Category: news

Russias airport bombing is given plenty of coverage in the newspapers.

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Graeme Swann will miss the rest of the one-day series with Australia with a back injury but is expected to be back for the World Cup.

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US President Barack Obama is to call for new public spending to boost job creation in his state of the union address, setting up a clash with Republicans.

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Russian President Dmitry Medvedev vows to track down and punish those behind an apparent suicide bomb attack at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport that killed 35 people.

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Inquiries into issues raised by the 2009 climate e-mail hack had flaws, MPs conclude – but it is time to make changes and move on.

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The US says leaked documents apparently showing Israel rejected Palestinian concessions will make a peace deal “more difficult” but will not affect efforts to achieve it.

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A Holyrood committee is due to consider responses over a call for an independent inquiry into the conviction of the Lockerbie bomber.

The Justice For Megrahi (JFM) group handed over a petition seeking the action in October last year.

The petitions committee is to discuss submissions from the Scottish government and the JFM group.

Members of the group, including Dr Jim Swire, who lost his daughter at Lockerbie, are expected to attend.

About 1,500 people signed the petition seeking an independent probe into the case of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, the only man to be convicted of the bombing which killed 270 people in 1988.

They claim it is “imperative” that the case be examined once more.

However, the Scottish government has already indicated that it has no plans to hold an inquiry and “does not doubt the safety of the conviction”.

Megrahi dropped a second appeal against his conviction in the run-up to Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill’s decision to free him on compassionate grounds in 2009.

Al-Megrahi had previously been diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer.

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The first minister wants every school child to visit the new Robert Burns Birthplace Museum in Alloway.

During a special Burns Day message, Alex Salmond said schools would be given help to meet the cost of travelling to the museum.

“Young Scots should leave here with a new pride and understanding, not just in our national poet, but in themselves too,” he said.

Mr Salmond also paid tribute to the work of Scotland’s Makar Liz Lochhead.

The new national poet, who is one of the contributors on a new BBC audio archive of Burns, officially opened the museum last week.

Mr Salmond said children visiting the museum would learn how a peasant farmer writing in rich Scots came to be celebrated around the world.

He explained: “Why? Because he spoke of universal themes like the right to happiness and how all human beings are created equal – that ‘pith o sense and pride o worth’ are more valuable than wealth or status.”

He said the Scottish government had increased funding to the Heritage Education Travel Subsidy Scheme by almost 20% to £150,000 to help schools make the trip, and it had also launched a free Burns app for those unable to visit “right away”.

Mr Salmond described how Burns “owed a huge debt to the women in his life – his grandmother, mother and wife who all had an incredible memory for the Scots ballads, lullabies and old folktales, even psalms”.

“The role of women in our culture is often overlooked even today.

“That’s why I am particularly delighted that our new Makar, or national poet, Liz Lochhead opened the museum just last Friday.”

He said her work had similar themes to Burns.

“The message of Liz Lochhead, and of Robert Burns, is that you can take the speak of an Ayrshire farmhand, or a Glasgow school child, or the speak of the Doric of the North East of Scotland and communicate with all of humanity,” he said.

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Roger Federer plays Stanislas Wawrinka in an all-Swiss quarter-final on day nine of the Australian Open, with Caroline Wozniacki, Novak Djokovic and Andrea Petkovic also in action on Tuesday.

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The Mexican Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia dies at 86, after a lifetime campaigning for indigenous Maya rights in Chiapas state.

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The Greek government said it will take legal action against Siemens for allegedly bribing officials.

It follows an 11-month parliamentary investigation that estimated the cost to Greek taxpayers of the alleged bribery at 2bn euros ($2.7bn, £1.7bn)

The bribery allegedly took place during 1997-2002 and affected telecoms contracts as well as security prior to the 2004 Athens Olympics.

A Socialist ex-minister admitted his involvement in one bribe last year.

The former Transport Minister, Tassos Mantelis, told the investigating committee he had accepted the equivalent of 100,000 euros (£116,000, $122,000) in 1998.

Socialist politicians being investigated cannot be prosecuted due to the statute of limitation.

The investigating committee is expected shortly to name other ministers accused of accepting bribes.

The Greek action against the German firm follows the settlement in 2008 of other unrelated bribery accusations against the company in the US and Germany, which resulted in it paying out 1bn euros in penalties.

“Greece will seek compensation for the damage it has suffered from the corrupt practices that have been used by your company in the past,” wrote investment minister Haris Pamboukis in a letter to the German company’s Greek subsidiary, Siemens Hellas.

Joern Roggenbuck, a spokesman for Siemens AG, said the German parent company “has done everything humanly possible to shed light on the past dealings and has always fully cooperated with the authorities”.

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The head of the Catholic Church in Italy has strongly criticised Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is embroiled in a sex scandal.

Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco said that political leaders who behave immorally pollute the country’s future.

Prosecutors have accused the prime minister of paying for sex with prostitutes, allegedly including an under-age dancer.

Mr Berlusconi denies he has done anything wrong.

He has refused to appear before prosecutors for questioning, and on Monday Ansa news agency reported that his lawyers had filed court documents defending him from the accusations.

The BBC’s David Willey, in Rome, said the Catholic Church had been reluctant to openly criticise the prime minister because the hierarchy did not want to stand accused of fomenting further political instability.

But last week the man seen as number two at the Vatican, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, called for a more “robust morality” and legality among public officials.

A day later Pope Benedict XVI deplored the current weakening of public morals.

Cardinal Bagnasco is head of the Italian bishops’ conference which in theory operates independently from the Vatican, whose focus is more upon the Church’s international role and responsibilities.

“Whoever accepts a public position must understand the sobriety, personal discipline, sense of measure and honor that come with it,” he told a meeting of the conference in Ancona.

Although he did not name Mr Berlusconi, the cardinal had already announced he would address the issue on Monday, and it was clear who he was talking about.

Our correspondent in Rome says the cardinal also virtually accused Mr Berlusconi of helping to promote a false model of success – based, he said, on cunning, social climbing, showing off and selling oneself.

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