Category: news

Fiat could take a majority stake in US carmaker Chrysler, according to the Italian company’s chief executive.

Fiat already owns 20% of Chrysler, and Sergio Marchionne said strengthening the alliance was a priority.

His comments came as Fiat demerged its cars from its trucks and tractors business, with both units on Monday starting trading on the stock market.

He told reporters that if Chrysler lists on the stock market this year, Fiat could take its stake above 50%.

“I think it is possible,” Mr Marchionne said. “I don’t know whether it is likely, but it is possible that we go over 50% if Chrysler decides to go to the market in 2011.”

Fiat bought into Chrysler in 2009 when the US car company received US government funds to stave off collapse.

Any further investment in Chrysler is likely to involve Fiat paying back some of the US state aid.

Mr Marchionne has been restructuring Italy’s largest industrial group, and announced the demerger of Fiat and Fiat Industrial in April.

On the first day of share trading in the companies, the combined market value was slightly above the old Fiat group’s capitalisation of 19bn euros (£16bn).

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The mainstream political parties in Londonderry have united to urge dissident republicans to end their armed campaign.

The appeal came in a joint New Year statement signed by senior members of the SDLP, Sinn Fein, DUP and UUP.

In it they called on dissidents to “put away your weapons and join with us in making this a better city for all”.

“Irrespective of political differences, 2011 will be the year we commit to working together.”

“We invite every citizen to work with us to create the conditions for a shared city life in this culturally vibrant city.”

The signatories included Foyle MP Mark Durkan and East Londonderry MP Gregory Campbell.

Speaker of the House William Hay and assembly members Martina Anderson and Raymond McCartney from Sinn Fein and the SDLP’s Pat Ramsey and Pol Callaghan also signed the statement, as did UUP councillor Mary Hamilton.

Jim Roddy from the City Centre Initiative, who helped bring the parties together, said work began after the last dissident car bomb attack in October.

“None of us want this any more.

“People are saying, let’s build a positive future for the city and create jobs and give our young people a chance and a hope for the future.

“After the last bomb there were a few phone calls made between friends, and we decided we can’t really be going back to where we were.

“So we started talking to some politicians and it grew from there.

“The one thing that came through at all times is how proud we are to be from the city.”

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Germany calls up its last batch of military conscripts as the country’s armed forces prepare for radical reforms.

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Scottish health boards spend almost £11m on leasing vehicles last year including Jaguars, Mercedes and BMWs, figures reveal.

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Tottenham are among several Premier League clubs waiting to hear whether Los Angeles Galaxy will release David Beckham this month for a short-term loan deal.

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A 13-year-old-girl has rescued her two younger sisters from a house fire in Conwy, which left her mother and two other adults seriously injured.

The teenager threw a laptop through a downstairs window and neighbours helped the children, aged eight and 18 months, to safety.

Firefighters reached the adults upstairs in the house at Penrhyn Bay near Llandudno.

The girl was woken by a smoke alarm at 0030 GMT on Monday.

North Wales Fire and Rescue Service said the children were all sleeping in a downstairs bedroom of the semi-detached house in Trafford Park.

The adults – the mother, 32, and her two friends, a 32-year-old woman and a 38-year-old man – were upstairs.

The mother is described as being in “serious but stable” and her two friends are said to be “critical”.

The girl was praised for staying calm after speaking to the fire control.

Alyn Edwards, of the fire service, said the girl then used a laptop computer to smash a window and helped the eight-year-old out.

She then passed the baby to her younger sister through the window before breaking another window to make her own escape.

“Her actions certainly gave the family a chance of getting out of the property,” Mr Edwards told BBC Wales.

He said the three children were being checked out at hospital but were not believed to be seriously hurt.

Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus entered the house three times through thick smoke to rescue the adults.

An investigation into the cause of the fire, which is believed to have started downstairs, is under way.

Five fire crews from Colwyn Bay, Rhyl and Llandudno attended the incident.

Gary Brandrick, senior operations manager at the fire servuce, said: “The children were alerted to the fire by a smoke alarm.

“We carried out a home fire safety check at the address in September 2010, when we fitted two smoke alarms and advised the family of fire safety precautions they should take – such as testing the smoke alarms regularly, the importance of having a night time routine and of formulating a family escape plan.”

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Facebook has reportedly raised funds from Goldman Sachs and a Russian investor in a deal valuing the social networking site at $50bn (£32.3bn).

The New York Times said that Goldman was investing $450m in Facebook, and Digital Sky Technologies another $50m.

The paper, citing unnamed sources, said the terms of the deal implied a value for Facebook of just over $50bn.

Goldman’s involvement will also raise speculation that Facebook might float on the stock market.

The New York Times said that representatives for Facebook, Goldman and Digital Sky Technologies had all declined to comment.

If valued at $50bn, Facebook is worth more than eBay and Time Warner.

The fresh investment is expected to be used to fund develop of new products and possibly make acquisitions, the New York Times said.

It may also enable Facebook employees and early investors to cash in some of their stakes.

The paper said the Securities and Exchange Commission was looking at the growth in the private market for trading in companies like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Regulators are concerned that, with this private market booming, companies are able to circumvent public disclosure requirements.

Further scrutiny by the SEC could help push Facebook towards a public listing, although the company’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, has denied there are plans for a flotation.

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A combination of severe winter weather and the festive break has led to a backlog of rubbish waiting to be collected in parts of the country.

There are concerns the situation could encourage rats and cause other health hazards.

Angry residents in Exeter say they have been told they may have to wait for up to a month for bin collections.

Many councils have asked crews to work through the bank holiday to try to clear the backlog.

A Local Government Association spokesman said: “There has been an extremely prolonged period of bad weather – in many cases the worst weather for a generation – and it has caused disruption for up to three weeks in some areas.”

In many roads, especially untreated cul-de-sacs, refuse lorries have been unable to make their regular collections.

“It’s a safety issue. It’s not safe to send a 24-ton truck down an icy road,” said the LGA spokesman.

The problem has been exacerbated by the Christmas and New Year holiday which produces large amounts of rubbish, including turkey carcasses and left-over food, and also delays regular collections.

But the LGA spokesman said: “As a result there is a backlog, but councils are working hard to clear that backlog.

“Residents can rest assured that they are working hard to catch up.”

‘More initiative needed’

But the Local Government Minister, Bob Neill, told the Daily Telegraph: “We need to think again about how we maintain these basic services over the holiday period.

“People do produce a lot of rubbish over Christmas, and it is disappointing that in some cases councils haven’t showed more initiative about how to ensure people still get the services they pay for.”

Rob Hannaford, who is responsible for the environment at Exeter Council, said it had been a difficult period and, although they were putting on extra crews, residents should recycle or compost as much as possible.

But James Taghdissian, a Conservative councillor in Exeter, said collecting rubbish was one of the most basic services and a statutory function.

“If we can’t go out and get rubbish picked up… we’re clearly not an excellent council,” he said.

In Birmingham, the situation was made worse by industrial action, which led to binmen walking out on 20 December in a pay dispute and subsequently working to rule.

But Councillor Timothy Huxtable said 19 additional refuse crews had been working over the holidays and would be out on the bank holiday Monday.

There have also been problems reported in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire; Weston-super-Mare, Somerset; Poole, Dorset; St Helens and the Wirral, both on Merseyside.

Councils in Wales are also dealing with a backlog of waste, with extra collections taking place in some areas.

Rhondda Cynon Taf Council said staff were working until 1900 GMT last week to fix the problem, but admitted the “sheer amount” meant some areas had still not been cleared.

Refuse staff worked throughout Sunday in Swansea and Cardiff City Council put on extra crews to catch up.

Caerphilly Council said normal collections were due to resume on bank holiday Monday while Merthyr Council said it could understand frustrations, but safety was “of the utmost importance”.

In north Wales, Conwy Council was “working hard” to catch up with collections missed last week.

The situation appears to be better in Scotland where most councils say they are up-to-date with collections.

Only Perth and Kinross Council and Fife Council are reporting some limited disruption due to access problems caused by snow and ice.

The LGA said most councils were prioritising black bin bags ahead of non-perishable recycling material and were also relaxing rules on the types of vehicles allowed to drop off rubbish at municipal dumps.

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Oscar-nominated British actor Pete Postlethwaite has died at the age of 64, a spokesman has announced.

Journalist and friend Andrew Richardson said Postlethwaite, who was made an OBE in 2004, died peacefully in hospital in Shropshire after a lengthy illness.

In 1994, he was nominated for an Oscar for In The Name of the Father.

Actor Bill Nighy, who performed with Postlethwaite at Liverpool’s Everyman Theatre in the 1970s, paid tribute to “a rare and remarkable man”.

“I was honoured by his friendship – he is irreplaceable,” Nighy added.

Mr Richardson said the actor, who also starred in films including The Usual Suspects and Brassed Off, had carried on working in recent months despite receiving treatment for cancer.

He is survived by his wife and two children.

Postlethwaite, who lived near the Welsh border in Shropshire, was being treated at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.

He recently told the Shropshire Star that staff there had been “wonderful and I am grateful to them”.

The actor, who was born in Warrington, Cheshire, began his career at the Everyman working with Nighy and other future stars including Julie Walters and Alan Bleasdale.

He returned to the Everyman in 2008 to play the lead in King Lear, a role he had always wanted to take on, and said afterwards the theatre had been “where I started really, or where I realised that being an actor wasn’t just a flippant job”.

He starred alongside his friend Daniel Day-Lewis in In The Name of the Father, about the wrongful convictions that followed the IRA’s Guildford pub bombings.

His role as Giuseppe Conlon earned him a best supporting actor Oscar nod. He and Day-Lewis had previously worked together in repertory theatre during the 1970s.

Postlethwaite was once described by director Steven Spielberg, whom he worked with in films including The Lost World: Jurassic Park, as “the best actor in the world”.

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Teachers’ leaders say a survey shows that new free schools being opened in England are not wanted or needed.

Three quarters of the 1,000 parents questioned for the National Union of Teachers (NUT) were unaware that a free school was planned for their area.

The schools – being set up by groups of parents, charities and faith bodies – will be funded directly by Westminster.

The government says the NUT is “blindly opposed” to the schools, which it argues will drive up standards.

The NUT is campaigning against free schools – and the conversion of existing schools to academy status.

Both types of school will be what the government calls independent state schools and will stand outside local authority control, with more freedom over the curriculum and teachers’ pay and conditions.

Teachers employed by them will also not need to have formal teaching qualifications.

In September, the government gave provisional approval for 16 free schools to open next September. Another nine have since also been given the go-ahead.

Divided on need

The NUT asked pollsters YouGov to survey just over 1,000 parents in 22 local authority areas of England where free schools are being planned.

When asked which groups should run schools, about half said local authorities, 43% said teachers, 30% said charities, 25% said parents and 15% private companies – people could specify as many options as they liked.

About half of those questioned said there was a need for a new school in their area – with the same amount saying there was not.

A quarter of those asked said they were in favour of a free school being set up in their area – while 31% said they were against or “tended to be against” the idea.

An even greater proportion (43%) said they were neither for nor against such a school opening locally, or did not know their opinion on the issue.

Most parents questioned (72%) said they thought any new state-funded school should follow the national curriculum and that children should be taught by qualified teachers (78%).

Asked what impact they thought a free school would have on other schools in their local area, one in five said it would raise standards, while one in four said they did not know.

Christine Blower, NUT general secretary, said: “This survey clearly shows that parents are not clamouring to set up free schools, have no issue with schools being accountable to the community through democratically elected local authorities, and absolutely reject the premise of their children’s education being handed over to private companies.

“Free Schools are not wanted or needed. They are divisive and unaccountable.

“The teaching profession and parents know this. It is time the government stopped playing with the educational future of this country based on nothing more than the fact they can.”

The government says free schools will give more children the opportunity to go to a good school.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Education said: “It’s disappointing to see the NUT continuing to blindly oppose free schools before one has even opened its doors just as they are blindly opposed to academies – schools which have proved incredibly popular with parents and pupils and have turned around under-performance in deprived areas.

“As well as teachers and charities, it’s also parents themselves who are behind many of the free school proposals – parents who want something better for their children.

“And each proposal has to show there is demand locally for the type of education they plan to offer.

“Too often the poorest families are left with the worst schools while the rich can pay for good education via private schools or house prices. Free schools will give all parents, not just the rich, the option of a good local school with great teaching, strong discipline and small class sizes.”

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Two men are missing after a boat carrying six people capsized in the dark on the River Thames in Surrey.

Four other people were rescued after the boat overturned near Shepperton at 1930 GMT on Sunday. They were taken to hospital in Chertsey.

Police divers have been called in to help search for the missing men, who are aged 66 and 70.

There have so far been no signs of them, despite extensive searches and the use of a police helicopter.

The boat was ferrying passengers from a house on Pharoah’s Island.

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Retail sales will fall by about £2.2bn in the first quarter of 2011 because of the rise in VAT, according to a report.

It says consumers will rein in their spending after the standard rate of VAT rises from 17.5% to 20% on Tuesday.

The Centre for Retail Research and Kelkoo, the online shopping group, say spending in the January sales will rise by about 1.6% to £22.5bn as consumers try to beat the rise.

But they say this will be the “last hurrah” before the VAT rise kicks in.

The rate rise affects any VAT-registered business that sells or purchases goods or services that are subject to the standard rate of VAT.

Most foodstuffs, children’s clothing and books will remain zero-rated and reduced rates will remain on items such as children’s car seats and supplies of domestic fuel and power.

Some business groups have called on the government to delay the increase because of the recent cold weather, which hit retailers in the normally busy run-up to Christmas.

The report predicts that consumers will spend £22.5bn in the January sales, an increase of £360m on last year.

After this, however, the report estimates that consumers will spend an average of £324 less this year as a result of the tax.

British Retail Consortium spokesman Richard Lim said the rise would harm the sector, but he accepted that it was necessary.

“[The rise] will push inflation up and, along with National Insurance rises and public sector job losses, harm sales as the year continues.

“But, we do accept that the VAT rise, with substantial public spending cuts, is necessary as part of the government’s package to tackle the deficit.”

However, Labour leader Ed Miliband called the planned rise the “wrong tax, at the wrong time”.

He said it would cost the average family £7.50 a week.

But the Conservatives say Labour’s plans for the economy would hit businesses with billions of pounds of extra costs.

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Pakistan’s prime minister is meeting opposition leaders in a bid to prevent a possible no-confidence vote after a key partner left the ruling coalition.

Yousuf Raza Gilani’s government faces losing its majority after the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) announcement on Sunday that it will go into opposition.

The MQM accuses the government of poor performance, specially on corruption and the economy.

Elections may have to be held if the government cannot find new partners.

Mr Gilani denied on Sunday that his government was in any danger of collapsing, saying on television: “I don’t see any crisis.”

The MQM, the second largest party in the coalition, withdrew two ministers from the federal cabinet last week.

A smaller coalition partner, the Jamiat-i-Ulema Islam party, pulled out last month after one of its ministers was sacked.

Pakistan’s governing coalition held 181 seats – including the MQM’s 25 – in the 342-member parliament.

The MQM’s departure leaves Mr Gilani’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) well below the 172 seats needed to preserve its majority.

On Monday, the premier is due to meet Shahbaz Sharif, president of Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) – the biggest opposition party in the National Assembly.

The PML-N – which rules Punjab province with the support of Mr Gilani’s PPP – was a partner in the central government’s ruling alliance, but withdrew two years ago because of political differences.

Shahbaz Sharif has consulted his older brother and PML-N supremo, Nawaz Sharif, ahead of the meeting with the prime minister.

Discussing the political turmoil last week, Nawaz Sharif said he would not become a part of the “puppet show”.

The statement was interpreted as a suggestion that the smaller groups have deserted the PPP-led civilian government at the behest of the security establishment.

On Monday, Mr Gilani is also due to meet the leader of another major opposition party, the PML-Q.

As the National Assembly holds its first session of the new year later on Monday, the MQM is expected to cross the aisle to the opposition benches.

The party says it quit the alliance because fuel price hikes, bad governance and corruption had “passed all limits”.

Even so, he said that by not pulling out of government in Sindh province, the MQM had given the government “a chance to take corrective measures”.

The MQM dominates politics in the city of Karachi, the capital of the southern province of Sindh.

The MQM’s militant wing is widely believed to be behind a wave of ethnic and political killings in Karachi over the last few years.

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Tributes are paid to two men who died when their hot air balloon crash landed in Midsomer Norton in Somerset.

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NI Water’s director of engineering procurement, Trevor Haslett, has said that the company has been “on top of” finding, fixing and repairing leaks during the water crisis.

Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster, Mr Haslett defended NI Water’s decision not to seek help from Water UK sooner.

Water UK supports water companies and can give help and equipment in crises.

Mr Haslett said that NI Water had “deployed sufficient resources on the ground” since the water crisis began.

“We brought in our own contracting staff and engineers locally,” he said.

“Any additional resources that we required were certainly brought in. We have numerous contractors working for us around the clock.”

The comments come as NI Water is facing mounting criticism over its handling of the water crisis and UUP leader Tom Elliott has said the minister responsible for NI Water, Conor Murphy, should resign.

Thousands of homes and businesses have experienced water shortages since a period of intensely cold weather in late December ended and pipes began to leak as the ice inside them melted.

The water supply to thousands of homes in Northern Ireland was again disrupted overnight as about 40,000 properties in NI Water’s eastern region had their mains water supplies temporarily cut off.

Service was due to be restored at 0800GMT, although NI Water said it could take up to three hours for it to reach all customers.

The company said on Sunday night that the number of homes without running water had fallen to just under 1,000.

When asked why NI Water had not asked for equipment or engineers from Water UK, Mr Haslett said that “there was no requirement” to do so.

“At peak we had 26 local tankers and we still have some tankers operating, filling the smaller reservoirs.”

He said that requesting extra help from outside Northern Ireland was considered by the incident team and any help needed had been asked for.

“We are still putting 250m litres a day into the system, which was reduced to about 20m a day over the weekend,” he said.

“It’s a process that takes time from Boxing Day until last Friday when the situation improved significantly and we got the number without water down to under 1,000 customers.”

The NI Water director explained the company gets about 50% of its water from Lough Neagh and said that “in fact all of our raw water sources are actually intact”.

“It’s the service reservoirs, basically large concrete tanks, we probably have about 1,200 of these around the country and we have some very large ones around Belfast and it’s the Belfast ones which have been causing us difficulty,” he said.

“Normally at this time of year they would be about four metres full of water, over the last week some of them have been down to half a metre. In fact last Thursday the large service reservoir at Breda actually ran out of water.”

Mr Haslett said that where the company did need help, was “obviously” in answering phone calls from customers.

On New Year’s Eve, Northern Ireland Secretary of State Owen Paterson announced that NI Water had accepted an offer of 70 call handlers to help manage the 600 to 700 calls per hour the company was receiving.

The help was made available in accordance with the mutual aid arrangements overseen by Water UK in partnership with Defra.

Speaking on Friday, Mr Paterson said he had had several meetings with the first, deputy first and other ministers and “made it clear that the UK Government was ready to provide practical assistance to help deal with the dreadful circumstances that thousands of people in Northern Ireland have found themselves in”.

“It was clear that a major failing was the difficulty people had in getting information from a system that was overwhelmed by the volume of calls to the extent that only 40% of between 600 and 700 calls per hour were being answered,” he said.

Mr Haslett said that NI Water had not asked for the call handlers earlier because it “had a clear understanding that the mutual agreement did not include access to call handlers”.

He said that the company would be looking at any other assistance it might require, but “with the number of customers reducing significantly, we certainly have enough resources locally” to handle the situation.

Meanwhile, dozens of schools may be unable to re-open due to water damage.

The Department of Education said it would consult with the education boards on Monday and publish a list of those schools affected.

Even customers not affected by burst pipes had their water supplies cut off overnight to allow reservoirs to be replenished.

A full list of areas where the water supply has been turned off is available on the NI Water website, along with a list of locations where temporary water supplies have been set up.

The main affected areas are parts of Cookstown, Dungannon, Newry and Warrenpoint, and some 500 NI Water staff are dealing with those properties.

State-owned NI Water, which is the sole provider of water and sewerage services in Northern Ireland, said it would be “at least three or four more days” before everyone was reconnected.

While NI Water has responsibility for leaking pipes in the main system, its responsibility ends when the supply enters properties.

However, many of the leaks are understood to be within unoccupied homes and businesses, and the company has urged customers to check their properties and have the pipes repaired as soon as possible.

Bill Gowdy, from the water company, said: “We do urge owners of properties, of vacant properties, of outbuildings, please go and check to see if there’s any leaks because there’s a significant number of leaks on private property.”

NI Water has again warned that bogus callers are taking advantage of the crisis.

The company is urging householders approached by people wanting to examine their property for leaks to thoroughly check their identity.

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