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Cuba’s ex-leader Fidel Castro uses an article in Cuban media to accuse the US of being ready to order an invasion of Libya.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Tawny owls turn brown to survive in warmer climates, say scientists, with the once dominant grey feathers becoming a thing of the past.
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Nimrod spy planes were scrapped as part of the government’s defence review The Ministry of Defence must prove it has sorted out its equipment-buying programme or continue its “cycle of failure”, MPs have warned.
The Commons public accounts committee said procurement delays and overspending had to be addressed.
It urged the MoD to provide its forecast for implementing government money-saving demands by April.
In a speech later, Defence Secretary Liam Fox will promise that lax spending habits “will no longer be tolerated”.
Last autumn’s Strategic Defence and Security Review urged savings of billions of pounds by cutting back on warships, fast jet fighters and thousands of soldiers, sailors and airmen.
It included the decisions to cancel the Nimrod MRA4 plane, withdraw the Sentinel surveillance aircraft and to mothball a yet-to-be-built aircraft carrier.
The committee said the changes involved “greater operational risks” and writing off nearly £5bn of taxpayers’ money.
It added: “Such decisions are never desirable. The fact that the department has been pressured to make them offers a compelling argument why it must address the problems which have affected defence procurement for decades and on which our predecessors have commented extensively.
“The MoD must demonstrate the same discipline in its defence procurement that our forces demonstrate in the field”
Margaret Hodge MP Public accounts committee
“If it does not, the cycle of failure will continue, with badly needed capabilities being delivered later than planned and cost increases crowding other capabilities out of the equipment programme.”
The committee was responding to a National Audit Office report, published in October, which said the “black hole” in MoD procurement had increased by £3.3bn in Labour’s final year in office to reach around £36bn.
The department has started to renegotiate a large number of contracts.
But the committee’s chairman, Labour MP Margaret Hodge, said: “In the wake of the defence review the MoD still has to spell out whether and how it has got its defence procurement budget under control.
“The MoD must demonstrate the same discipline in its defence procurement that our forces demonstrate in the field.”
The MoD has not yet provided data to back up its opinion that fitting catapults and arrester wires to the Royal Navy’s new aircraft carriers to allow them to carry a different type of plane will save money, said the report.
The two ships are being built at a cost of £5.2bn but as a result of decisions made in the defence review there will be no planes available for 10 years and one carrier will be mothballed almost immediately.
The committee’s report said the carrier contract, signed in 2008, had set “a new benchmark in poor corporate decision-making”.
During his speech to the Civitas think-tank in London on Tuesday, Dr Fox is expected to “explain the dilemmas we face and outline the guiding principles of defence policy in a tightly constrained financial environment”.
He will criticise the “conspiracy of optimism” at the MoD and in industry which is “based on poor cost-estimation” and “unrealistic time-scales”.
Dr Fox will warn: “These practices in the MoD would simply not be tolerated in the private sector, and they will no longer be tolerated in the MoD.”
He will also call for a “new, frank and honest relationship between government and industry”.
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As the big day nears, the internet is abuzz with royal wedding stories. Keeping close tabs on them is our wedding fanatic.
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Nine firefighters from south Wales are to fly out to New Zealand to join the relief effort after the Christchurch earthquake.
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Rangers confirm that Ally McCoist will succeed Walter Smith as manager at the end of the season.
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Two lambs at a farm in Claverham, near Weston-super-Mare, have shocked their owners by feeding from a cow.
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Will Arab protests push oil and gas prices to new levels?
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Cyclists, architect Mike Taylor, and triple Olympic gold medallist Sir Chris Hoy have given their reaction to the velodrome, the first venue to be completed for the 2012 London Olympics.
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The supply of Gaviscon to the NHS was looked at by the Office of Fair Trading last year The NHS in England has launched legal action against Reckitt Benckiser, maker of heartburn medicine Gaviscon.
According to High Court documents, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley is leading the action on behalf of health authorities and primary care trusts.
The Department of Health refused to comment on the subject of the suit.
Reckitt Benckiser was fined £10m last year for abusing its dominant market position in the supply of heartburn remedies to the NHS.
A spokesman for Reckitt said the company could not comment as it had not been served with any papers.
Papers lodged at the High Court show Reckitt is being sued collectively by all 10 Strategic Health Authorities and 144 Primary Care Trusts in England, as well as Andrew Lansley as Secretary of State for Health.
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) said in October last year that Reckitt had restricted competition in the supply of heartburn medicines.
The household products maker withdrew the original Gavison from the NHS in 2005 and patients were tranferred to Gaviscon Advance Liquid.
This happened after Gaviscon’s patent had expired, but before a generic name had been assigned to it, the OFT said.
That meant that prescriptions were issued for Gaviscon Advance, rather than pharmacists being able to choose a cheaper generic alternative.
The OFT’s inquiry followed an investigation by the BBC’s Newsnight programme in 2008.
Gaviscon is one of the most heavily prescribed medicines within the NHS. Confidential papers leaked to the programme by a whistleblower showed it was also very profitable, with a gross margin of 77% in 2003.
The then-chief executive of the OFT, John Fingleton, said at the time: “This case underlines our determination to prevent companies with a dominant position in a market from using their strength to seek to restrict competition from rivals”.
In response to the OFT’s fine, Reckitt said that it had believed it was acting within the law at the time and respected the watchdog’s findings.
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High blood pressure is a blood pressure that is 140/90 mmHg or above Patients suspected of having high blood pressure will get another check at home because of fears that nerves from being at a GP surgery may be leading to too many people being diagnosed.
So-called white coat hypertension is thought to affect a quarter of people, the NHS advisory body NICE said.
It is proposing that patients with high readings in a clinic are then monitored at home to ensure a correct diagnosis.
The guidance for England and Wales will now be consulted on.
Final recommendations are not expected until the summer, but already health experts have welcomed the move.
Professor Gareth Beevers, from the Blood Pressure Association, said: “This should aid correct diagnosis. The association has recommended patients take their blood pressure at home for a number of years now, though it’s essential that the blood pressure monitor has been clinically validated.”
More than 8m people are registered as having high blood pressure, which could mean as many as 2m people have been misdiagnosed because of nerves.
Misdiagnosis can lead to patients being put on drugs – and therefore suffering side effects – unnecessarily.
The solution being put forward by the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence involves ensuring patients who have had a high blood pressure reading at their GPs get checked at home.
The body said this could either be done with an inflatable arm cuff that takes regular readings over 24 hours or getting a health professional to visit someone in their own home to take another reading manually.
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There have been violent demonstrations since the weekend in the Abobo district of Abidjan Amnesty International has warned of a “human rights black hole” in Ivory Coast as at least six more protesters were killed in clashes on Monday.
Tensions have escalated since President Laurent Gbagbo has refused to hand over to Allasane Ouattara, widely recognised as the winner of November’s poll.
The UK-based rights group says it has evidence of rape and extrajudicial killings being committed by both sides.
Four African presidents are in Abidjan to mediate an end to the crisis.
The BBC’s Ivory Coat correspondent John James says it is the last diplomatic attempt to end the stalemate, which has brought the world’s largest cocoa producer close to economic collapse.
Over the last week all the main commercial banks closed their doors, he says.
Business activity is now at a standstill, with few ships now calling at the two main ports after the European Union put them on a sanctions list.
“The eyes of the world may have shifted from the political stalemate… but the abuses are clearly continuing”
Gaetan Mootoo, Amnesty
The presidents of South Africa, Tanzania, Chad and Mauritania arrived on Monday during renewed protests in the main city of Abidjan.
Witnesses said soldiers from units loyal to President Gbagbo shot at supporters of Mr Ouattara, killing at least six people.
Burkina Faso’s President Blaise Compaore, another member of the African Union panel, cancelled his trip after the pro-Gbagbo militia threatened to attack his convoy, alleging he supported Mr Ouattara
Mr Gbagbo has tried to clamp down on protests by ordering an overnight curfew throughout the country.
The UN says about 500 people, mainly pro-Ouattara supporters, have been killed since the election results were announced at the beginning of December.
Amnesty said it had documented serious human rights abuses in Abidjan and in the west of the country where an estimated 70,000 people have been forced to flee their homes.
One victim from the western town of Duekoue described how she had been set upon by gangs wielding knives and machetes last month.
“They broke the door and grabbed me. Their faces were blackened with charcoal,” she said.
“They raped me, three or four of them. They burned my house – the house of my family – and they killed my brother.
“They stole everything from my shop and then burned it down. We fled the same day.”
Investigators say scores of people have disappeared with reports that some are being held at the headquarters of elite government security forces.
“The eyes of the world may have shifted from the political stalemate… but the abuses are clearly continuing,” Gaetan Mootoo, one of the Amnesty researchers, said in a statement.
“The current crisis has created a human rights black hole in the country.”
November’s presidential vote was supposed to reunify the West African nation, which has been divided between north and south since a conflict in 2002.
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The London School of Economics reconsiders its links with Libya “as a matter of urgency”, after former student Saif al-Islam Gaddafi defends the regime.
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Comedian and former BBC Radio Lancashire presenter Jim Bowen is recovering after suffering two mild strokes.
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The Alvand is on a training mission, Iran says Two Iranian warships have entered the Suez Canal to make a passage to the Mediterranean Sea, canal officials say.
Iranian officials have said the warships are headed to Syria for training, a mission Israel has described as a “provocation”.
“They entered the canal at 0545 (0345 GMT),” Suez Canal officials said.
It is believed to be the first time since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution that Iranian warships have passed through the Suez Canal.
Iran’s request stated the vessels would have no military equipment, nuclear materials or chemicals on board, the Egyptian defence ministry is quoted as saying.
The ships involved are the frigate Alvand and a supply vessel, the Kharg.
Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported in January that Iranian navy cadets were going on a year-long training mission through Suez and into the Mediterranean, according to the Reuters news agency.
A Suez Canal official said Egypt could only have denied transit through the strategic waterway in case of war.
Israel considers Iran a threat because of its controversial nuclear programme, development of ballistic missiles, support for Lebanese and Palestinian militant groups, and Tehran’s repeated anti-Israel rhetoric.
Last week, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said: “To my regret, the international community is not showing readiness to deal with the recurring Iranian provocations. The international community must understand that Israel cannot forever ignore these provocations.”
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