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Growth in the US economy improves

A man digs snow away from a shop in New YorkConsumer spending accounts for more than two-thirds of economic activity

US economic growth accelerated in the last three months of 2010 to an annualised rate of 3.2%, corresponding to a 0.78% quarterly increase.

This compares with an annual GDP rate of 2.6% from the Commerce Department in the previous quarter.

A rise in consumer spending contributed to the growth, as did falling imports.

The Labor Department said that wages and benefits rose 2% in 2010, which is faster than 2009, but still the second slowest rate since records began.

The Labor Department has been collecting the figures for 28 years.

The fourth-quarter GDP figure is a first estimate, and could be revised either up or down in the coming months.

The US economy grew by 2.9% in the whole of 2010, which is the strongest year of growth since 2005.

The 4.4% rise in consumer spending had a particularly strong effect because such spending accounts for more than two thirds of US economic activity.

“Unfortunately we still need to see much stronger growth to begin to really make a dent in the unemployment rate,” said Ryan Sweet at Moody’s Analytics in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

“Right now we are just barely creating enough jobs to stabilise the unemployment rate.”

Home building made an unexpected contribution to the figures, growing 3.4%.

Government spending contracted, with much of the fall coming from state and local government.

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

Police investigate ‘fatwa’ on May

Theresa MayThe posters criticised the home secretary, Theresa May, because of the UK’s stance on radical clerics
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Wanted-style posters which declared a “fatwa” on the home secretary are being investigated by police in south London.

Several posters have been displayed around Tooting, criticising Theresa May “for the abduction, kidnapping and false imprisonment” of radical clerics.

These include Abu Hamza, the preacher imprisoned in 2006 for inciting murder and racial hatred.

The Metropolitan Police said it was “working to find out who put them up” and hoped the posters would be removed.

It was talking to the local authority about this, a spokesman added.

A fatwa is a religious ruling under Islamic law which can be interpreted as an incitement to kill.

The Home Office said it would not comment as it was a matter for the police to investigate.

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

Long way from Cairo

Demonstrators outside Egyptian embassy in LondonThe demonstration was noisy but there was no violence

Tens of thousands of Egyptians calling for the removal of President Hosni Mubarak have clashed with police on the streets of Cairo, Alexandria and Suez. Around 30 Egyptians took part in a peaceful demonstration outside the country’s embassy in London.

The bitterly cold streets of the capital may be a long way from the souks of Cairo but the frustration and anger echoed the passions which have come to the surface in Egypt in recent days.

Protesters waved placards which berated the 82-year-old president and bellowed slogans like “The people want Mubarak out”, “Revolution, revolution until victory” and “Mubarak has killed his people and is a traitor from head to toe”.

Ali Amir, a student who helped organise Friday’s protest, said: “We want change and democracy. We have been asking for it for 30 years.

“Eighty million people in Egypt had lost hope but when the Tunisian people stood up and kicked out their president that gave us hope.

A man on a loudhailerThe protesters called for regime change in Egypt

“I was one of the first to join the Facebook page calling for protests [on 25 January] but now there are over a million members.”

Abdullah Ali, a 26-year-old who works in public relations in London, had come to the demonstration in response to messages on Facebook.

He said: “We have come here to stand shoulder to shoulder with our brothers and sisters in Egypt. Enough is enough.

“We want the regime out. We want the whole lot out – Mubarak, the prime minister and all those in the regime. We want elections free from rigging.”

Amr El-Bayoumi, a lawyer, flew from Cairo to London on Thursday, and said he had witnessed some of the demonstrations first-hand.

He said: “Men, women, children, old and young are expressing their frustration and outrage.

“They have been denied their dignity and it’s a system which requires an uprising. It’s a spontaneous uprising at the rampant corruption at every level.”

Mr El-Bayoumi said: “Egyptians of all religions are striving for democracy. These are the early days.

Protesters in Jerusalem wave Egyptian and Tunisian flagsThe “jasmine revolution” in Tunisia has encouraged protesters in Egypt

“Egyptians are not a passive people. They are (a) loving people but if you push them you have what you see today. They have been patient, but no more. Enough is enough.”

But Mr El-Bayoumi questioned the credibility as a genuine alternative of Mohammed ElBaradei, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning former head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog, who has returned to Egypt and called on President Mubarak to go.

Mr El-Bayoumi said Egyptians were fed up with their government doing whatever the United States told them to and wanted a return to the ethos of Gamal Abdel Nasser, who preached self-determination and anti-imperialism.

El-Khiam Dora, a 27-year-old student, said: “Everyone in Egypt wants democracy and freedom.”

He said: “They [the government] go on about reforms but it’s all a hoax. We want what the rest of the world has. Thirty years is more than enough.”

Yvonne RidleyYvonne Ridley said it was wrong to think Islamists would “fill the vacuum” in Egypt

Mr Dora said he had been unable to get through to his family in Egypt because the phone lines and internet were down.

“Is that a democratic country, one that cuts phone lines and the internet? That is a crime in itself,” he said.

He claimed last year’s parliamentary elections in Egypt – which the ruling National Democratic Party won with 95% of the vote according to official figures – were rigged.

Watching the protest, and sympathising, was journalist Yvonne Ridley, who converted to Islam after being captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001.

Ms Ridley, European president of the International Muslim Women’s Union, visited Egypt last year and she said she recognised some of the “plain clothes thugs” she had seen on television beating up demonstrators.

She said: “What the Egyptian people are doing is so courageous because what they are facing, as we can see on our screens, is this terrible machine which seeks to instil fear and brutalises the people.”

Ms Ridley criticised former prime minister Tony Blair’s remarks on Friday in which he supported Mr Mubarak and warned of Islamists “filling the vacuum” if he was removed.

She said: “It’s the irrational fear of Islam which all the despots in the Middle East play on. The Muslim Brotherhood is liked and admired in Egypt but they would not be swept into power, just like in Tunisia.”

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

Unions holding UK back – Osborne

George OsborneGeorge Osborne says the UK economy has to be remodelled

Chancellor George Osborne has said he is as determined to fight “the forces of stagnation” – including the trade unions – as he is the budget deficit.

He told BBC News he vowed to reshape the British economy and to be “bold” promoting economic growth.

But he accused the unions and Labour of standing in the way of efforts to get the economy moving again.

The unions have refused to rule out co-ordinated strike action over cuts to public sector pensions.

Following talks between the leaders of biggest unions at the TUC earlier, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: “No-one is talking about a general strike, but of course these attacks on our members could well give rise to industrial action around specific disputes.”

The government has also stressed that it wants to continue talking to the unions – but has not ruled out new laws banning co-ordinated strike action as a “last resort”.

Mr Osborne, speaking to BBC Economics Editor Stephanie Flanders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, rejected union calls to change course following this week’s “disappointing” growth figures.

“If we did that we would be plunged back into where we were a few months ago with people raising very serious questions about Britain’s ability to pay its way in the world, and that will provide no platform for growth going forward,” he said.

He said he was “acutely aware” that British families were feeling the squeeze over rising prices – and again refused to rule out curbs on fuel duty increases in his March budget.

But he said the UK economy had to be rebuilt with less emphasis on financial services and more on business investment and exports – and he claimed there were signs this was starting to happen.

“We have got to be as bold in promoting growth and removing barriers to business expansion, and fighting the forces of stagnation, as we have been in dealing with the deficit,” he said.

But he said governments were being held back by people who oppose efforts to “create more competitive markets”.

In the UK, the trade unions and opposition had opposed “controversial” changes to employment tribunals, he said, and were opposed to other “difficult” decisions aimed at promoting growth.

“I regard these people as the forces of stagnation, when we are trying to get the British economy competitive again, moving forward again.”

Prime Minister David Cameron earlier vowed to “see through” the government’s plan for deep spending cuts despite fears of their impact on economic growth.

He said cutting the deficit would be “tough” but the economy would “bounce back” if the UK stuck to its course.

Labour have accused ministers of “arrogance” for proceeding with what they say are £20bn of cuts this year.

After figures released earlier week showed the UK economy contracted by 0.5% in the last three months of 2010, Labour leader Ed Miliband said the government’s cuts were “hurting but not working”.

The coalition has been accused of lacking a “pro-growth” strategy, with outgoing CBI boss Sir Richard Lambert saying key decisions affecting business had been taken for political reasons and there was a “lack of vision” about the long-term shape of the economy.

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

Gunmen shoot Nigerian politician

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A candidate for governor in the north-eastern Nigerian state of Borno has been shot dead, officials say.

Modu Fannami Gubio and six people in his entourage were killed by men on motorbikes as they left a mosque in Maiduguri city after Friday prayers.

Mr Gubio was the candidate for the opposition All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) in April’s elections.

Similar ride-by attacks have been blamed on the Boko Haram sect, who have been targeting police and politicians.

People hid inside their homes and shops shut as police cordoned off large neighbourhoods searching for the killers of Mr Gubio, AP reports.

“He was shot and killed this afternoon. Obviously it’s a political assassination. It was himself and six others,” Borno’s police chief Mohammed Jinjiri Abubakar told AFP news agency.

Known locally as the Taliban, the Boko Haram sect wants to see Islamic law imposed across Nigeria.

It is opposed to Western education and accuses Nigeria’s government of being corrupted by Western ideas.

Hundreds of people suspected of being Boko Haram members escaped from prison last September after gunmen attacked the jail where they were being held in the city.

Clashes in Maiduguri between Boko Haram and the police in July 2009 left hundreds of mainly sect members dead.

The violence began after the sect members attacked a police station in Maiduguri in 2009 and clashes spread to neighbouring areas.

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

Who’s in, who’s out

Less than two years into President Barack Obama’s term, a handful of top White House aides have headed for the door, including Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.

Click on the new arrivals and their respective predecessors below to see who’s in and who’s out. And get to know those names – you’ll be hearing them a lot more.

Graphic showing Incoming and Outgoing senior Whitehouse advisers
William Daley Incoming Chief of Staff

Mr Daley’s father and brother each served as mayor of Chicago – a powerful position in Democratic politics. But, aside from a short period working for President Clinton and then Al Gore’s presidential bid, he has spent most of his life working in the financial sector.Read more (you will leave this page)

Jay Carney Incoming Press Secretary

Jay Carney, a 20-year veteran of Time magazine, was once a fixture in Washington’s journalism establishment, reporting on foreign policy and politics before becoming the Washington bureau chief for Time magazine. He put his experience to good use when he leaped to the other side of the podium, becoming the spokesman for Vice-President Joe Biden following the 2008 election. He quickly rose to be a respected voice within the administration..Read more (you will leave this page)

Dan Pfeiffer Incoming Communications Director

Mr Pfeiffer worked for a string of high profile Democrats – including Al Gore and Tom Daschle – before landing in the Obama campaign. He was promoted from deputy director after Ms Dunn left. He is married to Mr Emanuel’s former senior adviser.

David Plouffe Incoming Senior Adviser

Mr Plouffe has worked for Mr Axelrod’s communications firm for many years, taking a break only to manage Mr Obama’s 2008 campaign. After that success, he is considered one of America’s most skilled political strategists. He will formally begin advising the White House after Mr Axelrod leaves.Read more (you will leave this page)

Tom Donilon Incoming National Security Adviser

A veteran of numerous presidential campaigns, Mr Donilon worked in the State Department in the 1990s. Associates say he became a trusted Obama adviser as deputy national security adviser. His wife and brother work for Vice-President Biden.Read more (you will leave this page)

Gene Sperling Incoming National Economic council Director

Mr Sperling has been nicknamed “Gene the Machine” for his tireless work. He was President Clinton’s chief economic adviser in the 1990s and most recently worked for Treasury Secretary Geithner.

Jacob Lew Incoming Office of Management and Budget Director

Lew also once worked for Citigroup, as well as serving as budget director in the Clinton administration. Most recently he served under Hillary Clinton at the Department of State.

Austan Goolsbee Incoming Council of Economic Advisers Chair

Few were surprised when the lanky economist was promoted from a member of the council to its chairman after Ms Romer’s departure. Witty and articulate, Mr Goolsbee is a regular spokesperson on television.Read more (you will leave this page)

Rahm Emanuel Outgoing Chief of Staff

Mr Obama’s hard-charging, tough-talking chief of staff left the White House to fulfil a long-held dream of running for mayor of his hometown, Chicago.Read more (you will leave this page)

Robert Gibbs Outgoing Press Secretary

After working as Mr Obama’s press secretary since 2004, Mr Gibbs has decided to take a break, and possibly earn some decent money, working as a communications consultant. He will continue to advise Mr Obama from his new perch outside the White House.Read more (you will leave this page)

Ellen Moran & Anita Dunn Outgoing Communications Director

Ms Moran, one of the few senior women in the White House lasted less than three months. Some speculated she had a hard time breaking in to Mr Obama’s tight-knit inner circle. She’s now chief of staff at the Commerce Department.Ms Dunn, a well known and highly regarded Democratic operative, agreed to take the role on an interim basis. She is rumoured to be in the running to be the next White House press secretary.

David Axelrod Outgoing Senior Adviser

After serving as his media adviser since 2004, Chicago’s Mr Axelrod is about as close to Mr Obama as anyone in the White House. His position in the administration is his first in Washington. The former journalist will return to the Windy City soon to help run Mr Obama’s re-election campaign.

General James Jones Outgoing National Security Adviser

Mr Jones’s departure was the subject of rumours long before it eventuated. A newcomer to Mr Obama’s inner circle, he was reported to be a poor fit. The general had a celebrated 40 year military career.Read more (you will leave this page)

Larry Summers Outgoing National Economic Council Director

A well-regarded economist and experienced presidential adviser, the cantankerous Mr Summers reportedly had difficult relations with Mr Obama’s other advisers. He returned to teach at Harvard in 2011.Read more (you will leave this page)

Peter Orszag Outgoing Office of Management and Budget Director

The budget director, who made headlines as much for his personal as professional life, is now earning the big bucks as a Vice Chairman for Citigroup. He’s also a columnist for the New York Times.

Christina Romer Outgoing Council of Economic Advisers Chair

Cheery Christina Romer played a pivotal role in crafting and overseeing the stimulus package. She returned to her teaching role at the University of California, Berkeley, in late 2010, as she had long planned.Read more (you will leave this page)

It is not that unusual for White House staff to turn over at this point in the election cycle, but Mr Obama had a particularly tight inner circle, that was reportedly difficult for newcomers to break into.

Advisers including David Axelrod and Robert Gibbs had been with the president since his first Senate campaign – long before he became a household name.

Now, that tight-knit group is dispersing, in part to help the 2012 re-election. The power balance in DC is shifting and a host of new faces will soon become ubiquitous in the West Wing, and no doubt on US cable channels.

In addition to the high-profile staffers above, there are several other names we are bound to hear more of:

Jim Messina is leaving his post as deputy chief of staff at the White House to head up Mr Obama’s re-election bid from Chicago. He will be soon be joined by White House Social Secretary Julianna Smoot and Democratic National Committee executive director Jen O’Malley Dillon.Ms Dillon will be replaced by White House Political Director Patrick Gaspard.Mr Messina’s White House role will be filled by Alyssa Mastromonaco, who is currently the director of scheduling.Veteran Democratic strategist Stephanie Cutter, who did a short stint at the White House helping craft communications during the health care reform debate, will return in a new advisory role.White House Legislative Director Phil Schiliro is expected to leave his role soon. He will be replaced by Rob Nabors.White House Counsel Greg Craig led President Bill Clinton’s defence during the impeachment trial and became close to Mr Obama during his campaign. Commentators speculate that he was forced out for his failure to close Guantanamo Bay. He was replaced by Bob Bauer.Mr Obama’s senior energy and climate change adviser Carol Browner has also announced her intention to step down, but her replacement has not been named.

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

Why is My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding so popular?

Sam Norton in a 20 stone wedding dress
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The Channel 4’s My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding following the nuptials of Gypsies and Irish Travellers has been a huge ratings hit. So what does the series teach us about these communities?

Sam’s 20-stone wedding dress, complete with blinking fairy lights, weighs more than her father. But the only thing bigger than the dresses are the TV ratings.

This week’s episode had a peak audience of 7.4m viewers, Channel 4’s highest ratings since Big Brother in 2008.

Visual spectacle

Bride with eight bridesmaidsGirls are expected to remain virgins until they get married, and divorce is rare

The pictures of young women hardly able to support the weight of their own dresses make great television.

The visual spectacle is enjoyed not least by wedding design enthusiast Sarah Evetts. The “jaw droppingly awesome” show inspired her to create a mood board on her weddings blog Boho Bride.

But in the Daily Mail Jan Moir isn’t as impressed.

“Walking down the aisle, Sam looked like a day-glo cross between a Christmas tree and a crochet toilet-roll holder.”

She does concede that while the show portrays “frock horror” it also had its own “astonishing, nightmarish beauty”.

‘Munchkin strip club’

Moir calls the weddings lurid, the parties gaudy and the first Holy Communion ceremonies unsettling. She is not alone in her disapproval of an episode which showed six-year-old Mary Ann getting a spray tan before her first Holy Communion.

“These tiny toughies in their ­Sunday-best frills are oddly affecting, yet there’s no escaping the fact that in their high heels, tight dresses and false eyelashes, they look like the can-can chorus line from a munchkin strip club.”

Girls in pink dress and boy in cream suitThe extent girls under 10 dress up has attracted criticism

The episode was followed by widespread criticism of the perceived sexualisation of children. However, the programme also shows the comparatively strict morals of girls in the Traveller communities.

There is expected to be no sex before marriage, divorce is almost unheard of and talking back to elders is unacceptable. Selina Julien wonders in Now magazine how a community that thrives on their strict practices justifies allowing children to look “more like they belong at Spearmint Rhino than the local comp”.

It isn’t just the girls’ outfits and morals which are new to the viewer. The dating ritual of “grabbing” depicted in the programme shows boys virtually pinning down girls who in return have to reject their advances.

Racist accusations

Lindy McDowell argues in the Belfast Telegraph that showing these fascinating practices offers a haunting picture of a community about which we think we know a lot but don’t actually know very much.

In among the sartorial excess are storylines depicting discrimination experienced by gypsy communities and travellers. One episode explained wedding venues very often have to be kept secret until the very last minute for fear that the venue owners will catch on that it is a gypsy wedding and cancel the booking. In another, a family is caught up in planning laws which don’t allow building on the land they own.

The programme makers themselves believe they are illuminating a hidden part of society, through a “revealing documentary series that offers a window into the secretive, extravagant and surprising world of gypsies and travellers in Britain today”.

But some members of these communities have been expressing their unease with the programme.

Helena Kiely, a 22-year-old Irish Traveller who spent her childhood on local authority-run encampments around east London and now works as a youth adviser at the London Gypsy and Traveller Unit, says in the Guardian that it doesn’t take much to bolster crude stereotypes. For her, the accent on frills and flouncing is a missed opportunity to show contemporary Traveller culture as it really is.

Ms Kiely is not alone as the Travellers’ Times is leading protests about the show aimed at the communications watchdog Ofcom. The publication is arguing the programme is not only inaccurate but also “misleads the audience and leads to harm and offence”.

My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding is on at 2100 GMT on Tuesdays on Channel 4. Previous episodes are available on its catch-up service

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

US man on Pakistan murder charges

Onlookers surrounding the motor bike of a commuter who was killed Onlookers surrounded the motor bike of the commuter who was killed
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A US consular employee has been charged with murder after two motorcyclists were shot dead in the Pakistani city of Lahore, police say.

Raymond David reportedly said he fired his gun in self-defence because the men were pursuing him in his car.

Another motorcyclist was run over and killed by a vehicle carrying Mr David’s colleagues as they came to his aid, police and witnesses said.

Mr David is expected in court later in the Punjab province capital.

Lahore’s Police chief Aslam Tareen told the BBC that Mr David was not a diplomat, but was employed on “security duties” in the consulate.

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

Dog is wolf in jackal’s clothing

Image of what is believed to be an African wolf (Image: Oxford University/WildCRU)The taxonomic classification of the species has long been the subject of an ongoing debate
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DNA analysis has shown that the Egyptian jackal, previously believed to be a subspecies of the golden jackal, is a relative of the grey wolf.

Genetic information shows that the species, Canis aureus lupaster, is more closely related to Indian and Himalayan wolves than golden jackals.

Writing in Plos One, researchers said the renamed “African wolf” was the only grey wolf species found in Africa.

They also called for an urgent assessment of its conservation status.

There has been a long-running debate over whether the animal was a jackal or wolf.

In the late 19th Century, the renowned evolutionary biologist Thomas Huxley said that it looked suspiciously like grey wolves (Canis lupus).

In the 20th Century, other biologists made similar comments after examining skulls from specimens of the species. However, the taxonomical classification remained unchanged.

The team of researchers from Norway, Ethiopia and the UK explained why they decided to focus their attention on the species.

“During a field study of the Ethiopian wolf in central Ethiopia, we noticed that some golden jackals differed slightly in their appearance from golden jackals elsewhere,” they wrote.

They added that the canids were “larger, more slender and sometimes with a more whitish colouration”.

This, combined with a photograph taken in 2004 in Eritrea that showed a “wolf-like animal” which was suggested to be an Egyptian jackal, prompted the team to investigate the area’s highland golden jackals and sequence their DNA.

Exciting find

Co-author Claudio Sillero, from the University of Oxford’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU), said it was “really exciting” to find that what they thought was a member of a relatively common species, only to find out that the animal could belong to a much more unique grouping.

Arabian wolf (Canis lupus arabs) (Image: Chris and Matilde Stuart)The Arabian wolf is believed to be the closest relative – geographically and genetically – to the African wolf

He added: “What I understand from the genetic work carried out by our Norwegian colleagues is that the consistency of the results returned very strong [similarities to other subspecies of the grey wolf].

“This is why we are very confident that we are looking at a different taxon.”

Professor Sillero explained what the next step would be in order to get the species formally reclassified.

“Traditionally, you would do a formal morphological description of the specimen. However, there is a possibility that we could describe the species on genetic material alone,” he told BBC News.

“We stopped short of doing that on this paper because we wanted to get the feedback, and the response has been phenomenal among colleagues.

“Somewhere along the line, I think we will push for it to be recognised as a separate species.”

Until now, the range of the grey wolf was known to extend to the Sinai Peninsula but not into mainland Africa. It was presumed that the closest living relative in the continent was the endangered Ethiopia wolf (Canis simensis), found only in the Ethiopian highlands.

Professor Sillero, who is also chairman of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s canid specialist group, explained that researchers found examples of the species at two highland locations, which extended the known range of Canis aureus lupaster by at least 2,500km south-east.

“This brings more questions than answers, such as how far into the heartland of Africa do they go?”

He added that he had recently received an “intriguing photograph” taken in northern Senegal.

“It was a picture of a wolf, there is no question about that, but we have never talked about wolves being present in Senegal before,” he told BBC News.

“This wolf is hanging out with a family group of side-striped jackals. So this shows that there is complexity, not just in distribution but in sociality.”

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

New schools ‘ideally academies’

Primary school classroomPopulation pressure means more schools are needed
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The Education Secretary Michael Gove has said all new schools in England should ideally be academies or free schools.

These are state-funded, but semi-independent schools.

Population increases in parts of England, especially London and the west Midlands, mean more schools are needed.

Mr Gove said if councils think a new school is needed, the “first choice” should be a free school or academy proposal.

This has now been put in to the Education Bill which was published yesterday, meaning councils will have to follow this approach, rather than setting up their own schools.

The government announced on Friday that a total of 249 groups – including parents, teachers and charities – have now come forward with proposals to set up free schools.

Thirty-five groups have gone to the next stage of the process and are developing a full business case and a plan.

Several are expected to open in September.

Representatives of many of the groups will be in London for a conference on Saturday, where they will meet Mr Gove and some of the figures behind the charter schools movement in the United States.

An Academies Act, passed in the summer, paved the way for groups of parents, teachers and charities to set up their own “free schools”, and for the expansion of the academies programme, under which schools are being encouraged to “opt out” of local authority control.

The new Bill says that if local authorities believe there is a need for a new school in their area, they “must seek proposals for the establishment of an academy”.

Free schools are also academies – schools directly funded by central government, which stand outside of local authority control.

The changes also allow special schools and Pupil Referral Units (PRUs) to become academies and set out the conditions for faith schools to take on this status.

Mr Gove was speaking at the King Solomon Academy in London which is run by the Ark foundation.

Asked about the duty being put on councils planning for new schools in their areas, Mr Gove said: “That would be the first choice I would like local authorities to make, that they should be free schools or academies”.

He said there was a need for schools, particularly primary schools in some areas, including London, east Lancashire, west Yorkshire and the midlands.

“My view is we should encourage innovation and choice by ensuring that as many of these schools as possible are academies or free schools.”

Teaching unions are strongly opposed to the schools. They say they will divide schools and fracture the school system. Academies and free schools do not have to follow national guidelines on teachers’ pay and conditions.

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

Nasa marks space shuttle disaster

Nasa Administrator Charles Bolden at Arlington CemeteryThe ceremony took place at Arlington National Cemetery

The US space agency has held a day of remembrance for astronauts who have died in the line of duty, particularly the seven who died in the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

Flags flew at half-mast at Nasa installations across the country.

“The legacy of those who have perished is present every day… and inspires generations of new space explorers,” Nasa Administrator Charles Bolden said.

Friday is the 25th anniversary of the Challenger disaster.

The shuttle exploded 73 seconds after launch at an altitude of 14,000 metres (46,000ft), killing all on board.

“Every day, with each new challenge we overcome and every discovery we make, we honour these remarkable men and women,” Mr Bolden said.

During Thursday’s ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, he laid a wreath at a memorial to the seven astronauts, Commander Francis Scobee, Pilot Michael Smith, Mission Specialists Judith Resnik, Ellison Onizuka, Ronald McNair and Payload Specialists Gregory Jarvis and Christa McAuliffe.

On 28 January, 1986, the Challenger was on a mission – STS 51L in the official record – to deploy two satellites. It broke up after launch over the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Investigators later determined a sealing ring had failed in cold weather, allowing pressurised hot gas to leak from one of the rocket boosters and eventually to breach the external fuel tank.

The mission was notable because it carried for the first time a teacher, Ms McAuliffe.

“Christa confidently and joyfully embraced life, no less than her friends and colleagues on Challenger, and no less than the crews of Columbia, Apollo 1, and all of those people who courageously follow their own paths every day,” said Ms McAuliffe’s widower Steven McAuliffe, a federal judge.

He was referring to other fatal accidents in history of the US space programme.

A total of 24 people have been killed while supporting the space agency’s mission since 1964, Nasa said.

Seven astronauts died aboard the Columbia shuttle in 2003 when it disintegrated upon re-entry to Earth due to a damaged heat shield.

Three people died aboard the Apollo 1 in 1967 after a fire during a launch pad test.

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