Category: news

Police investigating dissident republican activity have arrested a 36-year-old man in the Keady area of south Armagh.

The arrest on Thursday was part of a search operation involving detectives from the PSNI serious crime branch.

Army bomb disposal experts were tasked to examine a number of suspect objects during the operation. These have since been removed for examination.

The man who was arrested is being questioned at Antrim police station.

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Michel Balthazard, the most senior of three sacked Renault executives, has begun legal action to clear his name.

The three were dismissed over allegations of industrial espionage.

His colleague Betrand Rochette has also filed a complaint with French prosecutors, and the third man is said to be preparing legal paperwork.

Mr Balthazard’s lawyer Xavier Thouvenin told the BBC a criminal complaint was filed against unnamed individuals to discover who had accused his client.

A second filing was made against Renault for the unfair dismissal of Mr Balthazard.

Mr Balthazard was dismissed last week as head of Renault’s long-term development amid reports that secret information about the company’s electric car programme had been leaked.

French media reports speculated about money being deposited in Swiss bank accounts and of links with one or more companies in China.

Renault has filed a criminal complaint with the Paris prosecutor’s office, alleging it has been the victim of organised industrial espionage, corruption, and breach of trust.

Mr Thouvenin said: “In his letter of employment termination, my client was told of an anonymous claim that he received bribes. Our action is to find who is the whistleblower who has named my client.”

He described the claim against Mr Balthazard as “unfounded and slanderous”. The other two executives have strongly denied wrongdoing.

French judicial authorities will now decide whether to investigate.

Although media speculation pointed to foreign involvement, Renault has not accused any country or company of being behind the espionage.

Renault and its Japanese partner Nissan have invested $4bn (£2.5bn) to develop electric cars and the two companies are seen to be among the leaders in this field.

Nissan’s Leaf electric car was recently launched in the US and Japan.

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US marines had 26 killed in action in four months, an even higher rate of casualties than the British.

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Education Secretary Michael Gove has signalled the possible return of a compulsory modern foreign language at GCSE.

Launching a national curriculum review in England, he cut the list of subjects guaranteed to remain compulsory to English, maths, science and PE.

A panel of experts will decide how many more subjects should be required study, and the content of these at all levels.

Mr Gove also suggested pupils should study a broader range of literature.

He claimed that currently pupils could get a GCSE in English Literature having studied just one novel.

Despite a long list of recommended authors, Mr Gove said many schools were concentrating on just a few texts.

He said: “There was an element of a sleight of hand by the last government – they said we’ve got Pope, Dryden and Chaucer – but when you visit schools you would find they were overwhelmingly studying of Mice and Men and Lord of the Flies.”

Mr Gove said English, maths and science should form the core of the what pupils study up to the age of 16.

When asked whether he was “leaving the door open” to making modern foreign languages compulsory at GCSE, Mr Gove responded with an emphatic “yes”.

He added: “We have given people a nudge with the English Baccalaureate towards a certain set of academic subjects.”

“Beyond that we want to have an informed debate.”

To gain the English Baccalaureate pupils need good GCSEs in English, maths, science, a modern foreign language, and either history or geography.

The requirement for teenagers to take a language at GCSE was ended by the last Labour government in 2004. It led to a massive slump in the numbers taking languages.

Mr Gove has long criticised the size of the national curriculum, amended and enlarged significantly over the past two decades.

He wants it to be less about learning skills and defining teaching methods, and more about ensuring all children have the opportunity to acquire a “core of essential knowledge”.

Mr Gove said reform was vital if England was to keep up with its international competitors, and it had to happen fast otherwise children would be “culturally impoverished”.

Research already showed that 15-year-olds studying maths in China were more than two years ahead of those in England, he said.

Mr Gove also said he thought “there should be a debate about whether one afternoon a week should be given over to competitive sport or outdoor community activities”.

Currently schools must teach 13 compulsory subjects to children aged 5-7, rising to 14 for pupils aged 7-14 and then dropping to eight for 14-16 year-olds.

This includes Religious Education, which is a statutory requirement, although parents can opt their children out of classes.

At the Conservative Party Conference, Mr Gove said it was a “tragedy of our time” that children were growing up ignorant of the history of the UK.

He said children were given a “cursory run” through Henry VIII and Hitler” at secondary school, and many gave up the subject at 14, without grasping a connected narrative.

Mr Gove has already asked the historian Simon Schama to advise on how British history could be “put at the heart of a revised national curriculum”.

The new curriculum in the core subjects of maths, English, science and PE will be introduced from September 2013, Mr Gove said, with other subjects brought in the following year.

RE teaching will remain a statutory requirement, and personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education will be reviewed by the government separately.

Nasuwt general secretary Chris Keates said the review was “pointless” as ministers had “already determined that children should have a 1950s-style curriculum”.

National Association of Head Teachers general secretary Russell Hobby, said heads wanted to see a less prescriptive national curriculum but one that covered “the basics while leaving room for creativity, culture and excitement”.

Brian Lightman, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said it was not just about the transfer of knowledge, but about the skills and range of experiences children received in school.

Andy Burnham MP, Labour’s shadow education secretary, said Mr Gove was “stuck in the past, foisting his 1950s vision of education onto today’s schools and students”.

He added that despite claims he was consulting with teachers and parents, the launch of the English Baccalaureate showed Mr Gove had “already made up his mind”.

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Stoke reveal to the BBC that they have held talks with a view to signing Aston Villa striker John Carew.

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A former police officer who admitted downloading more than 600 indecent images of children from the internet has been told he will be going to jail.

Brian Connor, 46, of Clooney Road in Knockloughrim, County Londonderry, pleaded guilty to 27 specimen charges involving 603 abusive images.

Londonderry Crown Court was told that Connor – a police officer for 26 years – has been dismissed from the PSNI.

Sentencing was adjourned until Friday, but Connor was told he would be jailed.

Judge Piers Grant remanded him in custody and told him people who viewed images of children being abused tortured and brutalised faced the inevitable consequences of going to jail.

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Each of William Shakespeare’s 38 plays are to be performed in a different language to mark the 2012 London Olympics, it has been announced.

Stagings of Julius Caesar in Italian, Troilus and Cressida in Maori and The Tempest in Arabic will form part of the season at Shakespeare’s Globe theatre.

Lithuanian, Spanish and Greek are among the other languages that will feature.

The six-week theatre season, part of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad, will start on 23 April – the Bard’s birthday.

“It has long been recognised that Shakespeare, as well as a great playwright, has become an international language,” said Dominic Dromgoole, the Globe’s artistic director.

“We want to celebrate this international affection by welcoming Shakespeare enthusiasts – producers, performers and audiences – to experience his work in their own languages and dialects.”

Visitors to the theatre on London’s South Bank will be able to see The Taming Of The Shrew in Urdu, King Lear in Australian Aboriginal languages and Titus Andronicus in Cantonese.

Companies from around the world will participate in the season, described as “the most ambitious multilingual Shakespeare project ever attempted”.

Meanwhile, the Globe has confirmed it is to move forward with the completion of an indoor Jacobean theatre beside its existing open-air playhouse.

The auditorium will be the most complete recreation of an English Renaissance indoor theatre yet attempted.

It is hoped construction work will begin next year within the shell that already exists on the Globe site.

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A woman has been convicted of killing a mother-of-four by stabbing her to death on the street near her home.

Charlene Wilson, 25, was found guilty of the culpable homicide of her “friend” Gail Russell on 12 June 2010.

A jury at the High Court in Glasgow cleared her of murdering Ms Russell at Small Crescent, Blantyre.

The court heard that Wilson, armed with a knife, went with Thomas Gibson and Aaron Black to the home Ms Russell, 26, shared with boyfriend Andy Carruthers.

They planned to confront Mr Carruthers, but Wilson stabbed Ms Russell through the chest.

Neighbours told the court they saw Wilson pull a knife from her waistband and stab Ms Russell, who was unarmed.

Ms Russell chased after Wilson for a few moments, but collapsed in the street.

A pathologist said the stab wound was 1cm (0.4in) from Ms Russell’s heart. The knife sliced though a blood vessel and she bled to death.

Wilson told the court she did not intend to stab Ms Russell but lashed out because she thought she was going to be attacked.

She said Ms Russell, who had four young children and had only moved to the street in Blantyre a few months earlier, was a friend of hers, although they were not speaking at the time.

She told the jury that Gibson and Black wanted to confront Mr Carruthers and she went along “to show off”.

Wilson said they went to the door of Ms Russell’s house where the door slammed shut on them.

She said: “I thought that was it. I was a I bit annoyed so I threw a toy pram.”

Seconds later Ms Russell, her boyfriend Mr Carruthers and his sister Gillian Carruthers came running from the side of the house.

She added: “Andy Carruthers had a knife, Gillian Carruthers flung a bottle at me, which smashed against a lamp post.

“Gail Russell had a bottle which she flung and she was making gestures at her back as if she’d got a weapon.

“I was terrified, so I pulled out my knife and swung it towards her. I never meant to hurt her, she was my pal. I just meant to keep her away from me.”

Giving evidence, Mr Carruthers denied he had any weapon that night.

Advocate depute John Scullion, defending, said Wilson had five previous convictions at summary level but had never served a custodial sentence.

Defending, Ian Duguid QC said Wilson had a bipolar condition.

Co-accused Gibson, 29, from Blantyre, and Black, 22, from Motherwell, admitted a breach of the peace in Small Crescent by brandishing a knife and a sword.

Judge Lord Brailsford deferred sentencing until next month.

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Powers allowing terror suspects to be held for 28 days without charge will be allowed to lapse next Tuesday, returning to a 14-day limit, Home Office Minister Damian Green has said.

The decision followed a review by the government, the full findings of which will be announced next Wednesday.

Mr Green’s announcement was a response to a question in the House of Commons.

The 28-day limit, introduced under Labour’s 2006 Terrorism Act, had been criticised by some civil rights groups.

The use of the 28-day limit was extended for six months last year while the full review was carried out.

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The victim of a high-profile New York baby-snatching case has been reunited with her mother after solving the mystery of her abduction herself.

Carlina White was abducted from a hospital in Harlem in August 1987, when she was just 19 days old.

Raised as Nejdra Nance in Connecticut, Ms White, 23, always had a sense she did not belong to her family, police said, and began her own inquiries.

DNA tests this week confirmed Carlina as the daughter of Joy White.

Police are now investigating the woman who raised Carlina.

Carlina was abducted from the hospital on 4 August 1987 after being taken there with a fever by her mother.

Joy White returned to the emergency room two hours after she was admitted, only to find Carlina’s cot empty.

There were reports of a woman wearing nurse’s clothing who had consoled the mother but who later picked up the baby and walked out of the building.

Although the abduction made headlines, investigators could not find a breakthrough and the case went cold.

Nejdra Nance was then raised in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and later moved to Atlanta in Georgia.

Carlina had long held suspicions as she did not resemble any of her family and suspected the woman who raised her used fake social security ID.

Police spokesman Paul Browne told the New York Times: “She has held the view, for a long time, that she did not belong to the family she was living with.”

After starting her own investigations, Carlina finally contacted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and discovered a photo of a baby on its website she believed to be her.

The centre helped Ms White, who called her biological mother on 4 January.

The New York Police Department took over the investigation, arranging for DNA tests that on Tuesday proved Ms White was the daughter of Joy White and Carl Tyson, who are now separated.

Carlina had not waited for the results – holding her first reunion with her mother last Friday and returning again to New York from Georgia on Wednesday.

“I’m overwhelmed. I’m just happy. It’s like a movie; it’s all brand new to me,” Ms White told the New York Daily News.

Her 18-year-old half-sister, Sheena, who Carlina had not known existed until recently, told the New York Times: “We spoke and got to know each other, and she looks exactly like my mom. It felt like we knew each other before we met.”

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