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A neat finish by Jo earns Manchester City a point away to Juventus as Roberto Mancini’s side advance to the Europa League last 32 as group winners.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Blake Edwards, director of The Pink Panther and Breakfast at Tiffany’s, has died in southern California at the age of 88, has publicist says.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The Northern Ireland Executive agrees to hold an inquiry into historic and institutional child abuse in Northern Ireland.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Julian Assange, photographed inside a prison van, is fighting extradition to Sweden Swedish authorities will be at the High Court on Thursday to try to block bail for Julian Assange, founder of the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks.
The 39-year-old Australian was granted bail earlier this week on condition he provides sureties of £240,000.
But he has remained in Wandsworth Prison after Swedish prosecutors appealed against giving him bail.
Mr Assange is fighting extradition to Sweden where he faces sex allegations involving two women, which he denies.
He was granted bail by District Judge Howard Riddle at City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, pending extradition proceedings due to start on 11 January next year.
Conditions included the posting of a £200,000 cash deposit, with a further £40,000 guaranteed in two sureties of £20,000.
He was also told live under curfew at the home of journalist Vaughan Smith, founder of the campaigning Frontline Club.
However, the Swedish Judicial Authority has appealed against the bail decision.
The appeal is expected to be heard in Court 4 at the Royal Courts of Justice in London by Mr Justice Ouseley.
He is the judge who last week upheld bail for Shrien Dewani, whose wife was murdered on their honeymoon, following an appeal by South African authorities.
Mr Assange has received the backing of a number of high-profile supporters including human rights campaigners Jemima Khan and Bianca Jagger, and film director Ken Loach.
Mr Assange’s website has published 250,000 sensitive American diplomatic cables, details of which have appeared in the Guardian in the UK and several other newspapers around the world.
He has come under criticism in the US where former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has said he should be hunted down like the al-Qaeda leadership.
Mr Assange argues that the allegations against him are politically motivated and are designed to take attention away from the material appearing on Wikileaks.
Mr Assange is accused of having unprotected sex with a woman, identified only as Miss A, when she insisted he use a condom.
He is also accused of having unprotected sex with another woman, Miss W, while she was asleep.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
New health advice on vitamin D recommends short spells in the sun – without sunscreen and in the middle of the day.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
There have been calls for some form of graduate contribution in Scotland Students from England, Wales and Northern Ireland who go to university in Scotland could face annual fees of up to £6,000, the BBC has learned.
The plan is believed to be in a Scottish government Green Paper on education funding for the future.
Scottish students studying at home currently pay no tuition fees, but the SNP administration’s paper is thought to contain plans for a graduate tax.
Other UK students currently at Scottish universities pay about £1,900 per year.
On Thursday, Scottish Education Secretary Mike Russell will publish his proposals for the future of university funding and it is expected to contain moves to charge English, Welsh and Northern Irish students three times more than anyone else in the EU.
The UK government’s move to raise tuition fees in England to as much as £9,000 a year has prompted outrage among students and violent protest.
The Scottish government aims to implement its changes in 2012, in line with the reforms in England.
Holyrood’s SNP government says the state should be the main provider for education, with access to it based on the ability to learn, not the ability to pay.
Mr Russell has previously indicated that Scottish students may face a contribution towards the cost of their degree after they graduate, and, although he is not keen on the move, he has warned that the financial outlook for universities is “grim”.
North of the border, the one-off graduate endowment fee of about £2,000 was scrapped by Scottish ministers in 2008.
The education secretary said ahead of the Green Paper’s publication that he had examined every serious idea of higher education in Scotland.
He added that everyone would have the chance over the coming weeks and months to examine the ideas proposed and make their views known.
The body representing Scotland’s university principals, Universities Scotland, is worried that, under the status quo, Scottish universities would fall behind the standards of their counterparts in England.
The organisation says higher education should be “free at the point of entry and throughout their study”, but graduates earning reasonable salaries should be asked to pay.
Poorer students
Sir Andrew Cubie – who chaired the landmark inquiry into student funding in Scotland a decade ago – has said the country’s system of university funding was unsustainable without some contribution from graduates.
NUS Scotland president Liam Burns said support for the poorest students was in “crisis”, and said he was open to options for tackling the issue – including graduate contributions as a “last resort” – as long as tuition fees remained off the table.
The Scottish Conservatives say it is “not credible” for the state to shoulder the costs of higher education, if poorer students are to be supported while raising standards and international competitiveness.
The Scottish Lib Dems, instrumental in getting tuition fees scrapped, said access must be based on the ability to learn, while Labour said the issue had to be addressed “sooner rather than later”.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Three people are being treated in hospital following an explosion at a garage in Gloucester.
The fire service said the blast was believed to have been caused by fumes from an oxyacetylene tank igniting.
Two men were taken to hospital by ambulance while a third was airlifted from the scene.
One was hit by the tank lid and two suffered flash burns. The explosion happened at the Pullman Fleet Services garage on the Kingsway Business Park.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Two people who subjected a man to homophobic taunts before fatally attacking him in London’s Trafalgar Square are convicted of his manslaughter.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Julian Assange, photographed inside a prison van, is fighting extradition to Sweden Swedish authorities will be at the High Court on Thursday to try to block bail for Julian Assange, founder of the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks.
The 39-year-old Australian was granted bail earlier this week on condition he provides sureties of £240,000.
But he has remained in Wandsworth Prison after Swedish prosecutors appealed against giving him bail.
Mr Assange is fighting extradition to Sweden where he faces sex allegations involving two women, which he denies.
He was granted bail by District Judge Howard Riddle at City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, pending extradition proceedings due to start on 11 January next year.
Conditions included the posting of a £200,000 cash deposit, with a further £40,000 guaranteed in two sureties of £20,000.
He was also told live under curfew at the home of journalist Vaughan Smith, founder of the campaigning Frontline Club.
However, the Swedish Judicial Authority has appealed against the bail decision.
The appeal is expected to be heard in Court 4 at the Royal Courts of Justice in London by Mr Justice Ouseley.
He is the judge who last week upheld bail for Shrien Dewani, whose wife was murdered on their honeymoon, following an appeal by South African authorities.
Mr Assange has received the backing of a number of high-profile supporters including human rights campaigners Jemima Khan and Bianca Jagger, and film director Ken Loach.
Mr Assange’s website has published 250,000 sensitive American diplomatic cables, details of which have appeared in the Guardian in the UK and several other newspapers around the world.
He has come under criticism in the US where former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has said he should be hunted down like the al-Qaeda leadership.
Mr Assange argues that the allegations against him are politically motivated and are designed to take attention away from the material appearing on Wikileaks.
Mr Assange is accused of having unprotected sex with a woman, identified only as Miss A, when she insisted he use a condom.
He is also accused of having unprotected sex with another woman, Miss W, while she was asleep.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Nato’s exit strategy for Afghanistan involves handing over to local forces A Nato air strike in southern Afghanistan has mistakenly killed four Afghan soldiers, officials say.
An Afghan defence ministry spokesman confirmed to the BBC that the soldiers, who were on patrol, were killed in the Musa Qala district of Helmand province after being mistaken for militants.
Nato has been informed and is investigating, he said.
The incident comes hours before US President Barack Obama delivers a review of his Afghan strategy.
A spokesman for Nato, Capt Ciro Parisi, said a team had been sent to investigate the incident but he could not confirm the deaths.
Helmand is one of the most violent regions of Afghanistan, with Nato troops battling Taliban rebels.
There have been other incidents of so-called “friendly fire” this year.
Three policemen died in August in northern Jowzjan province in a Nato air strike. Another Nato air strike killed six Afghan soldiers in Ghazni province in July.
Later on Thursday, President Obama is expected to announce the findings of a report by his national security staff on progress in Afghanistan.
White House aides have suggested the report will contain few surprises and will support the president’s intention to begin turning over security duties to Afghan forces in July 2011.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said again on Wedensday that Nato should transfer full responsibility for all the country’s affairs, including security, to Afghans by the end of 2014.
Ahead of the US report, two further assessments painted a bleak picture of the US-led war in Afghanistan.
The Red Cross found armed groups were making life more difficult for Afghans.
And US intelligence assessments reported by the New York Times suggested there was a limited chance of success unless Pakistan hunted down insurgents.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
A pipe bomb is removed by the Army after being found at a house in south Belfast.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
WBA heavyweight champion David Haye says he is “pretty certain” of agreeing a deal to face Wladimir Klitschko in 2011.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Much of the momentum achieved by the Taliban has been arrested, the review says Al-Qaeda’s leadership in Pakistan is at its weakest since 2001, a US review of Afghan strategy has said.
President Barack Obama’s review says the US has made enough progress in Afghanistan to start a “responsible reduction” of forces in July 2011.
But it says that the gains against the Taliban made by the US troop surge remain “fragile and reversible”.
Nato’s plan is to transfer full responsibility for the country’s affairs to Afghans by the end of 2014.
The review comes at a time when civilian casualties are at their highest since the US-led invasion of 2001. This year has also been the bloodiest for foreign troops since 2001, with the US taking the brunt of the casualties.
The White House has released a five-page summary of the review of the war strategy in Pakistan and Afghanistan ahead of speech by President Obama on the document later on Thursday.
The review says: “Al-Qaeda’s senior leadership in Pakistan is weaker and under more sustained pressure than at any other point since it fled Afghanistan in 2001.”
It continues: “In Afghanistan, the momentum achieved by the Taliban in recent years has been arrested in much of the country and reversed in some key areas, although these gains remain fragile and reversible.
“While the strategy is showing progress across all three assessed areas of al-Qaeda, Pakistan and Afghanistan, the challenge remains to make our gains durable and sustainable.”
But BBC correspondents say the bigger picture is of an insurgency fighting to the death in Helmand and Kandahar and expanding in places like Ghazni and Kunduz.
The Nato commander in Afghanistan, Gen David Petraeus, says a number of insurgents have approached the Afghan government and foreign forces about laying down arms.
However, the Taliban leadership has publicly shunned the idea of direct talks with the government.
There are more than 150,000 Nato troops in Afghanistan trying to defeat the insurgency.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
A new dentistry system will be piloted in England next year in another attempt to improve access to NHS services.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Keith Brown spent the night at Transport Scotland’s control centre Scotland is bracing itself for more Arctic weather as cold air moves south across the country.
The Met Office has issued a severe weather warning of icy roads, particularly during the rush hour, as temperatures drop below freezing.
There are widespread snow showers in northern Scotland but no reports of serious disruption on the roads.
All Shetland schools have been closed and some rail services suspended in the Highlands and the west of Scotland and
Heavy snow showers coupled with high winds on Shetland are making driving conditions difficult.
Temperatures in much of the central belt are still well above freezing but they are falling fast, especially in the east.
The temperature in Edinburgh dropped from 6.1C at 0500 GMT to 2.6C at 0600 GMT and is forecast to continue falling.
Local authorities have had gritting teams working through the night to keep the roads open.
Scotland’s new transport minister, Keith Brown, spent the night at Transport Scotland’s control centre in Glasgow, along with police and transport officials.
His predecessor Stewart Stevenson quit the job at the weekend after blizzards brought gridlock to roads, leaving hundreds of motorists stranded overnight in their cars.
On Tuesday the new transport minister published a six-point plan aimed at keeping the country moving if the severe weather strikes again.
Measures include storing salt and grit at key locations on the road network for quicker access, and the possibility of removing central barriers on roads to allow easy access to vehicles that are blocking the carriageway.
He said: “We can assure Scotland that every effort is being made to prepare our transport network for the forecast impending heavy snowfall, and that all operations – thousands of people across multiple agencies including police, operating companies and government bodies – are working around the clock to mitigate weather impact.”
Schools in the Stirling Council area will not open until 1000 GMT and there will be no school transport, while staff at the local authority’s offices are being given more time to get to work.
ScotRail has been fitting hot air blowers on trains in a bid to remove snow and ice from undercarriages more quickly, and has brought in extra staff to keep stations and trains clear.
Police are advising people to listen to weather forecasts and check travel websites before they venture out.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.