Category: news

The rise in VAT divides opinions in the papers

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Plans to prevent drivers turning across a stretch of dual carriageway in Carmarthenshire which has been the scene of a number of fatal accidents are to be decided upon.

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A preliminary hearing has opened in Los Angeles to determine whether the doctor who treated the pop star Michael Jackson in his final days should stand trial for manslaughter.

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Alastair Cook makes 189 and Ian Bell hits his first Ashes ton as England run riot in the final Test in their bid to seal the series.

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Drivers in Wales will be more likely to suffer from potholes than drivers in England, says a motoring organisation.

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Plans for a controversial ‘super dump’ in Macosquin in County Londonderry have been given approval by the Planning Service.

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Some 200,000 jobs will be cut by councils in England this year as a result of reductions in central government funding, a union warns.

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Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman is to call for a fundamental rethink of the EU Common Agricultural Policy.

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Scottish singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty has died at the age of 63 after suffering a long illness.

His career high came in the 1970s and included the anthemic Baker Street and Stuck in the Middle with You, recorded with his band Stealers Wheel.

Rafferty had battled a drink problem and spent time in hospital in Bournemouth with liver failure.

He was born in Paisley and began his musical career as a busker on the London Underground.

Rafferty died peacefully at home, with his daughter Martha at his bedside.

He had recorded and toured with Billy Connolly as part of the Humblebums, before forming Stealers Wheel with his friend Joe Egan in 1972.

Stuck in the Middle with You was a hit in the early 70s and also appeared on the soundtrack of Quentin Tarantino’s debut film Reservoir Dogs in 1992.

Baker Street charted in the UK and US in 1978 after Rafferty began his solo career and still achieves airplay on radio stations around the world.

It is understood his funeral will be held in Paisley later this month.

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Flood preparations in the Australian city of Rockhampton are being put to the test as levels on the River Fitzroy approach their peak.

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The government is being urged to end Crown Court trials for children in England and Wales.

Two independent groups want most child suspects dealt with by restorative justice “conferences”, where victims would help decide outcomes.

Even the most serious cases, such as murder, should be heard in a youth court rather than Crown Court, say the Police Foundation and Justice.

The government has its own less radical plans to use more restorative justice.

It proposes its use to deal with low-level crime and anti-social behaviour.

The Police Foundation and Justice report argues that most allegations involving 10- to 17-year-olds should be resolved in conferences involving the alleged offender, victim, family members, police and social workers.

The report suggests this approach should reduce reoffending, improve victims’ confidence and save court time and custody costs.

It adds that restorative justice has been successfully introduced as a “key component” of the youth justice system in Northern Ireland.

The groups also say no child should face trial at Crown Court, which currently hear cases involving young people charged with “grave crimes” such as murder, firearms and sexual offences.

The report says the surroundings, procedures and language of the Crown Court are designed for adults.

The most serious cases should be heard in youth courts, which are less formal, in front of a reduced number of jurors, it is argued.

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A direct freight service from Scotland to mainland Europe is to open on the Rosyth-Zeebrugge route later.

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Experts say they have discovered what they believe is the root cause of male pattern baldness.

It is not simply a lack of hair, but rather a problem with the new hair that is made.

A manufacturing defect means the hair produced is so small it appears invisible to the naked eye, giving the classic bald spot or receding hairline.

The US team told the Journal of Clinical Investigation the fault lies with the stem cells that make new hair.

It may be possible to ‘cure’ male baldness by restoring the normal function of these cells, the experts hope.

Ultimately, they hope to be able to develop a cream that could be applied to the scalp to help the stem cells grow normal hair.

Using men undergoing hair transplants as guinea pigs, the University of Pennsylvania team compared hair follicles in bald patches and hairy areas of the scalp.

Although bald areas had the same number of hair-making stem cells as normal scalp, there were fewer of a more mature type, called the progenitor cell.

This difference means that hair follicles in bald patches shrink rather than disappear and the new hairs made are microscopic compared to normal hair.

Dr George Cotsarelis who led the research said: “This implies that there is a problem in the activation of stem cells converting progenitor cells in bald scalp.

“The fact that there are normal numbers of stem cells in bald scalp gives us hope for reactivating those stem cells.”

Until now it has been unclear what the exact cause of male pattern baldness is, but experts believe the male hormone testosterone is involved and baldness also tends to run in families.

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There has been strong international condemnation of the assassination of one of Pakistan’s best-known liberal politicians in the capital Islamabad.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton regretted the death of Salman Taseer, governor of Punjab province, saying he had promoted tolerance.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called his death “a loss for Pakistan”.

Mr Taseer was shot dead by one of his bodyguards angered over the governor’s opposition to blasphemy laws.

The governor – a senior member of the governing Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) – had recently angered Islamists by appealing for a Christian woman, sentenced to death for blasphemy, to be pardoned.

“I had the opportunity to meet Governor Taseer in Pakistan and I admired his work to promote tolerance and the education of Pakistan’s future generations,” said Mrs Clinton in a statement.

“His death is a great loss. The United States remains committed to helping the government and people of Pakistan as they persevere in their campaign to bring peace and stability to their country.”

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said he was “shocked” by the killing.

Pakistan’s high commissioner to London, Wajid Shamshul Hassan, told the BBC’s Newshour programme that the assassination exposed the divisions in his country.

“It has shown that you can be held hostage by a minority of religious people and they can do whatever they want. That is not the way we are going to allow in the country,” he said.

“We will be tough on them. Unless we get rid of such people in our society, unless we purge them from the various security agencies, you can’t feel that justice will be done.”

Witnesses said Mr Taseer, 66, was riddled with bullets from an automatic rifle as he returned to his car at the Kohsar Market, a shopping centre in Islamabad.

Pakistan’s interior minister Rehman Malik said the guard – named as Malik Mumtaz Hussein Qadri – had confessed to the killing.

Mr Malik told a news conference: “The police guard who killed him says he did this because Mr Taseer recently defended the proposed amendments to the blasphemy law. This is what he told the police after surrendering himself.

“But we are investigating to find out whether it was his individual act or whether someone else was also behind it,” he added.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani declared three days of national mourning and appealed for calm. He also ordered an immediate inquiry into Mr Taseer’s killing.

Mr Taseer’s body has been taken to Punjab’s capital, Lahore, where a state funeral will be held.

Mr Taseer – a close associate of President Asif Ali Zardari – made headlines by appealing for the pardon of Christian woman Asia Bibi who had been sentenced to death for allegedly insulting the Prophet Muhammad.

Friends of the governor say he knew he was risking his life by speaking out.

“Salman’s murder has given [us] an opportunity to rededicate ourselves to his ideals,” Mr Hassan told the BBC.

“He talked to [Asia Bibi] because he wanted to send a message of assurance to the minorities that we will not allow injustice to happen against them.”

Mr Taseer’s death is the most high-profile assassination in Pakistan since former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was killed in December 2007.

The BBC’s Aleem Maqbool in Islamabad says Mr Taseer was one of Pakistan’s most important political figures and his death will add further instability to the country.

PPP supporters wept and shouted as the governor’s coffin was driven away from a hospital in Islamabad.

Dozens took to the streets in Lahore, burning tyres and blocking traffic. There were also protests in the central city of Multan.

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The Himalayan mountain range that straddles the border between Nepal and Tibet is known as one of the most beautiful and remote places in the world.

Every year, thousands of tourists come here to trek on the Annapurna circuit which takes them high into the snowy mountains to climb passes over 5,000m (16404ft).

This isolated and barren landscape is home to Buddhist communities who have lived, farmed and traded here for centuries.

But in the last few years, this peaceful region has been rocked by jealousy, crime and murder.

All this is down to Yarsagumba, the small, fragile, mummified body of the Himalayan bat moth caterpillar that has been invaded by a fungus – and which is famous throughout the Himalayas as a powerful medicine.

As the freezing night falls in the Himalayan village of Humde, Sangay Gurung and his wife huddle around their fireside, preparing a supper of rice and vegetables.

Sangay tells me he can sell me some Yarsagumba.

He has some of this precious substance because his son has collected it. But he is not happy handling it.

“We believe it’s a sin to trade in Yarsagumba,” he says.

“In our Buddhist culture we’re not supposed to pick it – that’s our tradition.

“My grandparents told me this and I obeyed them. I’m 53 now and I’ve never picked it. But the young generation is different. They don’t believe in sin or religion so they’re making money from it.”

For the past 500 years, Yarsagumba (Cordyceps sinensis), has been prized as an aphrodisiac by the Chinese.

It can be found in the high pastures of the Himalayas above 3,500m, and is traditionally picked in early spring before the monsoon rains.

Each year, hundreds of Tibetan traders cross the border illegally into Nepal to buy Yarsagumba from local villagers and sell it back to China. One kilogram can fetch up to $10,000.

“The medical properties of Yarsagumba are numerous and many,” says Carroll Dunham, a medical anthropologist who has worked in Nepal for the past 25 years.

“Yarsagumba is known as an immune booster. It’s also known as a great aphrodisiac.

“It works in a way similar to Viagra. It’s considered to be helpful for impotence in men and it’s considered to be a great stimulant.”

This has meant that Yarsagumba has become the most valuable commodity in this remote region that has few economic opportunities.

It has become so lucrative that the district government now operates a permit system for those who want to collect Yarsagumba.

In certain areas, the permits are more expensive for people from outside the region. In others, outsiders are completely banned from searching for the drug.

For some mountain villagers, the chance to collect Yarsagumba has brought great wealth. But for others, it has brought great misery.

In June 2009, seven men from the low-lying Gorkha region of Nepal who came to the mountains to pick Yarsagumba were murdered by a local mob protecting their turf.

The men were attacked with sticks and knives and their bodies thrown into deep mountain ravines.

Nal Prasad Upadhay was the police officer in charge of the investigation.

“It was a very big operation. More than 80 police personnel were mobilised in that case,” he says.

“Two bodies were collected from a very difficult place – the police had to use ropes to recover them. We couldn’t find the other five bodies.”

Thirty-six men from the remote village of Nar were arrested for the crime and are still waiting for a verdict.

There isn’t a prison big enough to hold them in the mountain region, so they are being kept in a converted district education office in the village of Chame.

In the last few months, 17 men were let out on bail. The rest spend their time behind barbed wire, playing cards and basketball, and depend on their relatives to bring them food.

“I think my brother will be freed very soon,” says Samma Tsering, who visits the prison daily.

“Whenever I meet him, he says that he hasn’t done anything wrong.”

Since her brother was arrested, Samma’s life has become focused on supporting him.

Because most of the men from her village are in this jail, there is no one left behind to work.

“Our land is barren now,” she says.

“There is no one to plough the fields so we haven’t been able to grow anything for two years. Women who know how to do the men’s work are somehow managing but most of them can’t.”

A verdict in the case of the Yarsagumba murders is expected in February.

From March, the Yarsagumba picking season will start again and hundreds of locals will scour the mountainsides searching for the valuable drug in the hope that they will make their fortune.

But for many who live here, Yarsagumba is not a blessing but a curse. And they remember the old Buddhist saying that it will bring nothing but bad luck.

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