The US military is thought to be the only force capable of launching such attacks in the region
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The Foreign Office says it is investigating reports that two white British al-Qaeda members have died in a suspected US drone raid in Pakistan.
The Muslim converts were reportedly killed in a missile attack near the town of Datta Khel five days ago.
The men, said to be aged 48 and 25, were apparently in a vehicle with two other fighters at the time.
The Foreign Office said the British High Commission in Pakistan was seeking further information.
According to the Guardian newspaper, the pair were using the pseudonyms Abu Bakr and Mansoor Ahmed.
The paper said if the deaths are confirmed, the men would be the first white British converts to have been killed in the area.
In September, a British terror suspect was killed in a drone attack in north-west Pakistan.
The BBC was told Abdul Jabbar was being groomed to head an al-Qaeda splinter group in the UK.
According to BBC Newsnight, Jabbar was tasked with preparing Mumbai-style commando attacks against targets in Britain, France and Germany.
The US military does not routinely confirm drone operations, but analysts say they are the only force capable of deploying such unmanned, remotely-piloted aircraft in the region.
Pakistan publicly objects to the strikes, but analysts believe such raids have the private backing of officials.
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All three main parties at Westminster remain opposed to the de-criminalisation of drugs
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A former minister with responsibility for drugs policy has called for the de-criminalisation of all drugs.
Bob Ainsworth, who oversaw the issue at the Home Office in Tony Blair’s government, said the approach of successive administrations had failed.
Mr Ainsworth, also a former defence secretary, said the current policy left the drugs trade in the hands of criminal gangs.
Ministers have insisted they remain opposed to de-criminalisation.
Mr Ainsworth is the most senior politician so far to publicly call for all drugs, including heroin and cocaine, to be de-criminalised.
He said he realized while he was a minister in the Home Office in charge of drugs policy that the so-called war on drugs could not be won.
Mr Ainsworth has called for a strict system of legal regulation under which different drugs would either be prescribed by doctors or sold under licence.
“We must take the trade away from organised criminals and hand it to the control of doctors and pharmacists”
Bob Ainsworth
The Labour backbencher said successive governments had been frightened to raise the issue because they feared a media backlash.
But he predicted in the end ministers would have no option but to adopt a different approach and consider de-criminalisation.
He said: “Politicians and the media need to engage in a genuine and grown up debate about alternatives to prohibition, so that we can build a consensus based on delivering the best outcomes for our children and communities. Prohibition has failed to protect us.
“Leaving the drugs market in the hands of criminals causes huge and unnecessary harms to individuals, communities and entire countries, with the poor the hardest hit.”
Mr Ainsworth said billions of pounds was being spent “without preventing the wide availability of drugs”.
“It is time to replace our failed war on drugs with a strict system of legal regulation, to make the world a safer, healthier place, especially for our children,” he said.
“We must take the trade away from organised criminals and hand it to the control of doctors and pharmacists.”
BBC political correspondent Norman Smith says it seems highly unlikely there will be any imminent change in drugs policy, despite Mr Ainsworth’s intervention.
All three main parties at Westminster remain opposed to de-criminalisation.
Last week Home Secretary Theresa May said the government’s drugs strategy would remain focused on rehabilitation and reducing supply.
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The BPI is calling for people to pay for their music to help boost homegrown artists including Adele
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Illegal downloading in the UK is growing, with around 7.7 million people choosing not to legitimately buy their music online, according to new figures.
A report suggests that more than 1.2bn tracks were illegally downloaded last year, costing the retail industry £1bn.
The British Recorded Music Industry (BPI) commissioned research based on internet users’ habits.
BPI boss Geoff Taylor said illegal downloading was becoming a “parasite”.
The report has claimed that more than three quarters of music downloaded in the UK is illegally obtained, with no payment to the musicians, songwriters or music companies producing it.
This is despite a digital music market in the UK which is served by 67 legal downloading services.
The report said that illegal mp3 pay sites and cyberlockers – sites offering space to store illicit files – are “rising alarmingly”.
It added that there is still no effective deterrent against illegal downloading and new legislation is “urgently needed”.
“It is a parasite that threatens to deprive a generation of talented young people of their chance to make a career in music, and is holding back investment in the burgeoning digital entertainment sector,” Mr Taylor said.
He called for swift action be taken to help “Britain to achieve its potential in the global digital market”.
Earlier this year the BPI reported that music sales in the UK had grown for the first time in six years.
It said that legal downloads had boosted sales, rising by more than 50% to earn £154 million, compared with £101.5 million in 2008.
They are expected to reach 160 millions sales this year, an increase of more than 10 million in 2009.
This year also saw I Gotta Feeling by Black Eyed Peas become the first single to sell more than one million digital copies.
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Scientists develop a new theory to explain the Solar System’s most spectacular mountain range – the giant ridge on Saturnian moon Iapetus.
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Millions of tourists take advantage of the Dutch tolerance of the use of cannabis in coffee shops
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The European Court of Justice is set to rule on an attempt by the Netherlands to ban tourists from the country’s cannabis-selling coffee shops.
The centre-right coalition government plans to turn coffee shops into private members’ clubs amid concerns about the threat the drug tourism trade poses to the Dutch way of life.
But the court may find the plan violates EU rules on equal treatment.
The EU guarantees a free market in goods and services.
There are some 700 coffee shops in the Netherlands, attracting millions of drug tourists a year in a lucrative trade.
The cultivation and sale of soft drugs through coffee shops is decriminalised but not legal.
Cannabis use is tolerated in small amounts, with possession and purchases limited to 5g per adult, regardless of the consumer’s nationality.
But the deluge of visitors – particularly to border towns – and a spate of drug-related attacks in the south of the country have spurred the coalition government to act.
It wants to introduce a membership system that will put coffee shops out of bounds to non-residents, and is confident the court will decide that soft drugs are not subject to the same rules as legal goods, says the BBC’s Geraldine Coughlan in The Hague.
The country’s 30-year-old soft drugs tourism trade may soon be over if the court agrees, our correspondent says.
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There are currently 23 posts at Milford Haven station
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Holyhead and Milford Haven coastguard stations are set to close leaving Wales with just one base in Mumbles near Swansea, the UK government has said.
Mumbles will only operate in daylight hours under plans to cut the stations from 18 to eight, with only three open 24 hours a day.
MP Albert Owen said the Holyhead closure would “put lives at risk”.
There are currently 23 posts at Milford Haven, 28 posts at Swansea and 23 posts at Holyhead.
Under proposals outlined by Shipping Minister Mike Penning, there will be three 24-hour operational centres – at Aberdeen, in the Southampton/Portsmouth area and at Dover.
In addition, there will be five sub-centres open during daylight hours – at Swansea, at Falmouth in Dorset, at Humber in Yorkshire and at either Belfast or Liverpool and at either Stornoway or Shetland in the Scottish islands.
“Everything must be done to minimise compulsory redundancies”
Stephen Crabb Preseli Pembrokeshire MP
Mr Penning said: “Our seas are becoming busier, with larger ships and increasing numbers of offshore renewable energy platforms making key areas of our seas more congested.
“There are also increasing numbers of people using our beaches, coastlines and seas for leisure activities.
“The current organisation of the coastguard – which dates back some 40 years – is not well placed to respond to these challenges.”
Launching a 14-week consultation the minister said Milford Haven would close in 2012/13 and Holyhead a year later with their function transferred to the new Maritime Operations Centres.
Mumbles, which covers much of the Bristol Channel, would become a sub-centre in 2013/14.
Mr Owen, Labour MP for Ynys Mon, said it made “no sense” to have no coastguard station between Swansea and Liverpool.
“These cuts are dangerous. In a week we have seen our court service massacred we see a hatchet job done on our coastguard stations.
“It is doing away with local skills and expertise and will put the public at risk.
“At a time when coastal tourism is being boosted, the cover given by local coastguard stations is being reduced.”
Preseli Pembrokeshire MP Stephen Crabb, who is a government whip, said he had “serious concerns” about plans to shut Milford Haven.
“I accept that reform of the system is overdue but it is vital that the quality and safety of the front-line service is not compromised.”
He said he had met the minister this week and would seek further discussions after talking to coastguards and other interested parties in Pembrokeshire during the consultation period.
“I am particularly anxious about the prospect of job losses at the Milford Haven station,” he added.
“Everything must be done to minimise compulsory redundancies.”
An announcement about the sell-off of search and rescue helicopters has been postponed.
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The work features Spencer with his first wife Hilda
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A 1954 painting by Stanley Spencer has set a new auction record for the British artist after being sold at Sotheby’s in London for £1.43m.
The previous record for a Spencer work was reached in 1990 when his painting The Crucifixion was sold for £1.32m.
Hilda and I at Pond Street was expected to fetch no more than £600,000 at this week’s 20th Century British Art sale.
Spencer, who died in 1959, was one of Britain’s most renowned painters
The painting depicts Spencer at Hilda’s home in Hampstead, London along with his wife.
The work, which was painted after Hilda’s death in 1950, also features two figures which were intended as angelic representations by the artist.
The couple wed in 1925 and divorced 12 years later, though they remained close throughout Spencer’s second marriage to artist Patricia Preece.
James Rawlin, a senior director at Sotheby’s, said the auction house was “absolutely delighted to see such an amazing response”.
The sale, he added, “really helps to establish Spencer as one of the central figures of figurative art in Britain in the 20th Century”.
Born in 1891, Spencer spend most of his life living and working in Cookham where a gallery of his work now resides.
According to Sotheby’s, Hilda and I at Pond Street was sold by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago to art dealer Richard Nagy.
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The European Court of Human Rights rules the Irish Republic violated the rights of a woman with cancer who travelled to the UK for an abortion.
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Temperatures are plummeting across the UK with widespread ice forecast to cause dangerous driving conditions.
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The government has postponed a planned announcement about the sell-off of the UK’s search and rescue helicopters.
A foreign consortium had been due to take over their running from the RAF.
But the government “had become aware of a possible issue in connection with its bid” within the past 48 hours, said Transport Secretary Philip Hammond.
He said that “as soon as we are able” the government would set out its plans “to secure the provision of search and rescue helicopter capability”.
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Arab foreign ministers reject further Palestinian-Israeli peace talks without a “serious offer” from the US on ending the Middle East conflict.
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West Yorkshire Police face a budget cut of £90m over four years
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Police budget cuts will mean 1,500 staff will be lost over the next four years, the chief constable of West Yorkshire Police has said.
Sir Norman Bettison said there were 13 reviews going on within the force to consider ways of saving cash.
But he insisted that front line services would not be cut and local policing and emergency responses were a priority.
West Yorkshire Police Federation said the cuts would have a knock-on effect.
The force has an annual budget of £450m, but must cut £90m from that over four years.
Sir Norman said that 85% of the total budget was spent on staff.
He said: “The aggregate figure over the next four years is, I predict, this organisation of 10,500 people will have 1,500 fewer than it has now.”
He said that natural wastage over that period would account for some of the jobs.
“All of the things that sit behind the front line are going to have to be reviewed and revised”
Sir Norman Bettison Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police
Sir Norman said: “There are two central drivers, two real things I’m prepared to die in a ditch over.
“The first one is local policing will not suffer, the sort of policing you see when you open your curtains.
“And the emergency response of the police at the times when people are feeling vulnerable, under threat or have suffered some criminal act or tragedy.”
“The second thing to remember throughout this organisational change period is the human cost that goes with organisational change.”
In looking for efficiencies the chief constable said that crime prevention initiatives, IT and roads policing were some of areas being considered.
He said that crime prevention initiatives could be managed from a headquarters level, IT may not develop as quickly as he hoped and the focus on roads policing could change.
Sir Norman said workers dealing with abusive images, combating organised crime and the Homicide and Major Enquires Team accounted for about 55% of the day-to-day staff.
“We have 13 consecutive reviews in place looking at all that support function,” he said.
He said that the number of occasions when crime scene investigators, such as fingerprint teams, were deployed would be cut back.
“All of the things that sit behind the front line are going to have to be reviewed and revised,” he added.
Michael Downes of the West Yorkshire Police Federation said taking staff away from so-called “back offices” “at some point they will drain on front-end services”.
Mr Downes said the cuts would impact on a major way “on policing not just in West Yorkshire but across England and Wales”.
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The government hopes the incentive will boost investment in low-carbon electricity generation
The government is to guarantee prices for electricity to persuade the private sector to invest in new low-carbon forms of generation.
The move is part of a range of proposals to be outlined later by Energy Secretary Chris Huhne.
The aim is to ensure Britain has the electricity generating capacity it needs, while still meeting its climate change targets.
But consumers are likely to face much higher energy prices.
Some estimates suggest the reforms could add hundreds of pounds to bills.
In the next 10 years a quarter of our generation capacity is due to come off line.
Roughly half of that is due to tightening environmental regulation. But many of Britain’s ageing nuclear plants are also due to close.
The government wants industry to build a new generation of power plants using low-carbon technologies including renewables, nuclear, and clean coal and gas.
So it is proposing a range of incentives to give investors the certainty they will need, saying its plans represent the biggest reform of the electricity generation market in 25 years.
For low carbon generation – including nuclear – it is proposing a feed-in tariff with long contracts. This will give investors a guaranteed price for their electricity.
There would be extra support for what are described as younger technologies like offshore wind and wave power.
But the government maintains that there will be no specific subsidy for nuclear.
There will also be capacity payments to ensure there is back-up plant available on those days when the wind doesn’t blow.
There will be disincentives too. These will include support for the carbon price – which would make it expensive to generate power using dirty coal.
And an emissions performance target will also ensure there is no new unabated coal-fired electricity generation.
But the government’s reforms are expected to result in significantly higher energy bills.
The industry regulator Ofgem has estimated that bills could rise by as much as 25% over the coming decade, adding hundreds of pounds to the average household spend.
David Porter, chief executive of the Association of Electricity Producers said: “Politicians and the regulator seem to recognize that the huge cost of doing this will push up customers’ bills.
“Everyone involved has to be candid about that.”
Consumer groups have already voiced concerns that the price of building all the new capacity will simply be passed on to customers bills.
But writing in the Daily Telegraph, Chris Huhne said that the cost of electricity would be lower as a result of the reforms than it would otherwise have been.
“By providing greater certainty, we can encourage new market entrants and financial investors, reduce the cost of capital, and provide low carbon electricity at lower cost than under present policies,” he said.
Environmental groups are likely to welcome the plans.
In a statement, Friends of the Earth described the reforms as a once-in-a-generation chance to set energy policy for the next 20 years, adding that “it’s crucial the government makes the right decisions to ensure renewable power thrives instead of locking us into a dangerous high-carbon world.”
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