Category: news

A British Airways computer expert has been found guilty of terror charges.

Rajib Karim, 31, from Newcastle, used his job to access information for radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, Woolwich Crown Court heard.

Karim had denied four charges, including plotting to blow up a plane and sharing information of use to hate groups.

But after four days of deliberations, the jury found him guilty of all four charges.

Karim was committed to an “extreme jihadist cause” and determined to become a martyr, jurors were told.

The Bangladeshi national, who moved with his wife and son to Newcastle in 2006, had already admitted being involved in the production of a terrorist group’s video.

Karim, a privately-educated IT expert from Dhaka, became a supporter of the extremist organisation Jammat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) after being influenced by his younger brother, Tehzeeb, the court heard.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

A man has been arrested in connection with the suspicious death of a 45-year-old man found in a fire in Edinburgh.

The body was found at a first-floor flat in Pilton Drive North just before 0230 GMT on Sunday.

Police said they believed there was a disturbance at the property before the fire broke out.

Lothian and Borders Police confirmed a man had been arrested but said he had not been charged. No further details were released.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Shuttle Discovery astronauts are making the first of two spacewalks this week to carry out maintenance tasks on the exterior of the International Space Station (ISS).

Steve Bowen and Alvin Drew will spend more than six hours outside the orbiting platform, preparing it for the installation of a new store room.

Discovery arrived at the ISS on Saturday.

It is the ship’s final mission into space before being retired to a museum.

Bowen is making a small piece of history, himself. He was called up late for the mission following a bicycle injury to the assigned lead spacewalker Tim Kopra.

It means Bowen is on consecutive shuttle trips having flown on Atlantis in May last year – the first time that has ever happened.

“There’s a lot of things I don’t know that I’m trying to catch up,” Bowen said on Sunday. “But these guys have been training together for so long, they know this mission so well they’ve been able to pick up the slack that I kind of brought on board. They’ve got me covered pretty well.”

A key task for the Discovery crew on this flight is to fit a Italian-built logistics module known as Leonardo permanently to the space station.

The module, which has been used down the years as a packing box for supplies in the orbiter’s payload bay, would normally return to Earth with every shuttle mission, but for Discovery’s flight it is being left on station to provide extra storage space.

The attachment, to the Unity connecting node, requires Bowen and Drew to move some cabling. In their spacewalk, the pair will also replace a fault pump needed to push ammonia coolant around the platform.

Leonardo will be lifted into place on Tuesday this week; a follow-up spacewalk will then take place on Wednesday.

Discovery is due back on Earth on Monday, 7 March. The orbiter is expected eventually to go to the Smithsonian Institution’s Air and Space Museum.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

A mother was in a rush to get her 12-year-old son to school when she caused his death by careless driving, Mold Crown Court has heard.

Karen Evans, 36, of Mancot, Flintshire, allegedly left it too late to turn off the A55 to get fuel, when she lost control of her car at Northop Hall.

Her son Jordan, who was late for school, was declared dead at the scene.

Mrs Evans denies causing death by careless driving, blaming a mechanical fault. The trial continues.

The court heard how Jordan, who had autism, had deliberately missed the school bus on 29 April 2010, and his mother decided to drive him to school in Flint.

The prosecution claim she was running low on fuel in her Vauxhall Corsa and made a last-minute decision – while overtaking another vehicle – to turn into a slip-road leading to services.

She drove from the outside lane, across the front of a car she had just overtaken, but then lost control, the court heard.

Somersault

The car somersaulted on an embankment and ended up back on its wheels.

Jordan, a rear seat passenger, suffered a severe blunt force head injury.

Ms Evans’ two daughters, aged three and 18, were also in the car.

She denies causing Jordan’s death by careless driving, blaming the incident on a mechanical fault.

She told police the steering developed a shudder and she tried to slow down and turn safely into the slip road.

Prosecutor Oliver King said a police vehicle examiner found a loose nut on the steering wheel.

He said the steering wheel could move backwards and forwards, but that would not have affected the steering of the vehicle to the right or left.

The prosecution claim Ms Evans grossly over-reacted to the movement of the steering wheel, or had left it too late to exit the dual carriageway to refuel.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Retailer Primark has revealed a “noticeable” slowing of demand in the UK since the start of 2011.

In a trading update, owner Associated British Foods said Primark performed well before Christmas despite the bad weather.

But January’s rise in VAT and soaring cotton prices had helped contribute to the slowdown since then.

ABF shares fell nearly 6%, despite the firm saying that Primark stores in the rest of Europe were doing well.

In early afternoon trade their shares were down by 61 pence, or 5.99%, at 965.50p.

“The UK consumer is feeling a squeeze because of inflation and the VAT rise, and simply has less to spend,” ABF’s finance director John Bason said.

“Even for people who don’t feel they will lose their jobs, they will feel they are being squeezed. It won’t just be Primark, but we’ll see it for a number of retailers,” he told reporters.

ABF, which also owns brands such as Ovaltine, Ryvita and Twinings, is due to post its interim profit figures in April.

The company said that revenues at Primark would still be about 11% ahead of last year. Growth in stores in continential Europe had been “very encouraging”, the company said.

ABF added that all of its businesses would still show that they were “delivering good revenue growth”.

Primark operates 214 stores mostly in the UK, although it also trades in the Republic of Ireland, Spain, Germany, Portugal, the Netherlands and Belgium.

But a slowdown at Primark’s British stores may have implications for the wider retail sector.

“With more gloomy news from Primark today on High Street trading, we remain cautious in the short term about the general retail sector,” said Nick Bubb, analyst at Arden Partners.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

HSBC, Europe’s biggest bank, has reported pre-tax profits of $19bn (£11.8bn) for 2010, more than double the $7.1bn figure for 2009.

Losses from bad debts fell to $14bn in 2010, from $26bn in 2009.

However, analysts said the results had fallen short of expectations, sending shares down 4.5%.

HSBC also said that chief executive Stuart Gulliver was paid £6.2m last year, including a £5.2m bonus, down from a total package of £9.8m in 2009.

He will take all of his 2010 bonus in the form of restricted shares which will only be released to him over time.

“It is a lot of money,” said BBC business editor Robert Peston. “And it will upset those who see most banks as part of the economic problem, rather than part of the solution.”

However, he added that HSBC was one of the world’s very biggest businesses, with a market value greater than the combined value of Barclays, Lloyds and RBS.

Equity target

Mr Gulliver, recently appointed as HSBC chief executive, said the bank had made “a good start to the year”.

It said it had been profitable in every customer group and region for first time since 2006, but some analysts said there was some cause for concern.

“The underlying pre-tax profit is significantly disappointing,” said Cormac Leech, an analyst at investment banking firm Canaccord.

Richard Hunter, an analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers, pointed out that as well as announcing a lower proposed return on equity, HSBC saw “further pressure on margins, particularly in its important Asian region”.

“Given that these high hopes have been somewhat dashed again, it remains to be seen whether the current market view of the shares as a buy remains intact,” Mr Hunter added.

Economic recovery

HSBC also cut its return on equity target, a measure of profitability, citing tougher capital requirements.

New finance director Iain Mackay said the reduced target reflected tougher banking regulations as well as the economic environment.

“We’ve targeted 12% to 15% through the cycle for return on equity, principally taking into consideration what we view as a somewhat unstable and uneven economic recovery over the coming years as well as much higher capital requirements,” said Mr Mackay.

HSBC is headquartered in London but sees Asia as an increasingly important market.

“As a globally-connected bank with a growing presence across the world’s faster-growing regions, HSBC also benefited from higher trade volumes and strong momentum in emerging economies, especially in Asia,” said Mr Gulliver.

Unlike rival banks Lloyds and RBS, HSBC survived the financial crisis without receiving direct government support.

Meanwhile, figures published by the UK’s Financial Ombudsman revealed it received 8,238 new complaints from customers of HSBC in the second half of 2010 – the fourth highest of any financial business.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.