking,” Felix Anoble, a spokesman for Mr Coulibaly, told AFP news agency.
Schools were told to reopen though some students and teachers did not turn up “We asked our men to disarm as demanded by the head of state. They began laying down their weapons and to my surprise we are being attacked.”
The BBC’s John James in the main city of Abidjan says one resident in the northern district of Abobo reported seeing about 10 pick-up trucks heading towards an area where Mr Coulibaly has his base.
The government of Mr Ouattara also faces resistance from fighters loyal to the former president who have refused to disarm, although several generals and senior officers have pledged their allegiance to the country’s new leader.
But the new government is now urging businesses and schools to re-open.
The Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) has ordered staff at its head office in Abidjan to report to work on Wednesday so that commercial banks can begin opening up to customers soon.
The BCEAO recognised Mr Ouattara as president after disputed polls, and cut off Mr Gbagbo’s access to treasury funds. Most banks closed in February because of this and the worsening security situation.
Our correspondent says getting the main banks open again will make a big difference to getting life back to normal across the country.
On Tuesday, schools struggled to reopen – with only small numbers of pupils returning, and the resumption of classes more difficult in schools damaged in the fighting.
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.
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Mobile phone maker Nokia has announced it will shed 4,000 jobs as part of a plan to refocus the company on smartphones.
Nokia said the majority of the job losses would be in Denmark, Finland and the UK.
The job losses will take effect from 2012.
The firm said it intended to increase its capacity for the development of Nokia smartphones based on the Windows technology.
“With this new focus, we also will face reductions in our workforce,” said Stephen Elop, Nokia president.
“This is a difficult reality, and we are working closely with our employees and partners to identify long-term re-employment programs for the talented people of Nokia.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.