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The UK will airlift “several thousand” refugees trapped on the Libyan-Tunisian border, Prime Minister David Cameron has announced.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
By Jorn Madslien
The Karma is the first electric luxury car with a petrol-powered range extender Three years after it was conceived, Fisker Automotive’s first car will go into production later this month.
The Fisker Karma, on display at this year’s Geneva motor show, is an electric car that has been kitted out with a four-cylinder, petrol-powered, range-extender engine.
The Californian company initially hopes to sell 15,000 cars per year, chief executive Henrik Fisker told BBC News.
But over time, “we want to become a proper high-volume carmaker”, he said.
“We’ll eventually achieve sales in the hundreds of thousands,” said Mr Fisker, who is a former Aston Martin and BMW designer.
Fisker Automotive will be the second company in the world to launch an electric car with a range extender, just a few months after General Motors’ Chevrolet Volt went on sale.
Mr Fisker said he believes this puts his small Californian company well ahead of most of the competition.
“Everybody says they’re going to do one, but talk is easy,” he said.
The Karma is a much more luxurious car than the Volt, however, which the company hopes will make it a rival to high-end models from Audi, BMW, Mercedes and Porsche.
Henrik Fisker used to design cars for Aston Martin and BMW “The whole idea behind the car was no sacrifice for the consumer in terms of styling, power or price,” he said.
“We call this responsible luxury,” Mr Fisker said, revealing that the Karma will be priced “close to the Porsche Panamera petrol-electric hybrid”, which was also launched at the Geneva motor show on Tuesday.
The Karma starts at about 85,000 euros ($117,000; £72,000) with some models costing more, he said.
Hence, selling 15,000 cars could bring in close to $1.5bn in revenues, he reasoned.
As the company continues to expand the Fisker model range, it will also start making a medium-sized plug-in petrol-electric hybrid, dubbed Nina.
According to Mr Fisker, there is a big difference between pure electric cars and those with range extenders fitted.
Range-extender cars have batteries too, as well as petrol-powered engines that drive a generator, which in turn sends power to the car’s electric motor.
This overcomes the so-called “range anxiety” suffered by some electric car drivers, Mr Fisker said.
The Fisker Karma seats four adults comfortably The Karma’s lithium-ion battery is said to deliver a 50-mile range on a full charge. The range extender adds a further 250 miles.
The car’s performance is said to be impressive; a 400bhp powertrain delivers nought to 60mph in less than six seconds and a top speed of 125mph.
“Cars are about three things: power, beauty and freedom,” said Mr Fisker.
“You may be able to get power and beauty in an electric car,” he said in an obvious dig at rival electric car company Tesla.
“But in a range-extender car, the knowledge that you can leave the city is freedom.”
For this reason, Mr Fisker insisted, electric cars “will stay a niche for a long time”, whereas models kitted out with range extenders could become mainstream.
Fisker may not be the carmaker to make this happen, however.
It is supported by the US government through a $528m loan that is part of a federal energy programme which aims to support innovative automobile technologies.
In addition, venture capitalists have injected a similar amount, Mr Fisker said.
Even so, it may not be enough to achieve the sort of growth figures that the Danish entrepreneur is hoping for.
To achieve that, Fisker may well need to partner with a large automobile company.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Public sector pensions are “significantly” more generous than those in the private sector, an expert has said.
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West Brom manager Roy Hodgson searches for his first victory in charge as his team travel to Stoke in the Premier League.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Mr and Mrs Johns said they could not tell a child homosexuality was an acceptable lifestyle A decision to bar a Christian couple from fostering children because of their views on homosexuality has been backed at the High Court.
Eunice and Owen Johns, 62 and 65, of Derby, said the city council did not want them to become foster carers because of their traditional views.
The couple said they were “doomed not to be approved” because of their views.
The Pentecostal Christian couple had applied to Derby City Council to be respite carers.
The court heard the couple withdrew their application after a social worker expressed concerns when they said they could not tell a child a homosexual lifestyle was acceptable.
Lord Justice Munby and Mr Justice Beatson ruled that laws protecting people from discrimination because of their sexual orientation “should take precedence” over the right not to be discriminated against on religious grounds.
“All we were not willing to do was to tell a small child that the practice of homosexuality was a good thing”
Eunice Johns
The Johns are considering an appeal.
Derby City Council said previously its first duty was to the children in its care, some of whom were very vulnerable.
Speaking outside the court in London, Mrs Johns said: “All we wanted was to offer a loving home to a child in need. We have a good track record as foster parents.
“We have been excluded because we have moral opinions based on our faith and we feel sidelined because we are Christians with normal, mainstream, Christian views on sexual ethics.
“We are prepared to love and accept any child. All we were not willing to do was to tell a small child that the practice of homosexuality was a good thing.”
The couple cared for about 15 children in the 1990s.
Ben Summerskill, chief executive of Stonewall, the lesbian, gay and bisexual charity, said: “Thankfully, Mr and Mrs Johns’ out-dated views aren’t just out of step with the majority of people in modern Britain, but those of many Christians too.
“If you wish to be involved in the delivery of a public service, you should be prepared to provide it fairly to anyone.”
The Christian Legal Centre reacted to the ruling with dismay and warned that “fostering by Christians is now in doubt”.
The organisation said the judgment “sends out the clear message that orthodox Christian ethical beliefs are potentially harmful to children and that Christian parents with mainstream Christian views are not suitable to be considered as potential foster parents”.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Mr Buckles settled in the US state of West Virginia after the two world wars America’s last surviving veteran of World War I, Frank Buckles, has died aged 110.
Mr Buckles, who joined the US army in 1917, at the age of 16, lying about his age to get enlisted, died of natural causes at his home near Charles Town, West Virginia, on Sunday.
He was one of more than 4.7m Americans who signed up to fight in the Great War between 1917-18.
He served in England and France, as a driver and a warehouse clerk.
Mr Buckles was turned down by the marines and the navy for being too young to serve, but managed to convince an army recruiter he was 21.
“A knowledgeable old sergeant said if you want to get to France right away, go into the ambulance corps,” he said in a 2001 interview with the Library of Congress.
He sailed to Britain in December 1917 on board the ship which five years earlier had picked up survivors of the Titanic.
“During my stay in England, I drove a motorcycle sidecar, then Ford ambulances and cars. Perseverance paid off and I got assigned to follow an officer who had been left behind from his unit and I got to France,” he said.
Frank Buckles lied about his age to join the army. Mr Buckles rose to the rank of corporal but never got closer than 30 or so miles from the Western Front trenches. After the war he helped return prisoners to Germany – and became one himself during WWII.
In 1941, while working for a shipping company in the Philippines, he was captured by the Japanese, and spent more than three years in prison camps.
After the wars he settled in West Virginia with his family.
He remained committed to honouring the 100,000 Americans who had died in WWI and achieved fame as the last surviving link to that conflict in the United States.
In March 2008, Buckles was honored at a special ceremony at the Pentagon and the White House by president George W Bush.
In 2009 he travelled to Washington DC to lobby senators to rededicate a memorial on the national mall in honour of the Americans who had fought in the campaign.
The Frank Buckles World War I Memorial Act never became law.
There are only now two documented surviving veterans of The Great War, 109-year-old Claude Choules and 110-year-old Florence Green, both of whom are British.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Col Gaddafi is trying to shore up support in and around the capital Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi has told the BBC he is loved by all his people and has denied there have been any protests in Tripoli.
Col Gaddafi said that his people would die to protect him.
He laughed at the suggestion he would leave Libya and said he felt betrayed by leaders who had urged him to leave.
Earlier world governments condemned attacks on Libyan civilians, with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton saying Col Gaddafi must “go now”.
The EU on Monday imposed sanctions including an arms embargo, asset freeze and travel ban on Col Gaddafi and his close entourage.
Col Gaddafi was speaking in an interview with the BBC’s Jeremy Bowen in Tripoli.
Col Gaddafi said the people who had come on to the streets were under the influence of drugs supplied by al-Qaeda.
He said those people had seized weapons and that his supporters were under orders not to shoot back.
Our correspondent says the colonel was relaxed as he talked in a restaurant overlooking the port in Tripoli, before departing at high speed in a motorcade of dozens of vehicles.
Col Gaddafi is facing a massive challenge to his 41-year rule, with protesters in control of towns in the east.
Unrest also continues in and around Tripoli, with reports of an anti-Gaddafi protest in a suburb of the capital as well as fighting in nearby Misrata and an attack by air force jets on ammunition dumps in the east of the country.
Foreign ministers who had gathered at a UN human rights conference in Geneva called earlier for Col Gaddafi to go.
Mrs Clinton accused Col Gaddafi and his followers of using “mercenaries and thugs” to attack unarmed civilians, and of executing soldiers who refused to turn their guns on fellow citizens.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Kieran Brooks was on a trip with a group from Torquay Boys’ Grammar School A boy from south Devon is in a coma following an accident during a school skiing trip in France.
Kieran Brooks, 14, was with a group from Torquay Boys’ Grammar School in the resort of Chatel, and was trying to get off a chair-lift.
However, his backpack, clothes or helmet became snagged and he was choked and unable to breathe.
His parents, from Newton Abbot, are at his bedside at a hospital in Annecy.
School head teacher Roy Pike said the incident appeared to be “a freak accident”.
He said: “It seems that it restricted his airway when he couldn’t quite dismount from the lift.
“By the time attendants got him down and the medics arrived, he’d been unconscious for some time and wasn’t breathing.”
Medical staff tried to bring him out of the coma in hospital, but were unsuccessful and the teenager was undergoing CT scans, Mr Pike said.
“It’s every school and every parent’s nightmare. Our hearts are going out for them.”
He added: “His parents are hoping to bring him back home by the end of the week and airlift him over either to Bristol or Exeter, if it’s possible.
“I think the hospitals are considering which, depending on which one best serves his need at the moment.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Iranian opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi are removed from their houses and taken to an undisclosed location, reports say.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Danny Fitzsimons had feared hanging A British security guard has been sentenced to 20 years in jail after being convicted by an Iraqi court of murdering two colleagues.
Danny Fitzsimons, 30, from Rochdale, admitted killing Paul McGuigan, from The Scottish Borders, and Darren Hoare, of Australia, in August 2009.
Under Iraqi law a life sentence equates to a 20-year jail term.
Fitzsimons is the first Westerner to be convicted in Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion.
He was also convicted of attempting to kill an Iraqi guard.
The former paratrooper, who feared being hanged, said he had been suffering from post-traumatic stress at the time of the killings.
A 2009 US-Iraqi security agreement lifted immunity from prosecution for foreigners.
“This is a very good sentence. I saved him from the gallows”
Lawyer, Tariq Harb
Fitzsimons, from Middleton, has said he shot the men in self-defence after an altercation broke out.
Fitzsimons, Mr McGuigan and Mr Hoare had all been working for British security firm ArmorGroup, based in the Iraqi capital’s fortified Green Zone, at the time of the shooting.
As Fitzsimons was led away to jail by Iraqi guards he said he was happy with the sentence, but when asked whether he thought the trial was fair he replied “no”, AP reported.
The judge, who cannot be named under Iraqi law, said Fitzsimons’ mental condition had been taken into consideration when deciding on the sentence, AP said.
“Danny Fitzsimons, the court has found established evidence that you killed the two slain men and attempted to kill the third,” the judge said.
“So the court issues its sentence according to the Iraqi criminal code and sentences you to 20 years in prison.”
Fitzsimons’ Iraqi lawyer Tariq Harb said after the hearing: “This is a very good sentence. I saved him from the gallows.”
Mr Harb said Fitzsimons would appeal within a 30-day deadline.
He added that transferring Fitzsimons to a British jail could be possible since the “relations between the two countries are strong now and diplomacy can bear remarkable influence”, AP reported.
In a BBC interview before his sentence, Fitzsimons described his greatest fears.
He said: “Obviously hanging, nobody wants to hang, and possibly life imprisonment in one of the worst jails in the world.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
A Somerset school teacher is banned from teaching for buying pupils alcohol and letting a boy sleep in her hotel room during a school trip.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The US defence department says it is repositioning some of its forces around Libya as Western nations consider options for possible intervention against Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Four suicide bombers killed 52 and injured more than 700 people on London’s public transport Ambulance controllers trying to respond to the 7/7 attacks worked in chaos amid a series of shortcomings, the inquests into the attacks have heard.
Only one woman logged all the emergency calls and vital information was written on scraps of paper, it was revealed.
Hugo Keith QC, counsel to the inquest, said the 7/7 London Ambulance Service logger said: “I am not a trained typist, I use two fingers and a thumb.”
Four suicide bombers killed 52 people on London’s transport network in 2005.
The bombers targeted Tube trains at Aldgate, Edgware Road and Russell Square, and a bus in Tavistock Square on 7 July.
A number of failings were referred to in the inquests at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.
The hearings were told that the employee in charge of updating the control room whiteboard could only reach halfway up it.
And Jason Killens, London Ambulance Service’s deputy director of operations, said two of the people designated “crucial roles” at the start of the incident were not trained in the procedures for the so-called Gold Command – in overall control of the emergency.
He said staff transferring from their normal control room positions to the Gold disaster control room caused a delay because they had not logged off properly.
That meant they were then unable to log on to the new system as calls from the four terror sites built up, causing a backlog.
The hearings were told of the confusion in the control room at Waterloo through a debriefing document that was read out.
Serious delays
The paper said: “At the beginning of the incident, it was organised chaos.
“There were communications issues throughout,” it said, adding that radio channels were blocked and no feedback was coming in from ambulance bosses on the ground.
The inquests heard that there was so much information coming in that control room staff were unable to prioritise it effectively.
Mr Killens said a group of employees were sent to Bow to set up a “fallback” control room, although it was not used.
He said managers had hugely improved their control room practices since the 7 July attacks: “It’s an entirely new system.”
Mismanagement, along with failed radio and mobile phone networks, also meant there were serious delays in dispatching paramedics to bomb sites.
There was a delay of almost one hour in getting ambulances to the site of the bus blast in Tavistock Square where 13 people were killed.
And there was a half hour delay in dispatching paramedics to Russell Square, where 26 people died.
Mr Keith QC said an emergency planning manager had warned LAS about the reliability of mobile phones in March 2005.
In his message he had said: “We have experienced unacceptable delays which could have compromised operations.”
He added: “It has been luck rather than judgement that we have got away with it – a situation neither of us will be happy with.”
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: “Our message to Colonel Gaddafi is simple – go now”
Britain is working with its allies on a plan to establish a military no-fly zone over Libya, says David Cameron.
The prime minister said the threat of “further appalling steps” being taken by Col Muammar Gaddafi to oppress his own people was behind the talks.
He said he did not rule out “the use of military assets” in Libya and said the “murderous regime” must end.
Fewer than 150 British citizens are thought to remain in Libya and only a “very small proportion” want to leave.
The government would continue to do “all we can” to get them out, he said.
Libya has been embroiled in turmoil as protesters demand Colonel Gaddafi – the Middle East’s longest serving ruler – steps down.
The UN estimates that about 100,000 people have fled anti-government unrest over the past week and thousands may have been killed or injured in a violent crackdown by the regime.
In a statement to MPs after returning from a tour of the Middle East, Mr Cameron said the government was “taking every possible step to isolate the Gaddafi regime”.
The UK has frozen Col Gaddafi’s British-held assets and those of his family, and withdrawn their diplomatic immunity and an export ban has been imposed on Libyan banknotes, which are printed in Britain.
Mr Cameron said that Britain had secured a European Union agreement on freezing the assets of a “wider group of individuals” connected to Col Gaddafi and banning them from entering the EU. A wider arms embargo was also being imposed against Libya.
The PM told MPs there would be “further isolation of the regime by expelling it from international organisations” and further use of asset freezes and travel bans to encourage those “on the fringes of the regime, that now is the time to desert it”.
“ I do think it’s one thing we need to look at, look at it urgently and plan for, in case we find, as we may well do, that Col Gaddafi is taking further appalling steps to oppress his people”
David CameronUK rescue plane’s ‘narrow escape’
He added: “And we do not in any way rule out the use of military assets, we must not tolerate this regime using military force against its own people.
“In that context I have asked the Ministry of Defence and the Chief of the Defence Staff to work with our allies on plans for a military no-fly zone.”
The Labour MP Ann Clwyd told him that a no-fly zone could “save thousands of lives if he’s [Col Gaddafi] going to bomb his own people from the air”.
Mr Cameron said they would comply with international law but planning for a no-fly zone had to start now because no-one knew what Col Gaddafi would do to his own people and one might have to be put in place “very quickly”.
But he added that trying to secure a no-fly zone over a country as large as Libya was “not without its difficulties”: “We would be trying to cover a vast area, it would take a serious amount of military assets to achieve it.”
But he added: “I do think it’s one thing we need to look at, look at it urgently and plan for, in case we find, as we may well do, that Col Gaddafi is taking further appalling steps to oppress his people and that is why the conversations are taking place today.”
The Ministry of Defence said that the plans were still at an early stage and the initial focus would be on which countries would back it and what military assets they could then be deploy to enforce it.
The BBC’s Jonathan Beale said it was not yet clear what contribution Britain might make but one source had suggested RAF Typhoon fighter jets could be stationed at a UK base in Cyprus, although the source made clear no decisions had yet been taken.
Mr Cameron also said the UK was acting to prevent a “humanitarian crisis” and would be flying in tents and blankets on Tuesday, and had dispatched technical teams to help migrant workers get home.
But Labour leader Ed Miliband urged him to apologise for the government’s handling of the crisis last week – when a rescue effort for Britains in Libya was delayed – saying they had been let down by “chaos and incompetence”.
However, he welcomed the comments that Britain’s defence chiefs had been asked to work with Britain’s allies on plans for a military no-fly zone and he welcomed the increasing international isolation placed on the regime.
Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary William Hague has called for an immediate end to violence against anti-government demonstrators in Libya and warned Col Gaddafi’s supporters that there will be a “day of reckoning” for anyone involved in human rights abuses.
Addressing a meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, he said: “This is a warning to anyone contemplating the abuse of human rights in Libya or any other country: Stay your hand. There will be a day of reckoning and the reach of international justice can be long.
“We must now maintain the momentum we have attained to ensure that there can be no impunity for crimes committed in Libya and to help bring about an immediate end to the violence.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Markets are beginning to fret that King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia may be the next to face protests Oil prices have risen 2% on fears unrest in the Middle East might spread, including to top producer Saudi Arabia.
Brent crude reached $114.50 in early trading, before receding, while US light, sweet crude hit $99.50.
Libyan oil output is down an estimated 75% due to the revolt, but Saudi Arabia has promised to meet the shortfall.
However, on Sunday, the Saudi stock market fell 5% after 119 academics, activists and businessmen wrote an open letter to the king demanding reform.
The Tadawul all-share index has fallen a cumulative 10% in the last two weeks to its lowest level in six months, prompting some Saudi investors to call on the government to intervene to steady the market, or even to close it.
The news comes as the Egyptian stock exchange is set to reopen on Tuesday after a month-long closure due to the popular uprising there, although protestors continued to gather outside the stock exchange building intent of forcing another delay.
–
By 0830 GMT, Brent crude was up $1.42 at 113.56, while US light, sweet crude was $1.12 higher at $99.03.
The letter to the Saudi king complained about the prevalence of corruption and nepotism and a widening gap between state and society.
Meanwhile a Facebook site calling for a “day of rage” in Saudi Arabia on 11 March has seen its number of subscribers increase from 400 to 12,000 in recent days.
Analysts fear the kingdom may face the same volatile generational schism that has affected Egypt and elsewhere.
Two-thirds of the Saudi population is aged under 30.
Youth unemployment is about three times the national average and there is an 18-year waiting list for government-provided housing.
The threat of protests has already wrung concessions from the 87-year-old King Abdullah, who only recently returned from three months of medical treatment in the US.
He has offered permanent work contracts to an estimated 50,000 state workers, and spent $36bn (£22.3bn; 26.1bn euros) of the country’s $440bn in currency reserves on social initiatives, including a 15% pay rise for public sector employees.
Saudi Arabia plays a critical role in global oil supplies.
Not only is it the world’s biggest producer, with the world’s largest reserves by far, but the country is also a key “swing producer” within the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), retaining most of the world’s spare production capacity.
The kingdom accounts for the bulk of Opec’s additional 4.7 million barrels-per-day available, compared with Libya’s exports estimated at 1.5 million.
Meanwhile violence flared on Sunday for the first time in non-Opec Oman – which produces about 865,000 barrels-per-day – as police cracked down on pro-democracy demonstrations there.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.