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Brazil’s biggest bank – the state-owned Banco do Brasil – is sued for allegedly funding illegal deforestation in the Amazon.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The referendum on 5 May will be the first across the whole of the UK since 1975 The campaign for a Yes vote in the referendum on changing the way MPs are elected is being officially launched.
Celebrities including comedian Eddie Izzard and former athlete Kriss Akabusi will be at the central London event – being billed as “politician-free”.
On Tuesday Labour leader Ed Miliband and senior Lib Dems urged people to back the “fairer” AV system on 5 May.
The No campaign, launched in February, says AV would mean some people’s votes became worth more than other people’s.
Voters across the UK are being asked whether they want keep the current “first-past-the-post-system” for electing MPs to Westminster or change to the alternative vote (AV) method where candidates are ranked by preference.
The Yes campaign says the alternative vote would ensure MPs secured at least 50% of the votes in their constituency.
At the moment MPs are elected by the first-past-the-post system, where the candidate getting the most votes in a constituency is elected.
On 5 May all registered UK voters will be able to vote Yes or No on whether to change the way MPs are elected to the alternative vote system.
Under the alternative vote system, voters rank candidates in their constituency in order of preference.
Anyone getting more than 50% of first-preference votes is elected.
If no-one gets 50% of votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and their backers’ second choices allocated to those remaining.
This process continues until one candidate has at least 50% of all votes in that round.
Q&A: alternative vote referendum What is the alternative vote? AV poll: Where parties stand
Supporters argue it will provide voters with more choice, force candidates to appeal to a broader section of the public and work harder to get elected.
Those who oppose change say the current system generally leads to stable government and has historically reflected the will of the public in that unpopular governments have been voted out.
They argue it is straightforward and easy to understand, and other systems are more likely to produce indecisive outcomes.
The campaign in favour of change claims it is a people’s movement and has secured the backing of celebrities for the official launch event instead of using politicians.
Messages of support have been sent by broadcaster Stephen Fry and actor John Cleese.
On Tuesday, Mr Miliband shared a platform with leading Lib Dems including former leader Charles Kennedy, party president Tim Farron and Baroness Williams, as well as Green Party leader Caroline Lucas, to urge a Yes vote.
However, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg was on a trade and diplomatic mission to South America instead.
The Labour leader has urged Mr Clegg to “lie low” during the Yes campaign, given public anger towards the deputy prime minister over student tuition fees and public sector cuts.
Mr Miliband was joined by shadow cabinet colleagues Tessa Jowell and John Denham, but senior Labour figures such as former cabinet members Margaret Beckett and John Prescott are campaigning for a No vote.
At the launch of the No vote, campaign director Matthew Elliott put the total cost of changing to AV at £250m – a figure disputed by supporters of the system.
Under the current Westminster electoral system, voters place a cross next to their preferred candidate. Under the alternative vote they would rank candidates in order of preference.
If no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and their backers’ second choices allocated to those remaining, with process continuing until one candidate has more than half the votes in that round.
A separate advertising campaign to raise awareness of the referendum was launched on Friday.
The adverts for television, radio and newspapers will highlight an Electoral Commission information booklet being sent to all households.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Coastguards in Japan have rescued a dog from the top of a house washed out to sea by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami that hit the north-east coast of the country three weeks ago.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The radiation from airport full body security scanners is negligible and poses no real threat to health, say experts.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Thusha Kamaleswaran remains critically ill A man has been charged with two counts of attempted murder following the shooting of a five-year-old girl and a man in a south London shop.
Anthony McCalla, 19, of Streatham, is charged over the shooting of Thusha Kamaleswaran and bystander Roshan Selvakumar, 35, in Stockwell.
He is due before Camberwell Green Magistrates’ Court on Saturday.
A 14-year-old boy was arrested on Friday on suspicion of attempted murder and is currently in custody.
The victims are both Sri Lankan but unrelated.
Police said Thusha remained in a “critical but stable” condition in hospital. Mr Selvakumar’s condition is described as “stable”.
Thusha was hit in the chest and Mr Selvakumar suffered a head wound as two youths cowered in the store after being chased by three other youths on bicycles.
Detectives revealed Thusha’s 12-year-old brother, three-year-old sister and mother had been in the shop in Stockwell but were unhurt during the Tuesday evening shooting.
Crimestoppers has been offering a £50,000 reward for information leading to the capture of those behind the shooting.
A teenager targeted by gangsters who accidentally shot the two victims came out of hiding after a police appeal.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The main parties will take to the streets on the second weekend of campaigning The main political parties are campaigning in Scotland’s biggest cities, as the battle for Holyrood continues ahead of the 5 May election.
SNP deputy leader Nicola Sturgeon and her Labour rivals will be hitting the streets of Glasgow, while the Lib Dems will be out in Edinburgh.
The Conservatives’ Annabel Goldie is campaigning in Renfrewshire.
Meanwhile, the Greens’ Patrick Harvie is taking part in a head-to-head with environmental writer George Monbiot.
The two will slog it out on the issue of nuclear during an event at the Glasgow International Comedy Festival, after Mr Monbiot declared his support for nuclear power in the wake of Japan’s Fukushima disaster.
Elsewhere, Miss Sturgeon will use Mother’s Day to highlight the SNP’s support for families in tough times, while Labour candidates will be meeting shoppers on Glasgow’s Sauchiehall Street.
Liberal Democrats in Edinburgh will be highlighting the party’s aims to support jobs, local services and restoring Scotland’s reputation for excellence in education.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The report urges police to rethink the way they tackle gang activity The police view of how gangs operate is “outdated and stereotypical”, according to a study by the University of Manchester.
Researchers worked with six gangs for three years in an unnamed UK city.
They claimed gangs are moving their drug-dealing off the streets and on to the internet and they urged police to update their approach.
The Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) said it welcomed any new research into gang culture.
The study by the University of Manchester research team is published in a book called Youth in Crisis.
The team spoke to members of six gangs but, because of a commitment given to protect their identities, said it was unable to say in which city they operated.
One of the report’s authors, Dr Judith Aldridge, said the modern policing of gangs was based on an outdated assumption that gangs were “territorial, street-based entities”.
“Actually, the gangs we studied had greater mobility and fluidity than that: members resided in areas across the city and even beyond the city’s boundaries,” she said.
The research also questioned the effectiveness of gang injunctions, dubbed “Gangbos”, aimed at stopping gang members congregating in public places.
Dr Aldridge claimed the policing of public areas was in fact driving gangs “towards a less conspicuous street orientation” and drug-dealing and other criminal activity were moving online.
The view that gangs regularly fight turf wars to protect drug-dealing areas was also questioned in the report.
Gang members “tended not to protect or guard territory and rarely fought over control of territories”, the study found.
“Of those young people deemed to be ‘gang associated’, I would estimate that less than 10% would have the means to use a firearm”
Dr Rob Ralphs Researcher and lecturer
Researcher Dr Junajo Medina added that police wrongly treated new spray-painting of gang names as evidence of gang activity.
“We found no evidence that graffiti was symbolic of gang identity in any meaningful sense for young people actually in gangs.”
Fellow researcher Dr Rob Ralphs said the popular view that gang members could buy guns cheaply was also a “misconception”.
He said firearms were “scarce and cost between £2,000 and £4,000”.
“Of those young people deemed to be ‘gang associated’, I would estimate that less than 10% would have the means to use a firearm,” he said.
The report concluded that police should rethink “outdated and stereotypical” assumptions about the way gangs operate if they are to reduce crime.
A spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers [Acpo] said: “Police forces work hard to reduce the ability of gangs to harm our communities, and we are continually looking to improve the service we provide.
“Acpo welcomes any new research that helps us to understand gang culture, and we will study this research carefully.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Richard Alvin says he received vastly different quotes What is the difference between a publican and a landlord? Not much to most of us maybe, but the insurance industry charges the publican more for car insurance.
When insurers decide how much to charge a driver for their premium, they look at certain factors to decide the level of risk.
This includes the applicant’s age, where they live and their occupation.
But small changes in how the applicant describes their job can make a real difference in how much that person ends up paying.
Richard Alvin is a journalist by trade. He is also the group managing director of a publishing company.
He says they are both equally valid ways of describing what he does.
But there is a hefty gap in the premiums he would get charged for each job. He has got a two-seater sports car, and his insurance is due for renewal.
So he carried out two different searches on price comparison sites.
Source: Confused.com. Assumptions include a 33-year-old woman, driving a BMW, with 15 years of driving experience and 10 years of no claims bonus.
They were identical apart from one key fact. When he said he was a journalist, some insurers did not want to insure him at all. The cheapest quote he says he found was £829.14.
So he tried again. This time he said he was a managing director. He had many more offers to pick from, and the cheapest he says he found was £496.08.
That 40% saving is because insurance companies consider insuring those who work in the media as carrying a greater risk.
Insurers have spent years building up data on different occupations, and how likely they are to make expensive claims on their policies.
Much of it is common sense. For example, plumbers are likely to drive a lot, and have expensive kit in their cars. So, they pay comparatively high premiums.
On the other hand, teachers and office workers are seen as a safer bet.
However, two job descriptions can seem to be almost identical, but still have different premiums.
Price comparison website Confused.com has worked out costs for publicans and landlords on licensed premises. The website checked the difference assuming that both quotes were for a 33-year-old woman, driving a BMW, with 15 years of driving experience and 10 years of no claims bonus.
The average annual car insurance quote for a publican was £331.52, but for a landlord it was £314.64. It was a similar story for barristers. They were quoted about £30 more than lawyers.
And if someone describes themselves as a TV or radio broadcaster, they could end up being quoted an average of £71.02 more than a TV announcer.
Mr Alvin thinks the insurance industry has not moved with the times.
“I was able to do the research, and save myself about £400 on my car insurance. But I think the insurers need to actually look and check the classifications are fit for purpose in today’s society,” he says.
The Association of British Insurers (ABI) admits it is true that consumers can save themselves some money by thinking very carefully about how they describe their job.
People may risk their claims with false information, Emma Parker says “Tweaking sometimes is acceptable, providing you are not misleading the insurer,” says ABI spokesman Malcolm Tarling.
“Insurers constantly look to update the occupations they take into account. They realise that jobs move on, technology moves on and what people do changes over time.
“So we look to ensure the categories we use for assessing motor insurance reflect the real world.”
Those looking to renew their car insurance should put some thought into what they write in the job title box, and check they are fully covered, experts say.
The Financial Ombudsman Service says it sees cases from consumers who are upset when they find their claim is not going to be paid because of the way they described their job.
“If you have been upfront with the way you described what you do, then the insurance company should pay up. But if you have deliberately misled them, it is unlikely you will be covered,” says spokeswoman Emma Parker.
In law, an attempt to cheat an insurance company is fraud. If a customer provides the insurer with false information, the customer could be added to a fraud list, and then would struggle to get any cover in the future.
Some insurers will ask people who do more than one job to tell them about the one which employs them for the most hours.
Anyone with doubts should check with their insurance company.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Last year, Metro Bank became the first new UK bank with High Street branches in over 100 years Retail banking in the UK is not competitive enough, a Commons Treasury Committee report has concluded.
The cross-party group of MPs said there was a lack of price transparency between current accounts at different banks and it was too difficult for customers to move their accounts.
The committee said similar barriers existed for small business customers.
The British Bankers’ Association said the industry was working with regulators to improve competition.
The committee spoke to a range of interested parties, including top industry figures including the former Lloyds chief executive Eric Daniels, Barclays boss Bob Diamond and Royal Bank of Scotland head Stephen Hester.
It also heard from smaller providers and new entrants, along with regulators and experts.
Committee chairman Andrew Tyrie said: “The CEOs (chief executive officers) of the large incumbents told the committee UK retail banking was enormously competitive, but a far larger range of witnesses described the industry as close to an oligopoly.”
“We could not but conclude from this that competition in the UK retail banking market is not strong enough”
Andrew Tyrie Treasury Committee chairman
He said the impact on competition of part-nationalised Lloyds, which took ownership of the Halifax during the banking crisis had not been assessed and might be harming competition.
He said for competition to be effective, customers needed to know what they were buying, how much they were paying and to be able to transfer their custom from one provider to another without risk.
Mr Tyrie added: “We could not but conclude from this that competition in the UK retail banking market is not strong enough.”
The MPs say they are pleased that the Independent Commission on Banking may propose that banks put strong firewalls between their retail and investment banking operations. This would allow one part of a mega bank to fail without needing to be bailed out by the state.
BBC business editor Robert Peston said this was “the last thing the banks themselves want to hear, because they think it will put them at a massive disadvantage compared with their overseas rivals”.
The committee also concluded that “so-called free banking is not free”.
It said the term “free-in-credit banking” was a misnomer, given that consumers with positive balances paid through interest foregone.
It said that customers on lower incomes paid proportionately more in overdraft fees, meaning they often ended up subsidising higher-earning customers.
It said these cross-subsidies were not necessarily wrong, but made making comparisons on charges difficult.
On small businesses, the committee said too often the focus had been simply on credit and its availability.
It said competition in this area was a concern, but that good customer service could be even more important for small and medium sized enterprises.
In 2000, a government-sponsored report by former telecoms regulator Don Cruickshank highlighted the problems in comparing prices between banks.
The Treasury Committee says that little has changed in this regard. In fact, the problem has been compounded by greater concentration in the banking sector because of mergers brought about by the financial crisis.
However, the British Bankers’ Association said: “Straightforward account switching and transparent fees and charges are important for competition and for customers, so they know where they stand and are able to choose.
Lloyds’ impact on competition has not been assessed – it is 41%-owned by the UK government “The industry is working closely with the Office of Fair Trading on both of these.”
The report also notes the difficulty in breaking into the UK retail market for new entrants.
In July 2010, Metro Bank became the first new UK bank with branches on the High Street in more than 100 years.
The committee said that the importance of the local branch to UK customers meant that any bank without an extensive network of branches was at competitive disadvantage.
The Treasury Committee called on the government to make competition a primary objective of the new regulatory body, the Financial Conduct Authority.
Sarah Brooks, head of financial services at Consumer Focus, said: “‘The Treasury Committee has recognised what consumers have long known.
“The banking sector is not sufficiently competitive and is failing many of its customers.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The BBC’s Christian Fraser visits a hospital in the rebel-held city of Benghazi, where patients and doctors have been affected
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
At least seven people have been killed in Afghanistan during an attack on a UN compound in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif, officials say.
The violence occurred during a protest over the burning of the Koran by a pastor in a US church last month.
The protesters in Mazar-e Sharif shouted “Death to the USA, Death to Israel” as they gathered after Friday prayers.
Some reports say foreign workers were among those killed.
On 20 March, Pastor Wayne Sapp set light to a copy of the Koran at a church in Florida.
The burning took place in the presence of Terry Jones, another US pastor who last year drew condemnation over his aborted plan to burn the Koran on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
London Underground said the train involved in Thursday night’s incident was taken out of service Union leaders have said delays were caused to Tube passengers after some train drivers refused to pick them up over safety fears about doors.
The RMT said the action followed concerns over safety on some Piccadilly Line trains.
Transport for London (TfL) said the issues were resolved earlier and normal services had resumed.
However, it said the Piccadilly Line had been affected by a signal failure on Friday.
TfL said the delays had been downgraded to minor on Friday evening.
The RMT said the action, involving up to 25 drivers, followed an incident on Thursday night near to Piccadilly Circus where doors did not close properly.
London Underground said the train involved in Thursday’s incident was taken out of service.
It said it had tested the doors on the rest of its train fleet and no failures were found.
A TfL spokesperson said: “Last night, just before 8pm, a driver on a Piccadilly Line train at Piccadilly Circus station discovered that two doors on the last carriage did not close correctly as the train started to move along the platform at slow speed.
“The safety system operated and the driver followed the correct safety procedures.
“The passengers were all safely escorted off the train, which was immediately taken out of service pending a full investigation.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
John Floyd Thomas Jr is a former insurance claims adjuster in California A man known as the “Westside rapist”, who terrorised Los Angeles suburbs in the 1970s, has been jailed for life on seven murder counts.
John Floyd Thomas, 74, pleaded guilty on Friday and was sentenced to seven life terms, with no chance of parole.
Thomas was charged in 2009 after new DNA testing linked him to attacks in which middle-aged and elderly women were raped and choked in their homes.
Police have said they believe he may be responsible for as many as 30 killings.
Thomas, a former state insurance claims adjuster, had previously spent time in prison for sexual crimes, and it was because of those convictions that his DNA was taken in 2008 as part of a process to collect samples from sex offenders.
That testing led California investigators to conclude he was the notorious Westside rapist, who carried out a series of rapes and killings of older women in two waves, in the 1970s and 1980s.
At the time he was charged, police said the attacks had stopped in 1978 – the year Thomas went back to prison for the rape of a woman in Pasadena. They started again in 1983, the year he was released.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Rebels are guarding the road to the west of Ajdabiya Seven civilians died and 25 were hurt in a coalition air strike on a pro-Gaddafi convoy in eastern Libya, a doctor there has told the BBC.
Dr Suleiman Refardi said Wednesday’s raid happened in the village of Zawia el Argobe, 15km (9 miles) from Brega.
The strike hit a truck carrying ammunition, but the resulting explosion destroyed two nearby homes.
All the dead were between the ages of 12 and 20, Dr Refardi said. Nato says it is investigating the claim.
The news comes as opposition leader Mustafa Abdul Jalil said the rebels would agree to a ceasefire if Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s troops withdraw from cities.
“We agree on a ceasefire on the condition that our brothers in the western cities have freedom of expression and also that the forces that are besieging the cities withdraw,” he told a news conference in the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi.
Dr Refardi told the BBC that Wednesday’s coalition air strike hit a pro-Gaddafi ammunition truck and trailer in a street in Zawia el Argobe.
The resulting explosion caused a deadly hail of shrapnel, he said.
Four of the dead were female, including three children from the same family, aged between 12 and 16, the BBC’s Ben Brown reports from Brega.
Three boys, aged between 14 and 20, were also killed.
Nato officials told the BBC they were making inquiries “down our operations chain to find out if indeed there is any information on the operation side that would support this claim”.
Meanwhile, the BBC’s Wyre Davies in Ajdabiya says rebel forces there are pressing on to the frontline around the oil town of Brega.
Plenty of enthusiastic, if disorganised, insurgents are driving through in pick-up trucks with heavy duty machine guns mounted on the back, he reports.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
At least seven people have been killed in Afghanistan during an attack on a UN compound in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif, officials say.
The violence occurred during a protest over the burning of the Koran by a pastor in a US church last month.
The protesters in Mazar-e Sharif shouted “Death to the USA, Death to Israel” as they gathered after Friday prayers.
Some reports say foreign workers were among those killed.
On 20 March, Pastor Wayne Sapp set light to a copy of the Koran at a church in Florida.
The burning took place in the presence of Terry Jones, another US pastor who last year drew condemnation over his aborted plan to burn the Koran on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.