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Contemporary art critics give their verdict on the Michael Jackson statue unveiled at Fulham’s Craven Cottage ground at the weekend.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Police said they expected the motorway to be closed for several hours Four lorries, a coach and four cars have collided on the M11 in Essex, closing a stretch of the motorway.
The crash happened on the northbound carriageway, between junctions eight and nine, near Stansted Airport.
Two people trapped in the coach and one person trapped in a car have now been released and are with the ambulance service.
The northbound carriageway is closed and only the hard shoulder is open on the southbound carriageway.
Emergency services were called shortly before 1000 BST.
Police said they expected the road to be closed for several hours.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney should find out on Monday if he will be punished by the FA for swearing in a 4-2 win at West Ham.
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Do atheists need their own Good Book?
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The bodies of a man and a young girl have been discovered at a house in Shropshire following a kitchen fire.
A spokesman for West Mercia Police said it was treating the deaths as unexplained.
The bodies were discovered on Sunday at about 2045 BST at a house in Briarwood, on the Brookside estate, in Telford.
The man and child were confirmed dead at the scene by paramedics after police officers forced entry and discovered evidence of an extensive kitchen fire.
Nobody else was found in the property.
The Shropshire coroner’s office has been informed and post-mortem examinations are taking place.
The bodies have not yet been formally identified.
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An Australian woman has survived a six storey fall from a parking garage in Melbourne.
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A British passenger plane has made an emergency landing in Athens following a bomb threat, officials say.
Greek fighter jets were scrambled to escort the Thomson Airways Boeing 757-200, which was on its way from Bristol to the popular resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt.
All 213 people on board the plane are said to be unharmed.
The plane is undergoing checks in a remote area of Athens International Airport, authorities there said.
The BBC’s Malcolm Brabant, in Athens, says the bomb threat was received by an Egyptian news agency and passed on to the crew of the plane.
The crew put out a mayday while over northern Greece and two F-16 jets were sent to escort it to Athens.
Once it had landed, there was an orderly evacuation and the plane was taken to a remote area of the airfield where experts were carrying out a search, our correspondent adds.
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Red Bull team boss Christian Horner plays down speculation McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton could join the team in the future.
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Katie Price said Frankie Boyle’s joke about her disabled son Harvey was “vile” Media regulator Ofcom has censured comedian Frankie Boyle and Channel 4 for broadcasting “offensive” jokes about Katie Price and her son Harvey.
Ofcom upheld 500 complaints about Boyle’s routine, broadcast in December.
It appeared to “target and mock the mental and physical disabilities” of the eight year-old, Ofcom said.
Channel 4 said it was “wholly justified in the context”. Chief executive David Abraham personally sanctioned the jokes before they were broadcast.
Katie Price was among those who complained about the comments in Boyle’s comedy series Tramadol Nights, saying they were discriminatory, offensive, demeaning and humiliating.
In response, Channel 4 said: “Nothing he says is intended as a slur on any particular community – everyone is fair game in Frankie’s eyes.”
One remark about Harvey was not “a joke about Harvey Price’s disability, or about rape or incest – it is simply absurdist satire”, Channel 4 said.
“We do not believe that any viewer would have taken this particular joke literally,” it added.
The broadcaster also said Boyle’s remarks were meant to satirise Price’s alleged “exploitation of her children for publicity purposes… her behaviour as a mother and her cavalier attitude towards relationships”.
The show was preceded by adequate warnings for the audience, the broadcaster argued, and said it had a job to “champion pioneering and distinctive voices in British comedy and bring them to a wider audience”.
But the regulator ruled that allowing the jokes to be screened was “an erroneous decision on a matter of editorial judgement on the broadcaster’s part”.
Ofcom accepted that Price and ex-husbands Alex Reid and Peter Andre had “consciously exposed their and their children’s lives to the media” and must expect to be the targets of humour and criticism.
Top Gear was cleared after complaints over jokes about Mexican people But it continued: “The fact that a public figure chooses to expose some aspects of his or her child’s life in the media does not provide broadcasters with unlimited licence to broadcast comedy that targets humour at such a child’s expense.
“This position applies even more firmly in a case in which the child is as young as eight years old, and has a number of disabilities which are specifically focussed on as the target of that intended humour.”
The ruling also said: “Ofcom was of the view that the material in question appeared to directly target and mock the mental and physical disabilities of a known eight year-old child who had not himself chosen to be in the public eye.
“As such, Ofcom found that the comments had considerable potential to be highly offensive to the audience.”
Ofcom said the second episode of Boyle’s comedy series, aired on 7 December, broke two rules in its broadcasting code.
At a recent media conference in Salford, Mr Abraham said he cleared the jokes personally, explaining: “It is all about context, but if Channel 4 isn’t going to test these boundaries then who else will?”
A Channel 4 spokesperson pointed out that Ofcom did not impose sanctions, such as a fine or an on-air apology, and did not consider it to be a fundamental failure in compliance procedures.
Ofcom cleared a further episode of Frankie Boyle’s Tramadol Nights, in which he made a joke about people with mental health problems.
The spokesperson said: “Channel 4 acknowledges Ofcom’s findings in relation to Frankie Boyle’s Tramadol Nights and his comments about Katie Price. We welcome their finding that we were not in breach of the code regarding any other sketches or jokes within the series.”
Meanwhile, Ofcom also cleared BBC Two’s Top Gear after the hosts made fun of Mexican people for being “lazy”.
The regulator said the comments were “based on negative national stereotypes and had the potential to be very offensive both to Mexican people specifically, as well as to viewers more generally”.
But it said viewers would have been familiar with the show’s “mocking, playground-style humour”, adding that “to restrict humour only to material which does not cause offence would be an unnecessary restriction of freedom of expression”.
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The Sport’s contribution to the world of journalism has reached its conclusion The Daily and Sunday Sport, those diligent exponents of tabloid journalism’s lower reaches, have folded. Their remains, it can be sensationally revealed with the aid of Photoshop, are located on the far side of the moon.
Having for nearly 20 and 25 years respectively offered a blend of punning headlines, celebrity gossip, soft pornography and, when all else failed, entirely made-up stories, the titles have gone belly, and much else besides, up.
It is an uncharacteristically low-key passing for two newspapers whose content made the Sun’s regular Page Three feature look like Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.
Building sites, mens’ locker rooms, boys’ public school dormitories and other such all-male environments may mourn their passing. Feminists and those whose who prefer their news headlines unaccompanied by depictions of the female anatomy may not.
“The internet made the necessity of shame-facedly visiting the newsagent a thing of the past for consumers of pornography”
A papparazzo skulking outside a nightclub frequented by minor celebrities in search of an “up-skirt” shot. Such was the Sport’s greatest contribution to the craft of Martha Gellhorn, Robert Capa and Sir Harold Evans.
The Sunday Sport was launched by West Ham co-owner David Sullivan in 1986, and its Daily stablemate followed five years later.
Under the editorship of Tony Livesey, both titles specialised in a rarified brand of yellow journalism and headlines such as “World War II Bomber Found on Moon”.
Mr Livesey said his lasting legacy would be a Channel 4 Cutting Edge documentary about the Sport which showed him rigorously fact-checking a story headlined: “Aliens Turned Our Son Into A Fish Finger.”
A market for such content was, clearly, out there. At its peak in 2005, the Daily Sport’s circulation stood at 189,473, while the Sunday edition reached a high in the same year of 167,473.
But friends of the Sport titles may have predicted their demise when the internet made the necessity of shame-facedly visiting the newsagent a thing of the past for consumers of pornography.
After Mr Sullivan sold up, the Sport was relaunched in April 2008. Additionally, former Liberal Democrat MP Lembit Opik was recruited to lend some of his much-respected gravitas by writing a weekly political column.
But the launch of lads mags such as Zoo and Nuts meant extra competition and owner Sport Media Group’s financial figures remained an inverse reflection of those of its female models.
No flowers.
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The idea of a flat-rate state pension has been discussed for some months Details of a new flat-rate state pension thought to be worth £155-a-week are due to be unveiled later on Monday.
It will replace existing means-tested arrangements for new, but not existing, pensioners from 2015 or 2016.
The current full state pension is £97.65-a-week, but is topped up to ensure a minimum income of £132.60.
This is to be replaced by a new £140 flat rate, with inflation expected to push this up to £155 by the time it comes into effect.
“It is assumed that inflation-linked increases will take the means-tested guarantee up to around £155 by the middle years of this decade,” said the BBC’s chief economics correspondent, Hugh Pym.
“The government may decide to bring in the new single pension at a slightly higher level.”
Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan-Smith has also indicated that the retirement age will rise to 66 for both men and women by 2020, as European law requires the same age for both genders.
Under current arrangements, a minimum income guarantee also ensures couples get £202.40 a week through the means-tested pensions credit.
Plans for a universal, flat-rate state pension have been discussed for a number of weeks.
Final confirmation of the government’s intentions was given in Chancellor George Osborne’s Budget on 23 March.
He said that the flat-rate pension would only be available for new pensioners reaching state pension age, rather than the millions of existing pensioners.
The government wants to simplify the state pension.
The planned reform would mean the state second pension would be abolished, although the government would honour contributions that had already been made ahead of the change.
It would also bring “contracting out” arrangements to an end, where some people pay lower National Insurance contributions because their second state pension is contracted out to their company final salary pension scheme.
Details of how they would be affected are likely to be revealed in the government’s full plans.
More than one-and-a-half million eligible pensioners do not claim pension credit, and the government believes that such individual losses of entitlement would not occur under a simpler flat-rate system.
However, there is likely to be debate about the fairness of a flat rate that makes no distinction between poor and wealthy pensioners.
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Why renewables are ‘safer and cheaper’ than nuclear power
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A man is being questioned over the murder of his mother and the attempted murder of his brother.
The 52-year-old woman was killed, and her 31-year-old son was injured, after they were stabbed in Ballymena on Sunday.
Her 33-year-old son was arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder.
Police were called to the house at Rossburn Manor in the town at about 1230 BST.
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Teachers have the power to use ‘reasonable force’ to separate fighting pupils England’s schools watchdog should carry out more no-notice inspections to stop schools hiding bad behaviour, the Education Secretary has said.
Launching new guidelines on school discipline, Michael Gove said some schools asked unruly pupils to stay at home when Ofsted inspectors were due.
The guidance clarifies teachers’ powers to restrain unruly pupils and search them for banned items.
One union backed moves on false pupil allegations, but raised other fears.
Mr Gove said schools faced a “real behaviour problem”, with almost 1,000 children in England suspended every school day for abuse and assault.
He said he had been told by teachers that “weak teachers are invited to stay at home” during Ofsted inspections.
“We make sure disruptive pupils don’t come in, and the best teachers are on corridor duty. We put on our best face for inspections,” he said teachers had told him.
A Department for Education spokesman said more no-notice inspections were needed in “the small number of schools with very bad behaviour problems”.
“If we don’t tackle this, we won’t tackle the very wide and damaging gap in performance between the best and worst schools – a gap that is creating an unemployment crisis for the future,” the spokesman added.
Since September 2009, Ofsted has carried out only five full no-notice inspections, but it is currently consulting on proposals to alter the way it does school inspections.
The school discipline guidance has been slimmed down from 600 pages to just 50, and has been published in draft form for consultation.
The Department for Education says the old document “left teachers confused about their powers”, and the updated version “unequivocally restores adult authority to the classroom”.
The new version strengthens advice on when head teachers’ should consider pressing charges if pupils or others make false allegations against teachers.
It says the default position when a teacher is accused of misconduct in an incident should be to assume the teacher has behaved reasonably – unless the complainant can show that a teacher has behaved unreasonably.
Schools should also not automatically suspend teachers accused of using force unreasonably and malicious allegations should not be included in employment records, the guidance says.
The guidance also outlines teachers’ powers included in the Education Bill currently going through parliament, which will:
Extend powers to search pupils for any items that are banned by school rules such as mobile phones, alcohol, illegal drugs and stolen propertyStop appeals panels sending excluded children back to the school from which they were excludedGive teachers anonymity when facing allegationsRemove the requirement on schools to give parents 24 hours’ notice of detention
The documents also advise against “no touch” policies in schools, stressing that teachers can legally use “reasonable force” to restrain pupils.
Education Secretary Michael Gove has also appointed head teacher Charlie Taylor as a behaviour adviser.
Mr Taylor, currently a head teacher at a London school for children with behavioural, emotional and social difficulties, is tasked with improving teacher training on school discipline, and working with the police to speed up investigations into allegations against teachers.
“For far too long, teachers have been buried under guidance and reports on how to tackle bad behaviour. I am determined to make sure I help schools put policy into practice,” he said.
The National Union of Teachers said it welcomed the “common sense approach” of the new guidance on false allegations, but said head teachers were unlikely to want to “criminalise” young people who had wrongly accused a teacher.
But it warned that the extended powers for teachers could put pressure on schools and their staff.
“Teachers are generally reluctant to take on such ‘policing’ roles – particularly given the potential for damage to productive relationships between staff and young people; and the increased potential for litigation if a member of staff chooses or fails to search a pupil who later commits an offence,” said general secretary Christine Blower.
The Nasuwt teaching union has welcomed the introduction of anonymity for teachers facing allegations.
But it has warned that while same-day detentions and clarity around the use of reasonable force are “superficially attractive” they “have the potential to bring schools and teachers into serious conflict with parents and the law”.
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A suspicious object was discovered beneath a vehicle in Tennent Street A suspicious object has been found beneath a vehicle close to a police station in north Belfast.
Army bomb experts are examining the object in Tennent Street.
Homes and businesses in the area are being evacuated and the road is closed to motorists. The police station is still operational.
Woodvale Community Centre in Ohio Street is being made available to those affected by the alert.
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