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Swiss police re-arrest ex-banker Rudolf Elmer over the passing of data to WikiLeaks, hours after he was found guilty of breaching a secrecy law.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Arsenal produce an accomplished display to win at Championship side Leeds and book their place in the fourth round of the FA Cup.
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The FSS has provided important DNA evidence in numerous high-profile cases The Commons science committee has said it is to hold an inquiry into the closure of the UK government-owned Forensic Science Service (FSS).
On 14 December, the government said the service would be wound up, adding that as many of its operations as possible were to be transferred or sold off.
The FSS analyses evidence from crime scenes in England and Wales, but has been losing about £2m a month.
It employs 1,600 people and analyses more than 120,000 cases each year.
Evidence provided by the FSS was key to the arrest of serial killer Steve Wright and in the case of missing girl Shannon Matthews.
The service is widely seen as a world-class organisation that has been at the forefront of innovation in forensics.
The government wants private enterprise, which currently makes up 40% of the market, to fill the gap left behind by the FSS.
At the time of the government’s announcement, Crime Reduction Minister James Brokenshire said private sector competition for police contracts was enabling forces to achieve greater efficiency.
He said that the Forensic Science Regulator should ensure that quality standards are maintained.
But other commentators warn that an over-emphasis on profits could threaten the quality of science.
In a letter to The Times newspaper last month, forensic experts strongly urged the government to reconsider the decision.
Scientists said the move would see the UK lose its position as a world leader in the investigation of crime scene evidence.
Forensic geneticist Professor Niels Morling, who co-ordinated the letter, said the announcement of the closure had been greeted with “disbelief and dismay”.
Professor Morling, from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, said in an editorial: “It is clear that an organisation that offers world-leading research will never be able to compete with commercial suppliers that focus on the lowest cost and highest efficiency. Nor should it.”
He added: “An independent second opinion is crucial in forensic science, and this should come from government and academic laboratories.”
Many also doubt that the private sector will take up the role of developing and refining new technologies. This could mean that UK forensic labs will be unable to offer the most up-to-date techniques in order to solve serious crimes.
The terms of reference for the Commons Science and Technology Committee’s inquiry are as follows:
What will be the impact of the closure of the FSS on forensic science and on the future development of forensic science in the UK?What will be the implications of the closure on the quality and impartiality of forensic evidence used in the criminal justice system?What is the financial position of the Forensic Science Service?What is the state of, and prospects for, the forensics market in the UK? Specifically whether the private sector can carry out the work currently done by the FSS. The volume and nature of the forensic work carried out by police forces will also be examined.What are the alternatives to winding down the Forensic Science Service?So far as they are known, are the arrangements for closing down the FSS, making staff redundant and selling its assets adequate?
Supporters of the FSS have also initiated an online petition, calling for the service to be saved. The petition has so far collected about 19,000 signatures.
The FSS has two offices in Birmingham and sites in Chepstow, Chorley, London, Huntingdon and Wetherby
The Home Office says the service is expected to be wound up by March 2012, with the loss of 1,600 jobs.
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Prince’s headmaster thinks he looks much older than 14 A Hampshire school has excluded one of its pupils two days after he joined because of suspicions he is an adult.
The Petersfield School says Prince Summerfield from Liphook looks much older than 14 and sent him home until his age can be proved.
Prince’s mother, Ennettie, said she was “devastated” to receive a letter from the school explaining their suspicions.
The school said Prince would be welcome to return if it receives assurances that he is 14 years old, as claimed.
Mrs Summerfield, who is originally from Malawi, said UK authorities had already required her to provide DNA proof that Prince was her son before he was allowed to join her in the UK.
She said the school had told her she looked too young to be Prince’s mother but had not asked for any proof.
Mrs Summerfield said: “I was devastated and I thought that was not fair because I thought if they wanted to find any proof for my son they would just call me or send me a letter.”
A statement from the school’s headmaster, Nigel Poole, said: “It is true that currently the school is attempting to clarify aspects of this young man’s background in order to comply with our robust child safeguarding policies.
“Until we can be reassured that he is actually 14, he is not attending the school.
“If we receive such assurances, the young man will be more than welcome to return to The Petersfield School.”
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The Met said the officers were covertly deployed to identify potential criminals Scotland Yard has admitted giving MPs inaccurate information by denying “covert officers” were deployed at London’s G20 protests in April 2009.
Commander Bob Broadhurst told the Home Affairs Select Committee a month after the protest that no plain clothes officers were deployed in the crowd.
He said it would have been too dangerous to do so.
The Met said the officers were covertly deployed to identify individuals who may be involved in criminal activity.
In a statement, the Metropolitan Police said it had established that covert officers had been deployed to the protests, after officials made thorough checks following recent media reports.
Last week, committee chairman Keith Vaz wrote to the Met’s Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson.
The letter came after questions arose about Mr Broadhurst’s evidence following the unmasking of undercover policeman Mark Kennedy, who attended many demonstrations during seven years living as a spy among green activists.
Giving evidence at the select committee in 2009, Commander Bob Broadhurst told MPs then: “The only officers we deploy for intelligence purposes at public order are forward intelligence team officers who are wearing full police uniforms with a yellow jacket with blue shoulders.
“There were no plain clothes officers deployed at all.”
However, the Met stood by Sir Paul’s assurance to the committee at the same hearing that the force did not use “agents provocateurs” – undercover officers actively encouraging unrest.
The G20 protests were timed to coincide with the world leaders’ summit in London in April 2009.
The Met statement released on Wednesday said: “Having made thorough checks on the back of recent media reporting we have now established that covert officers were deployed during the G20 protests.
“Therefore the information that was given by Commander Bob Broadhurst to the Home Affairs Select Committee saying that ‘We had no plain-clothes officers deployed within the crowd’ was not accurate.”
The statement added: “Prior to the evidence session, there had been extensive discussion in the media and then at parliamentary committees about allegations that police officers were acting as agent provocateurs in the protests.”
Such behaviour was “completely against” how the Met deploys officers, the statement said.
It said the commissioner’s comments at the select committee referred to this point, not to covert deployments.
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Haitian activists sue ex-leader Jean-Claude Duvalier for crimes against humanity, days after his surprise return from exile.
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Knotty boy: Nadhim Zahawi was upbraided over his choice of neckwear A Conservative MP has apologised after inadvertently turning on his musical tie while making a speech in the House of Commons.
Nadhim Zahawi’s red neckpiece – worn as part of an anti-cancer campaign – started playing a tinny tune during a debate on education funding.
Deputy Speaker Dawn Primarolo urged him to be “more selective” in future in his choice of ties.
Mr Zahawi agreed to abide by her “words of wisdom” from now on.
The Stratford on Avon MP was was speaking in a Labour-led debate on the future of the Educational Maintenance Allowance in England when a tune rang out for about 20 seconds.
As colleagues and opponents looked around the chamber for the source, Mr Zahawi realised what had happened and switched off his tie.
He said: “I apologise. It is my tie to support the campaign against bowel cancer that was making that noise. It is a musical tie.”
Ms Primarolo called for order, saying: “Perhaps next time the honourable gentleman will be more selective in the ties he wears in the chamber and then we won’t need the musical accompaniment.”
Mr Zahawi replied: “Your words of wisdom are taken on board and I apologise to you.”
Later in the debate, Labour MP George Howarth began his speech by saying: “Unfortunately I don’t think I’m going to be able to compete with the honourable gentleman with regards our respective ties – but I rather hope I’ll surpass him on the arguments he’s just made.”
Mr Zahawi wore the tie as part of a campaign run by national charity Beating Bowel Cancer.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
By Pallab Ghosh
Regulators in financial markets could learn from nature, says the report The risk of financial meltdown is underestimated in the regulation of banks, according to a study.
Researchers say that regulators could learn from complex networks that exist in nature.
Co-author Andy Haldane said: “in financial ecosystems evolutionary forces have often been survival of the fattest rather than the fittest” because of government support.
Details of the research are published in the journal Nature.
According to Mr Haldane, who is the Bank of England’s Executive Director of Financial Stability, financial models can be improved by studying how they operate in more detail.
The first step, he says, is to gather data on how different elements interact.
“In October 2008, the financial system, and world economy, fell off a cliff,” he told BBC News.
“Conventional economic models struggled to make sense of that. But such cliff edges and tipping points are commonplace in networks, from infectious diseases to power grids, from forest fires to the world wide web.
“The dynamics of these systems would help in developing economic models which make sense of the contagious consequences of Lehmans Brothers’ failure”.
Mr Haldane reviewed scientific literature with the renowned epidemiologist and former government chief scientist, Lord May of the University of Oxford. They compared the dynamics of financial interactions with other complex networks such as ecological food webs and the spread of diseases.
“In finance it’s often been survival of the fattest rather than the fittest”
Andy Haldane Bank of England
Lord May told BBC News that natural ecosystems are “survivors over half a billion years of evolution whereas the banking system has no such pedigree and it’s governed mainly by interactions with regulators and government”.
“A lot of the mathematics that underpins derivatives and credit default swaps rests on often implicit assumptions on things that are like a balance of nature, ‘global equilibrium’. (But these) should be looked at in an analytical way rather than appealing to vague concepts such as perfect markets,” he said.
Haldane and May cite research which suggests that the conceptual underpinning of how derivatives are priced is “invalid”. Derivatives are financial instruments with values based on the predicted future movements of a share or currency.
The studies show that the more complex such schemes are, the more unstable they become.
Analytical approach
Professor May commented: “When things do go pear shaped how do you stop it propagating right through the system?”
He said he worries that that regulation has been set to reduce the risk to individual institutions but it may have increased the risk to the system as a whole.
“Big banks should hold bigger reserves because they are more important in the context of the system,”
Lord May Oxford University
In recent years there has been a trend for bigger banks to hold smaller capital reserves – which according to May and Haldane has made the financial system as a whole more vulnerable.
“You would rather be inclined when looking at the propagation of risk to suggest that the relatively big banks hold relatively bigger reserves because they are more important in the context of the system,” according to Lord May.
In other words, if they fail everyone else fails. So May and Haldane say there should be more liquidity in the system – particularly for bigger banks. Liquidity is the ability of an asset to be bought or sold in a market without affecting the asset’s price.
In the boom years, banks tend to run down their liquidity to make most use of their capital. And in bad times, they are building up liquidity as insurance. This results in less money being loaned to small businesses to keep them running.
Lord May commented: “In boom times when people are taking bigger risks you ought to hold bigger capital reserves and in bust times, when one of the priorities is to free up the money supply, you ought to hold smaller capital reserves.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Union members want the same flexi-time arrangements as other government workers Thousands of workers at Jobcentre Plus call centres are due to strike in a row over working conditions.
Members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union are set to stage a 48-hour walkout from Thursday.
Centres in Glasgow, Newport, Norwich, Manchester, Makerfield near Wigan, Bristol and Sheffield will be affected.
The union claimed workers were being excessively monitored. The Department for Work and Pensions said it was disappointed by the planned action.
The union is expecting up to 3,500 staff to walkout.
On Wednesday, it emerged that the number of Jobseeker’s Allowance claimants was falling despite a rise in unemployment.
The PCS claimed this was proof that a backlog of claims was mounting up.
It said it wanted staff to have the same flexi-time arrangements as in the rest of the Department for Work and Pensions; more varied, satisfying work; and an end to a target-driven culture.
“The contact centre staff at DWP will continue to receive good terms of employment including generous holidays”
DWP spokesman
The conditions were causing high levels of stress and sickness in the workplace, union officials added.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka called for the Department of Work and Pensions to “urgently investigate why the claimant rate appears to be falling when unemployment is going up, and to put proper resources in place to handle people’s claims effectively”.
A spokesman for the government department said: “We are disappointed that some staff, only 21% across the centres, have voted to take industrial action.
“No jobs will be at risk through these changes. The contact centre staff at DWP will continue to receive good terms of employment including generous holidays.
“We are modernising our telephone and benefit processing service.
“There will be no change to the way benefits are paid, however it will mean that customers will get a better service than at present when they phone with a benefit inquiry.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Sixth form protesters in Westminster offered Save EMA biscuits Social mobility will be “thrown into reverse” by scrapping the Education Maintenance Allowance for teenagers, Labour’s Andy Burnham has told MPs.
The shadow education secretary wants the government to abandon its plan to end the means-tested support.
Mr Burnham said it was an attack on the aspirations of young people.
Ministers say the allowances of up to £30 a week for students in England aged 16 to 19 are wasteful and money should be targeted on the poorest.
Labour has appealed to Liberal Democrat MPs to back the motion calling for a rethink, but a major rebellion is not expected.
Students are planning a second day of protests over the issue.
Lunchtime demonstrations were held on at least 30 school and college campuses, the University and College Union said.
A rally is scheduled in central London, and a group of students are holding classes in a room in the Houses of Parliament in protest against the decision.
Education Maintenance Allowances (EMAs) were introduced by Labour to encourage young people from deprived backgrounds to stay in education and training after the age of 16.
Students whose parents’ earnings fall below certain thresholds receive payments of £10, £20 or £30 a week.
Wales and Scotland also have the payment, which is under review in Northern Ireland.
The allowance can be spent however the student chooses, but are intended to cover the cost of course equipment, books and transport.
Campaigners say many students will drop out of courses, and others will not be able to afford to start them, if the allowance is cut as planned.
But the government says the £560m scheme is expensive, citing research that suggests 90% of EMA recipients would continue in education without the allowance.
Ministers want to replace it with “more targeted” support for the poorest young people.
Labour, however, argues in its Commons motion that EMA gives the poorest young people the choice of going to the best colleges in their area, by helping with transport costs.
Speaking on BBC television, shadow education secretary Andrew Burnham accused the Conservatives of breaking a pre-election promise, because David Cameron had before being elected that he had “no plans” to scrap EMA.
Mr Burnham said cutting the allowance could be costly for the state: “If you pull the rug from under [low-income students], the state will have to pick them up in a different way – it might end with them on the benefit system. Where’s the sense in that?”
Critics complain some students spend the allowance on non-essential items and on socialising.
The Conservative chairman of the Education Select Committee, Graham Stuart, said cutting EMA would have some “some damaging impact”.
But he said that savings had to be made because of the national deficit.
EMA featured in last year’s angry student street protests “Nearly half of all 16-17-year-olds are in receipt of EMA – do nearly half of all young people need to be paid by the government to go to school or college? I don’t think so,” he told the BBC.
Research by the University and College Union, published on Tuesday, suggested that 70% of students in the poorest areas would drop out of college if their EMA was stopped.
UCU polled more than 700 students, in the 30 colleges and schools with the highest proportion of students receiving EMA in England.
Some 38% of those polled said they would not have started their courses without EMA, while 63% said they received no financial support from their family for college costs.
The government says it now plans to support the most needy students through a discretionary fund administered by colleges, which it has said it hopes to triple from its current level of £26m.
The government also points out that local authorities have a statutory obligation to make sure that transport is not a barrier to students’ education.
In his amendment to the Labour motion, Schools Minister Nick Gibb says support “must be in place to allow those who face the greatest barriers to participation to access this opportunity”.
The amendment continues: “Government has increased funding for deprivation within the 16 to 19 budget and has already begun to replace the current education maintenance allowance system with more targeted support for those who face genuine barriers, including travel.”
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Sandip Moneea, 41, Raj Theekoy, 33, and Avinash Treebhoowoon, 29, have already been charged over the killing A fifth man has been arrested in connection with the murder of Michaela McAreavey last week in Mauritius.
Seenarain Mungoo, 39, is a security officer at Legends hotel.
Two men, already charged with murder and another charged with conspiracy to murder, appeared in court again on Wednesday.
The 27-year-old, daughter of Tyrone Gaelic football manager Mickey Harte, was found strangled in her honeymoon hotel room in Grand Gaube.
The fourth man, Dassen Narayanen, 26, who also works for hotel security was charged with aiding to commit a crime.
The four men were remanded in custody until next Wednesday.
Mr Mungoo is from Petit Raffray- the same village as Sandip Moneea who is charged with murdering Michaela but has not confessed to the crime.
Police in Mauritius said Mr Mungoo is being held on a charge of aiding and abetting a crime and he is expected to appear in court on Friday.
The three men who had previously appeared in court were Sandip Moneea, 41, Avinash Treebhoowoon, 29, who are charged with murder and 33-year-old Raj Theekoy, who is charged with conspiracy to murder.
Mr Treebhoowoon has confessed to the killing.
Mrs McAreavey’s funeral was held near her County Tyrone family home on Monday in the same church where she married her husband John on 30 December.
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Too much bureaucracy is hampering the chances of learning on field trips Health and safety red tape is stopping school children getting out on regular science field trips, a report warns.
The Association for Science Education (ASE) says too much attention to risk assessment means science field trips are in long-term continuing decline.
The ASE calls for exam boards to have greater flexibility to set questions that allow pupils to draw on their experiences of science in the outdoors.
It also says more fieldwork training should be given to trainee teachers.
The report warns: “Despite the strengths and advantages that fieldwork can bring to teaching at all ages, there has been a long-term and continuing decline in the provision and condition of outdoor education in science.”
Chief executive of ASE Annette Smith said that if trips meant teachers filling in endless forms, or if procedures for asking for parents’ permission for children to go on trips were not streamlined, organising a science outing could become unattractive.
“It’s a question of making sure that, within school, they don’t create a bureaucracy that makes it difficult to get out.
Annette Smith: “Every educator would say outdoor experience is good” “Every educator would say outdoor experience is good, but it is more complicated to organise.”
In September, Education Secretary Michael Gove promised to reduce the level of bureaucracy encountered by schools.
Brian Lightman, general secretary of the Association of Schools and College Leaders, said health and safety laws could be a deterrent to trips.
“They do create a deterrent because of the risk assessment and the risk of teachers being blamed if there’s an accident.
“We welcome the government’s statement that they will try and reduce this type of burden.”
The ASE report said exam boards should be able to “significantly increase open-ended assessments that recognise skills which are primarily developed through fieldwork”.
The report says exams should give pupils a chance to demonstrate what they have learned on field trips Mrs Smith added: “It’s easy to test through examinations some factual recall, it’s very easy to ask those questions.
“It’s much more difficult to ask young people questions about the work they’ve done outside. It’s difficult but it can be done.”
A spokesman for the exam board Edexcel said: “If we were given the necessary flexibility within the qualification criteria, and teachers were in support, we would welcome the opportunity to include assessment based around learners’ field trips.”
The ASE report also said fieldwork training should be provided for all trainee science teachers and should be part of continuing professional development for existing science teachers.
The report also recommended the creation of a “dedicated outdoor science website… to signpost, exchange and compare high-quality fieldwork training resources”.
A spokesperson for the Department for Education said: “We know that over-complicated planning processes imposed on staff can make them reluctant to take children on trips.
“We are revising our guidance on health and safety for schools and employers to remove the red tape that can deter teachers from lessons outside the classroom.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The number of home reposessions has depressed the prices for newly-built properties The number of new homes being built in the US has fallen faster than expected, underlining concerns about the strength of America’s economic recovery.
Building work on new properties dropped to an annual rate of 529,000, according to figures for December from the US Department of Commerce.
That is down from November’s annual rate of 553,000, and below economists’ forecasts of about 550,000.
December marked the second lowest build rate since records began in 1959.
Analysts said that the severe winter weather in parts of America might have contributed to the fall.
Jennifer Lee, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets, described the housing report as “very disappointing”.
America’s economy grew 2.6% in the third quarter, but unemployment remains high and the number of foreclosures has forced down prices and made it difficult for builders to make a profit on new-builds.
According to the National Association of Home Builders, each new property built in America creates on average three jobs for a year and generates about $90,000 in taxes.
There was, however, one sign of optimism in the commerce department data. The number of building permits granted has soared, although this is no guarantee that properties will be built.
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President Obama has welcomed the Chinese President Hu Jintao to the White House.
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Liverpool chairman Tom Werner tells BBC Sport Kenny Dalglish will be given funds to strengthen the squad at Anfield.
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