Category: news

Websites deemed to be helping people infringe copyright could be blocked under plans being considered by the government.

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Black British managerial hopefuls should be interviewed for vacant posts as of right to tackle discrimination in football, says players’ union boss to Gordon Taylor.

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Vodafone has expanded quickly in India, in part by buying rivals’ operations

Vodafone is to pay its local partner, Essar Group, $5bn (£3.1bn) to buy them out of their Indian joint venture.

The phone giant’s decision to exercise its option to purchase Essar’s 33% stake was widely expected.

It leaves Vodafone holding 75% of the business, giving it a majority stake for the first time, although Indian foreign ownership rules will force the UK firm to reduce that to 74%.

It also ends a relationship with Essar that had become increasingly strained.

The two firms had clashed publicly over plans by Essar to reorganise its ownership of the Indian business in a way that Vodafone claimed would not value the company correctly.

Vodafone has faced a string of problems since entering the Indian market in 2007, including a £2.3bn write-down – 25% of the business’s value – due to rising spectrum costs, and a disputed $2.5bn tax bill from the Indian authorities.

The buyout will be completed by November, according to a statement on Vodafone’s website.

The company will need to reduce its stake before then, in order to comply with Indian rules, and may do so via a partial stock flotation.

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Mr Miliband will highlight the financial impact of council cuts as he launches Labour’s campaign

Ed Miliband is to launch Labour’s campaign for council elections in England, saying the party will be the “first line of defence” against cuts.

The Labour leader will argue that local authority budget cuts will hit the poorest communities hardest and his party will stand up for those affected.

David Cameron told Conservative MPs on Wednesday they could win the “big argument” over the extent and speed of coalition plans to cut the deficit.

Voters go to the polls on 5 May.

More than 9,500 council seats will be contested in 279 local authorities across England, on the same day as devolved elections in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and a referendum on the future of the UK electoral system.

Although Labour has won both by-elections held since Mr Miliband became leader in September, next month’s polls will be the first across-the-board national test of his performance.

Arguing that reductions in councils’ spending power this year will be equivalent to a £182 cut for every two-parent household with children, Mr Miliband and other senior Labour figures will argue that “families in every part of the country” will be worse off as a result.

“Cuts designed by David Cameron and Nick Clegg are coming direct from Downing Street to your street,” Mr Miliband is expected to say.

Under plans announced in October, local authority budgets will fall by 28% over the next four years.

Ministers say councils can cut back on bureaucracy and procurement costs to mitigate the impact on core services used by the public and stress they are providing transitional funding for the first two years for the most affected councils.

Labour, who say this funding will provide only a “small cushion” for a short while, argue that councils are being forced to “frontload” cuts to services into the first two years. And they say town halls in more deprived parts of the country are being unfairly treated.

“Areas with the greatest need are being asked to bear the greatest burden,” Mr Miliband is expected to add. “The worst-off areas are being hit the hardest while the average family will be hit much harder than people in David Cameron’s constituency.

“Labour will be your community’s first line of defence against the damage being done by a Conservative-led government and their Liberal Democrat allies.”

He will add: “Labour launches our election campaign with a clear pledge to people across the country: we will be your voice in tough times.”

The government has accused Labour of having no concrete plan to deal with the UK’s record peacetime deficit while stressing steps it is taking to help people with rising living costs – such as ensuring no council tax payer in England will see a rise in their bills this year.

Addressing a meeting of Tory MPs on Wednesday evening, Mr Cameron said they should be confident that they could win the key economic argument about the deficit and the pace of cuts.

The prime minister pledged to spend three days a week campaigning ahead of May’s poll and urged MPs to campaign “hard locally”.

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has urged his party to “hold its nerve” ahead of the elections, saying they are taking difficult decisions in the national interest and will be rewarded in the long term.

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Widnes win back their Super League place for the first time since 2005 – but Halifax are still in the running for a licence.

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Scrap coins were said to be cashed in as genuine, damaged money

Police in Germany have arrested six people – four of them ethnic Chinese – suspected of cashing in invalid euro coins worth about 6m euros (£5.3m).

Broken coins are believed to have been sold to buyers in China as scrap metal, then welded back together, flown back to Germany and exchanged for banknotes at the Bundesbank – the central bank.

The Bundesbank exchanges damaged euro coins for banknotes at face value.

Police carried out raids in Frankfurt and three other central German towns.

A statement from the Hessen state prosecutor’s office on Thursday said Bundesbank employees were not under suspicion.

The suspects are those who allegedly handed in the bags of damaged one- and two-euro coins at the Bundesbank, receiving their face value in return.

Some genuine coins were reportedly mixed in with the forgeries, in order to pass the bank’s visual controls.

The statement said the Bundesbank is the only bank in Europe that reimburses damaged euro coins at face value.

The damaged coins have to be handed in using “safebags” that can be bought on the internet. Each bag is designed to hold 1,000 euros’ worth of coins.

The indictment says the suspects were helped by four flight attendants who managed to bring forged coins into Germany because they were not subject to baggage weight restrictions.

The elaborate operation, involving 29 tonnes of coins, allegedly took place from 2007 to November 2010.

The raids in Frankfurt, Offenbach, Fulda and Moerfelden-Walldorf resulted in the seizure of some three tonnes of broken coins, a coin-welding machine and computers.

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Both Aniston (left) and Moore (centre) have directed short films in the past

Jennifer Aniston, Demi Moore and singer Alicia Keys are to direct short films about breast cancer, due to be aired on US cable network Lifetime.

Their work will be featured in Project Five, a collection of short films that will show the effects of the illness on women’s relationships.

Patty Jenkins, who made the 2003 film Monster, will direct the fourth film, with a fifth director to be announced.

Both Aniston and Moore have previously directed short films.

Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman is overseeing the project, to air on Lifetime later this year.

The channel made headlines recently by airing a film about Amanda Knox, the US student jailed in Italy for the 2007 killing of Meredith Kercher.

Next month the broadcaster will air a film about Prince William’s courtship of Kate Middleton.

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Tilikum (right) is back impressing the crowds, though new rules forbid trainers from getting in the water with him or other orcas

A killer whale that drowned its trainer has returned to public performances at SeaWorld in Florida.

Dawn Brancheau died in February 2010 after the whale, named Tilikum, dragged her underwater by her hair and repeatedly struck her.

SeaWorld officials said taking part in shows was important for the 12,000lb (5,454kg) orca bull’s health.

But new safety rules mean the park’s trainers can no longer enter the water to perform tricks with the whales.

The trainers now stand behind metal bars at the edge of the pool, occasionally stroking the whales and hand feeding them.

The park’s animal training curator, Kelly Flaherty Clark, said the decision to return Tilikum to the “Believe” shows had been made in the whale’s interests.

“Participating in shows is just a portion of Tilikum’s day, but we feel it is an important component of his physical, social and mental enrichment,” he said in a statement.

“He has been regularly interacting with his trainers and the other whales for purposes of training, exercise and social and mental stimulation, and has enjoyed access to all of the pools in the Shamu Stadium complex.”

The investigation into Ms Brancheau’s death ruled that she died from drowning and traumatic injuries, inflicted as she performed with Tilikum in front of an audience.

The whale has also been linked to two other deaths.

An inquest into the 1991 death of a trainer in Canada ruled Tilikum and two other whales had prevented her from leaving their tank after she fell in.

And at SeaWorld Orlando, in 1999, a 27-year-old man was found dead alongside the whale.

An inquest ruled that he had died of hypothermia, but officials also said it appeared Tilikum had bitten the man and torn off his trunks, apparently believing he was a toy to play with.

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Former South African rugby star Joseph Ntshongwana has appeared in court for allegedly hacking three men to death with an axe.

The killings are said to have been to avenge the gang-rape and HIV-infection of his daughter, local reports say.

Mr Ntshongwana, who appeared in a packed Durban court, was not asked to plead to three charges of murder, one of attempted murder and one of assault.

He is a former flanker for 2010 national champions Blue Bulls.

At least one of the bodies was decapitated and the head found in a dustbin almost 2km (1 mile) away.

Another victim’s head was left hanging “by a nerve”, police said.

Details of the third man killed have not been released.

“As the axe came down towards my head, I ducked and it scratched my stomach,” said survivor, Khangelani Mdluli, 27, reports Cape Argus newspaper.

Police have alleged that Mr Ntshongwana stalked his victims over several days in and around townships near Durban before killing them.

The police cannot confirm that his daughter was raped, saying that may be investigated later on.

Mr Ntshongwana has been remanded in police custody and is due back in court on 7 April for a bail hearing.

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How gravity differs across Planet Earth. Video courtesy ESA

It looks like a giant potato in space.

And yet, the information in this model is the sharpest view we have of how gravity varies across the Earth.

The globe has been released by the team working on Europe’s Goce satellite.

It is a highly exaggerated rendering, but it neatly illustrates how the tug we feel from the mass of rock under our feet is not the same in every location.

Gravity is strongest in yellow areas; it is weakest in blue ones.

Scientists say the data gathered by the super-sleek space probe is bringing a step change in our understanding of the force that pulls us downwards and the way it is shaping some key processes on Earth.

Chief among these new insights is a clearer view of how the oceans are moving and how they redistribute the heat from the Sun around the world – information that is paramount to climate studies.

Those interested in earthquakes are also poring over the Goce results. The giant jolts that struck Japan last month and Chile last year occurred because huge masses of rock suddenly moved. Goce should reveal a three-dimensional view of what was going on inside the Earth.

“Even though these quakes resulted from big movements in the Earth, at the altitude of the satellite the signals are very small. But we should still seem them in the data,” said Dr Johannes Bouman from the German Geodetic Research Institute (DGFI).

Built from Goce data: To understand how ocean currents move you need to understand the role of gravity

Technically speaking, the model at the top of this page is what researchers refer to as a geoid.

It is not the easiest of concepts to grasp, but essentially it describes the “level” surface on an idealised world.

Look at the potato and its slopes. Put simply, the surface which traces the lumps and bumps is where the pull of gravity is the same.

Described another way, if you were to place a ball anywhere on this potato, it would not roll because, from the ball’s perspective, there is no “up” or “down” on the undulating surface.

Goce flies lower than any other scientific satellite

According to this slightly bizarre way of viewing things, a boat off the coast of Europe (bright yellow) can sit 180m “higher” than a boat in the middle of the Indian Ocean (deep blue) and still be on the same level plain.

But this is the trick gravity plays on Earth because the space rock on which we live is not a perfect sphere and its mass is not evenly distributed.

The Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer (Goce) was launched in March 2009.

It flies pole to pole at an altitude of just 254.9km – the lowest orbit of any research satellite in operation today.

The spacecraft carries three pairs of precision-built platinum blocks inside its gradiometer instrument that sense accelerations which are as small as 1 part in 10,000,000,000,000 of the gravity experienced on Earth.

This allows it to map the almost imperceptible differences in the pull exerted by the mass of the planet from one place to the next – from the great mountain ranges to the deepest ocean trenches.

An initial two months of observations were fashioned into a geoid that was released in June last year. The latest version, released in Munich at a workshop for Goce scientists, includes an additional four months of data. Each release should bring an improvement in quality.

“The more data we add, the more we are able to suppress the noise in the solutions, and the errors scale down,” said Dr Rune Floberghagen, the European Space Agency’s Goce mission manager. “And of course the more precisely you know the geoid, the better the science you can do using the geoid.

“We are seeing completely new information in areas like the Himalayas, the Andes mountain range, and in Antarctica particularly – the whole continent is desperate for better gravity field information, which we are now providing.”

The mission has funding up until the end of 2012 when, like all European Space Agency Earth observation missions, it must seek further financial support from member states to continue.

Goce has delivered the data promised in its primary mission – some 14 months of observations in total – but researchers would like to see it fly for as long as is possible.

Because it flies so low in the sky – a requirement of being able to sense gravity signals which are incredibly weak – it needs an engine to push it forwards through the wisps of atmosphere still present at its altitude.

Without this engine, Goce would rapidly fall from the sky. But the mission team reported here in Munich that Goce probably has sufficient propellant onboard to drive its engine until deep into 2014.

GOCE SPACECRAFT PROBES GRAVITY FIELD VARIATIONS

1. Earth is a slightly flattened sphere – it is ellipsoidal in shape2. Goce senses tiny variations in the pull of gravity over Earth3. The data is used to construct an idealised surface, or geoid4. It traces gravity of equal ‘potential’; balls won’t roll on its ‘slopes’5. It is the shape the oceans would take without winds and currents6. So, comparing sea level and geoid data reveals ocean behaviour7. Gravity changes can betray magma movements under volcanoes8. A precise geoid underpins a universal height system for the world9. Gravity data can also reveal how much mass is lost by ice sheets

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David Norgrove says grandparents’ access to children should be part of a parenting agreement

Agreements allowing grandparents access to their grandchildren after parents split up are being proposed in a review of the law in England and Wales.

The family justice review will suggest a “statement in law” about the importance of both parents having a relationship with their children.

The interim report said such agreements should also “reinforce the importance of a relationship with grandparents”.

Report author David Norgrove said the interests of children was the priority.

Currently grandparents have no contact rights in law, and the review’s recommendations stop short of giving them any legal right of access.

Mr Norgrove said the law was “too blunt an instrument” and giving grandparents such rights could damage the children involved.

A public consultation on these proposals is now under way, while the review will make its final recommendations in the autumn.

The review’s panel spent a year speaking to children, parents and those who work in family justice.

It found that the system was not working to the full benefit of the children it is designed to help.

The report calls for a simpler service for families which are separating, “aimed at helping them to focus on their children and to reach agreement, if possible without going to court”.

It also recommends the use of Parenting Agreements, which would bring together arrangements for children’s care after separation and focusing on where the child spends time.

It would also “reinforce the importance of a relationship with grandparents and other relatives and friends who the child values”.

Other recommendations include:

A new Family Justice Service led by a National Family Justice BoardA unified family court system, streamlining services to replace the current three-tier systemLess reliance on “unnecessary” expert reports which can cause delayAssessment for mediation followed by access to separated parents information programmes and dispute resolution to help separating parents understand the impact of conflict on the children and to reach agreement.

Mr Norgrove, a former civil servant, said the biggest obstacle he had found in the system was that “people don’t work together”.

“There are lots of very committed and very able people in the family justice system and we have got a lot to be proud of. But there are a huge number of institutions and people involved in it and they are not brought together into any kind of coherent system.”

He added: “Family justice is under huge strain. Cases take far too long and delays are likely to rise. Children can wait well over a year for their futures to be settled. This is shocking.”

In 2009, just under 114,000 divorces were registered in England and Wales.

The family justice systems in Scotland and Northern Ireland are overseen by the Scottish Government and Northern Ireland Executive.

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Libya’s foreign minister Moussa Koussa is making a surprise visit to London from Tunisia, according to Tunisia’s official TAP news agency.

A Libyan government spokesman said Mr Koussa – in his post for two years – has not defected, but was travelling abroad on a diplomatic mission.

Mr Koussa flew out of Djerba airport bound for the UK on Wednesday afternoon, the report says.

It comes as the UK takes steps to expel five Libyan diplomats.

Rebels fighting Libyan government forces are continuing to lose ground and are retreating from their former strongholds along the eastern coast of Libya.

Earlier, Prime Minister David Cameron said the UK was not ruling out providing arms to rebels in “certain circumstances” but no decision had yet been taken.

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Hamid al-Ahmar: “He thinks he owns Yemen”

One of Yemen’s most influential political figures says President Ali Abdullah Saleh must leave the country, not just step down from power.

Hamid al-Ahmar, of the Islamist Islah party, told the BBC of opposition plans to escalate anti-government protests.

Hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets in several Yemeni cities on Wednesday.

Many also blame the government for blasts at an ammunitions factory on Monday that left 150 people dead.

The explosions, in the town of Jaar in central Abyan province, happened while residents were searching for ammunition left behind by suspected Islamist militants who had been involved in clashes with government forces in the area on Sunday.

Yemen officials have blamed al-Qaeda for the blasts, but the opposition accuses the president of withdrawing his forces and allowing the area to be overrun with militants as a ploy to sow fears of chaos if he leaves.

President Saleh has agreed to resign by January 2012, but the opposition and protesters are calling for his immediate departure.

Mr Ahmar told the BBC that the president and his family “have no immediate future in Yemen. They should leave power, they should leave the country for their own safety”.

He said the opposition would escalate the protests and push for Mr Saleh’s resignation.

“If he goes now, he can still go with some dignity, but his time is running out,” he added.

Mr Ahmar is a powerful figure in both tribal and political circles in Yemen and his comments are the first clear indication that the embattled president will not be able to stay in the country, our correspondent in Yemen, who cannot be named for security reasons, says.

It puts the president in an incredibly difficult position as his options for exile are limited, she adds. He has a house in Germany, but with protesters demanding his prosecution over what they say are crimes he committed during his time in power, he is very unlikely to settle in the West.

Another option, Saudi Arabia – a major power broker in Yemen – has been “surprisingly quiet” about the current crisis, according to one diplomat in Sanaa, leading to speculation that Riyadh is turning its back on the president.

President Saleh has been in power for 33 years

The US and Europe now view President Saleh’s resignation as the only way out of Yemen’s increasingly dangerous crisis, but many in the West are unhappy at the prospect of power falling into the hands of the popular Islah party, says our correspondent.

Washington sees Islah as a dangerous force, with links to al-Qaeda. Mr Ahmar denies this and insists Washington has nothing to worry about.

“The chaos in Yemen is now,” he told the BBC. “We are already talking to [the Americans], assuring them that any satisfactory plan to fight terror in Yemen will be respected by the new leadership of Yemen.”

President Saleh has been in power for 33 years and has been a key US ally in the region, conducting numerous joint anti-terror raids. Despite this, militancy has continued to flourish.

It is one of a range of security issues in the country, including a separatist movement in the south and an uprising of Shia Houthi rebels in the north.

Yemen is also chronically poor – unemployment runs at about 40%, and there are rising food prices and acute levels of malnutrition.

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Migraines cause throbbing pain

Children who see flashing lights during a migraine have twice the normal likelihood of having a hole-in-the-heart, a study suggests.

US doctors examined 109 children over six who were migraine sufferers.

About half of those with a type of migraine accompanied by a visual disturbance called an aura had the heart defect, the Journal of Pediatrics reports.

The British Heart Foundation called for further research into the link.

Amy Thompson, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: “There could be a number of explanations for this link so further research needs to be carried out before we draw any firm conclusions.

“Once we understand the relationship in more detail it could signal an improvement in patient care.”

A number of medical studies have found a link in adults between a hole-in-the-heart – known technically as a patent foramen ovale (PFO) – and migraine with aura.

This has lead to attempts to treat migraine by surgery to close the hole, when other migraine therapies have failed.

Dr Rachel McCandless and colleagues of the University of Utah used a scanning technique known as an echocardiogram to look for the heart defect.

Of the children who had migraines with aura, 50% also had the defect. This is nearly double the rate seen in the general population.

She said she hoped “our study will help guide future research about this difficult problem”.

Around one in 10 people have aura with their migraines.

Common aura symptoms include visual disturbances such as seeing flashing or flickering lights, numbness, tingling sensations and slurred speech.

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Irish Life & Permanent is expected to move into government ownership

The true cost of the Irish banking crisis is expected to be revealed later when the outcome of government stress tests on banks is released.

The results are expected to show they need an extra 30bn euros (£26.3bn).

The Irish Central Bank has tested four lenders – Allied Irish Banks, Bank of Ireland, Educational Building Society and the Irish Life and Permanent.

The latest capital injection will come from the EU-IMF bail-out money agreed in November.

It will take the total amount poured into the Irish banks since the financial crisis began to approximately 73bn euros (£64.1bn).

Once the results of the tests are released, Irish Life and Permanent, the country’s largest provider of mortgages and private pensions, is expected to move into government ownership.

That will give the state an interest in all six Irish financial institutions.

The 85bn euros (£74.6bn) bail-out deal at the end of last year was in response to the massive losses run up by Irish banks as well as the government’s own swelling budget deficit.

The deal divided the money into 30bn euros (£26.3bn) for propping up the banking system and 50bn euros (£43.9bn) to fund day-to-day government spending.

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