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Altnaharra in Scotland is UK’s coldest spot

Heavy snow and sub-zero temperatures are again taking their toll on schools, roads, rail and air travel.

More than 250,000 pupils across the country missed lessons on Wednesday and schools in many areas have already said they will remain closed until Monday.

The east of the country is again experiencing the worst of the snowfall, with police in Tayside urging motorists not to drive unless it is vital.

Edinburgh Airport will remain closed until at least 0600 GMT.

Temperatures overnight were expected to plummet to -22C in Altnaharra in the Scottish Highlands.

Across most other cities and towns the temperature fell to nearer -6C.

Heavy snow in parts of Aberdeenshire, Tayside, Lothians and Borders will again make travel conditions extremely hazardous.

Some school pupils have already had three days off classes this week.

Midlothian Council said its 37 schools would be shut for the rest of the week due to the weather.

All state schools in West Lothian, East Lothian and Scottish Borders will also be closed until Monday.

All schools in Falkirk and the Dundee will be closed on Thursday.

A spokesman for Edinburgh Airport, which has been closed for most of the past two days, said they hoped to re-open runways at 0600 GMT.

Dundee airport was also closed on Wednesday.

Train passengers also faced delays and cancellations.

The East Coast mainline service has been cancelled north of Edinburgh.

On Wednesday, Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said: “Scotland is experiencing its worst snowfall at this time of year since 1965, but we are seeing the country pulling together to help overcome the extreme conditions.”

Edinburgh City Council said Scotland’s capital had seen the “worst snowfall since 1963” and staff have been out in “all weather conditions” to help clear snow from pavements and roads.

Tayside Police today urged people in the region not to venture out onto the roads unless their journeys are “absolutely necessary”.

The force said the roads situation had again deteriorated with “white out” conditions on the A9, M90 and A90 and snow posing difficulties for all types of vehicles.

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What do the Cuban people think?

Cuba has launched a public debate on plans to transform its socialist economy by reducing the role of the state and boosting private enterprise.

Ordinary Cubans are being encouraged to discuss the changes so their views can be taken into account at a ruling communist party congress next April.

The government says everyone should have a free say on the future of Cuba.

But it also insists that the “socialist character” of Cuba’s political system will not change.

Under the headline “It is the people who decide”, the official Communist Party newspaper Granma said everyone in Cuba should take part in the economic debate

It urged people to discuss the changes through Communist Party organisations, trade union meetings and community groups.

“Nobody should remain with an unexpressed opinion, much less be prevented from expressing it,” it said.

“At stake is the future of the Cuban nation.”

However, Granma also stressed that the “socialist character” of Cuba’s political and social system was “irrevocable.”

The three-month debating period is presented as the opportunity for the public to participate in decisions to be taken at the ruling communist party’s sixth congress in April, the first to be held in 14 years.

President Raul Castro called the congress in November, saying it would “concentrate on solving problems in the economy and updating the Cuban economic model.”

But many details of the economic changes have already been announced, so it is not clear how much influence the public debate will really have.

In September, President Castro announced plans to lay off around up to a million state employees – about a fifth of the workforce – and encourage them to find work in the private sector.

Half of those posts are to go by the end of March, just weeks before the planned congress.

Restrictions on private enterprise are being eased, with small businesses allowed to employ staff, borrow money, and sell services to government departments.

They will also have to pay tax.

Thousands of Cubans have already been given licences to set up private businesses, and more are registering every week.

Since taking over from his brother Fidel in 2006, Raul Castro has taken steps to reduce the state’s almost total control of the economy, which has has been gripped by a severe crisis in recent years.

It has suffered from a fall in the price for its main export, nickel, as well as a decline in tourism.

Growth has also been hampered by the 48-year US trade embargo.

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The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has warned retailers about tricking customers with misleading price offers.

In a report issued on Thursday, the OFT vowed to take action against High Street and online firms which break the law by not making price offers clear.

One practice the OFT is worried about is “drip” pricing, where compulsory costs, such as delivery charges, are added during the buying process.

But the British Retail Consortium said any new legislation would be pointless.

Other practices the OFT said it was concerned about were time-limited offers such as “offer ends today”, and the advertising of “sale” products with only very limited stock in order lure customers through the door.

The OFT said such promotions were no unlawful, but could be against customers’ interests.

The regulator said it obtained its information from consumer surveys, focus groups, psychology literature and “groundbreaking behavioural economics research”.

There was plenty of evidence that certain pricing techniques can lead consumers into buying decisions they would not have made were prices more clearly advertised, the regulator said.

John Fingleton, OFT chief executive, said: “It’s an important issue because it affects all of us as consumers, but it’s also important because it affects how markets work across the British economy.

“Today we are urging businesses to review their pricing practices in the light of our report and we will, where necessary, take enforcement action against firms that don’t have their house in order.”

However, retailers said customers were a savvy bunch who knew when they were being mislead.

Tom Ironside, BRC Director of Business and Regulation, said: “Customers aren’t stupid. They make sophisticated judgements about prices and value within stores, between stores and over time and have all the information they need to do that.

“Discounts and promotions are part of our highly competitive retail market and customers benefit from them,” he said.

The BRC said that there are currently a record number of promotional deals on offer, at a time when household budgets are feeling the squeeze.

Latest figures show 37% of fast-moving consumer goods are on some sort of promotion or discount at the moment, which the BRC said is an all-time high.

Mr Ironside said: “BRC members abide by the rules and regulations governing price advertising. They want satisfied customers who come back again and again.

“They would have nothing to gain from attempts to mislead and any extra legislation or over enforcement on this issue would therefore be pointless.”

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Out-of-hours patient care is suffering say doctors

Junior doctors are having to care for too many patients because there are not enough consultants on duty at weekends and in the evenings, according to the Royal College of Physicians.

The RCP says there is mounting evidence of poor out-of-hours care in hospitals.

It is calling for a consultant to be on duty for at least 12 hours a day, seven days a week.

The RCP carried out a survey of 126 hospitals in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

It found that none had more than 12 hours of weekend cover from senior specialists in emergency medicine.

Just 3% provided nine to 12 hours of cover, and nearly three quarters of hospitals in the survey had no specialist cover at all.

The survey follows research published in the summer which revealed people admitted as emergencies on a weekend were more likely to die than if they were brought in during the week.

The RCP also says consultants should be freed up to concentrate on the care of seriously-ill patients rather than holding clinics and performing other duties.

The president of the Royal College of Physicians, Sir Richard Thompson, says there have been some major improvements in the care of seriously-ill patients in recent years but out-of-hours is still falling short.

“Patients are still not getting the care they deserve at night and at weekends.

“Too many junior doctors are covering too many very ill patients, and this has to change.

“Our evidence shows that a predominantly consultant-delivered medical service is the best way to improve patient care.”

The health secretary Andrew Lansley agrees.

“Patients do deserve better care at night and weekends and senior doctors should be available to provide acute medical care as needed.”

Mr Lansley says he is already looking at ways to increase the involvement of consultants in direct clinical care at night and at weekends.

Some of the reports used by the RCP to support its argument were gathered by the National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death (NCEPOD), which reviews the care of patients and has looked at problems in emergency care.

Dr James Stewart of NCEPOD says there is a bigger issue that needs to be looked at.

He argues that junior doctors need to be better trained to care for the very ill and to spot those who are falling ill on other wards.

“Concentrating on consultant involvement alone will not resolve this important issue unless junior doctors are educated and trained to a higher standard.”

The RCP says doctors are already working long hours, with the latest census showing consultants work an average 50 hour week.

That is four-and-a-half hours longer than their contracts and more than the 48-hour limit set by the European Working Time Directive.

A survey carried out in April showed junior doctors were covering an average of 61 patients overnight, but one junior doctor was looking after 400 patients.

The RCP says that rather than increasing the hours of doctors still further, new shift patterns will have to be worked out.

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Rioting left damage at the St Andrew’s stadium

The FA is investigating trouble which marred the end of Birmingham City’s Carling Cup quarter-final clash at home to local rivals Aston Villa as hundreds of fans invaded the pitch.

Home fans ripped and hurled seating and threw flares towards Villa fans.

The incident came on the eve of the vote to decide if England will host the 2018 World Cup.

Condemning the trouble, an FA spokesman called on the clubs to take action against offenders.

Birmingham manager Alex McLeish said it threatened to bring English football “back to the Dark Ages”.

But he said he did not think it would affect the World Cup vote.

He told Sky Sports 1: “I don’t think that will affect the World Cup bid, I’m sure that’s already decided, and let’s hope England gets it because it deserves it.

“It doesn’t look good though, when you see fans running on the pitch like that and carrying on. It takes us back to the Dark Ages.”

Birmingham won the game 2-1 and will face West Ham United in the semi-finals.

A West Midlands Police spokesman said: “Police and club stewards are working to bring an end to sporadic outbreaks of disorder at the Birmingham derby.”

A Football Association spokesman said: “We wholly condemn the actions of any individuals who have been involved in the scenes of disorder at St Andrew’s this evening.

“The FA abhors acts of violent behaviour and we urge the clubs and authorities to identify any individuals involved in disorder, and impose the stiffest available sanctions, including banning orders.

“The FA will fully investigate the matter in conjunction with the appropriate authorities.

“The whole of English football has worked hard to eradicate scenes of disorder from our game, with Home Office figures this week showing a significant drop in arrests at the many thousands of football matches held every week, the majority of which still pass trouble free.”

The last time Birmingham City and Aston Villa were allowed to play each other under floodlights was seven years ago.

Following clashes between supporters during the 2002-03 season, West Midlands police insisted all future derbies be played on a Sunday lunchtime.

The Carling Cup draw led to that rule being waived for this game.

McLeish ‘worried’ after fan invasion

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Elyse Fenton’s winning poetry was inspired by her husband serving in Iraq

An American writer has won a £30,000 literary award for her collection of 21st century poetry.

Elyse Fenton has been awarded the University of Wales Dylan Thomas Prize, set up to honour the Welsh poet and encourage writing among the young.

Ms Fenton’s collection Clamor is the first book of poetry to have won.

Stefan Mohamed, 22, from Powys, won the Prize’s debut £5,000 Sony Reader Award category for unpublished writers with his novel Bitter Sixteen.

The winner was announced at an awards dinner in Dylan Thomas’ home city of Swansea, hosted by Welsh comedian and broadcaster, Chris Corcoran.

Clamor was born out of Ms Fenton’s US medic husband being deployed to Iraq and the fragments of instant messaging conversations they shared over the internet.

Judge Peter Florence, founder of the Hay Literary Festival, called the winning work “spectacular”.

“It’s a great winner. It’s an astonishing, fully accomplished book of huge ambition and spectacular delivery. For this prize of all prizes it’s great to have a poet.”

Gwyneth Lewis, poet and member of the judging panel, said the poety collection had links with Dylan Thomas’ work.

“The book’s vision of the relationship between love and war is more than worthy to be considered in the tradition of Dylan Thomas’ work.

“This is poetry of a very high order.”

The Dylan Thomas Prize is the latest in a number of accolades for Clamor, which won the 2009 Cleveland State University Poetry Center First Book Prize and the 2008 Pablo Neruda Award from Nimrod International Literary Journal.

Dylan Thomas is the inspiration for the award

Ms Fenton, from Philidephia, was one of six finalists and beat writers from around the world to win the Prize.

British poet Caroline Bird, Nadifa Mohamed from Somalia, Canadian Eleanor Catton, Indian-born Karan Mahajan and Scot Emily Mackie were all on the shortlist.

Ms Fenton and the other finalists have been in Wales for the past week holding creative writing workshops for students and pupils.

The £30,000 University of Wales Dylan Thomas Prize is awarded to the best eligible published or produced literary work in the English language, written by an author under 30.

Ms Fenton is the third winnner of the award following Nam Le with The Boat in 2008 and Rachel Trezise with Fresh Apples in 2006.

The Dylan Thomas Prize used to be awarded every two years with £60,000 prize money but as of this year it is now an annual event with £30,000 winnings.

The new category for unpublished British novel writers was won under the age of 30 was won by Stefan Mohamed from Powys whose novel involves an eccentric Welsh teenager gifted with superoowers.

His novel will now be published in an electronic book format as a result of winning the prize.

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Birmingham go through to the semi-finals of the Carling Cup as Nicola Zigic’s late goal gives them victory over second city rivals Aston Villa.

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Academic Alexandra Harris beat four other authors to the £10,000 prize

A study of English writers of the 1930s and 1940s has won a prestigious award for first-time authors.

Alexandra Harris’s Romantic Moderns: English Writers, Artists and the Imagination from Virginia Woolf to John Piper beat four other works to this year’s Guardian First Book award.

Its author, a University of Liverpool lecturer, was praised by the judges for her “comprehensive and coherent” book.

Harris – whose work was published by Thames & Hudson – wins £10,000.

Previous winners include Zadie Smith, Jonathan Safran Foer and Petina Gappah, who won last year for her short story collection An Elegy for Easterly.

Actress Diana Quick, journalist Ekow Eshun and the novelist and poet Adam Foulds were among this year’s judges.

Foulds said Harris’s book told “a compelling story about 20th Century English art and its preoccupation with place and particularity”.

“Alexandra Harris’s ground-breaking book is a reminder of how important higher education is to literature,” said the Guardian’s literary editor, Claire Armitstead.

“I’m excited that the judges decided to make what one of them described as ‘counterintuitive decision’ in choosing this book as the winner.”

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Mario Balotelli scores twice to help Manchester City to victory over Salzburg that takes them into the last 32 of the Europa League.

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With much of the UK covered in snow and ice, animals as well as humans are struggling to stay warm.

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Parliamentary election results are released in the Afghan province of Ghazni, the last area to be declared.

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Drivers on the motorways in south-east England particularly suffered on Tuesday

Further snow and freezing temperatures are set to hit many parts of the UK as the cold snap shows no sign of abating.

There are warnings of icy roads across the country, while further snow showers of up to 15cm could affect some areas.

The Met Office has issued heavy snow warnings for Yorkshire and Humber, east Midlands, east and north-east England, London and south-east England.

Further heavy snow is forecast in eastern Scotland, where hundreds of schools are expected to stay shut.

BBC broadcast meteorologist Liam Dutton said up to 10cm of snow could fall in East Anglia and south-east England, with up to 15cm possible in north-east England and south-east Scotland.

“Temperatures will be barely above freezing across the UK and when you add in the effect of the wind chill it will feel much, much, colder than that,” he said.

Overnight, temperatures hit a low of -20 in Altnaharra, in the Highlands.

However, south-west England, Wales, western Scotland and Northern Ireland should enjoy sunny spells.

On Tuesday, commuters worked from home, thousands of children could not go to school and motorists faced travel chaos as a number of roads were impassable. The disruption includes:

Alan Whiteford sent us this picture of a snow plough which overturned in the Scottish Highlands

Severe disruption for air passengers at Gatwick Airport where its runways are closed. Edinburgh Airport is also closed. Passengers are advised to check with their airline.The M25 in Essex is blocked with heavy traffic anticlockwise between J30, A13 (Lakeside) and J29, A127 (Romford), because of a jackknifed lorrySurrey Police advise motorists to avoid the clockwise section of M25 between junction six and eight and the anticlockwise section between junctions nine and seven due to congestion which had built up overnight due to the snowfall and freezing conditionsIn North Yorkshire, the A169 is shut in the Whitby area because of drifting snow.In Cumbria, the A592 Kirkstone Pass is closed between the Troutbeck junction and the Hartsop junction, because of snow. One lane remains closed on the A66 between A6108 and A685 junctions. The A686 Hartside Pass Langwathby is also closedPassengers trying to travel from Newark to Lincoln faced a night sleeping on the station after all connecting road and rail services cancelled.In Scotland at least six councils are planning to close schools for a third day

Drivers were stuck on the A2 near the M25 in Kent on Tuesday evening. Truck driver Nigel Waller, who was on his way to Bradford, told the BBC at 0100 GMT that traffic was slowly starting to move.

“I’m doing 15 miles an hour which is the fastest I have driven in hours. I have been stuck since 1730 GMT,” he said.

“I haven’t seen any gritters and it’s getting slippery because it’s freezing and there’s slush. I saw a truck trying to overtake a broken down car – he went straight through the central reservation.”

Motoring organisation, the AA, said it received an average of 1,350 calls an hour on Tuesday. The RAC said callouts to breakdowns peaked at 2,000 an hour.

The Association of Train Operating Companies (Atoc) said around 73% of trains were arriving on time on Tuesday evening.

The Local Government Association said councils had increased stockpiles of salt and grit.

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Independent MSP Margo MacDonald wants people to be able to choose their time of death

The Scottish Parliament is expected to reject new laws giving terminally ill people the right to choose when to die, despite claims they are widely backed.

Independent MSP Margo MacDonald’s End of Life Assistance Bill aims to make it legal for someone to seek help to end their life.

Ms MacDonald, who has Parkinson’s disease, has claimed there is wide public support for the legislation.

But it is thought the bill will not pass its first parliamentary vote.

MSPs have been allowed a free vote on the bill, rather than on party lines, and it has been supported by a number of members from across the Holyrood parties.

Scottish Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon is among the opponents.

The vote at Holyrood comes after Lord Falconer launched an inquiry into assisted dying in the UK, insisting it would be “an objective, dispassionate and authoritative analysis of the issues”.

It is not illegal to attempt suicide in Scotland but helping someone take their own life could lead to prosecution.

Ms MacDonald’s bill would allow people whose lives become intolerable through a progressive degenerative condition, a trauma or terminal illness to seek a doctor’s help in dying.

It also proposes a series of safeguards which would prevent abuse of the legislation.

A majority of MSPs on a special Holyrood committee set up to scrutinise the legislation have already said they were “not persuaded that the case had been made to decriminalise the law of homicide as it applies to assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia”.

The “Care not Killing” alliance of 50 groups, including faith-based organisations, has campaigned strongly against the bill by promoting better palliative care.

Critics have claimed its passing could lead to Scotland becoming a “suicide tourism” destination, along with other countries where the practice is legal, such as Switzerland.

But Ms MacDonald has strongly rejected the claims, and has urged MSPs to recognise what she describes as a strength of public support on the issue as well as the “faith” arguments.

In England, the director of public prosecutions previously indicated it was unlikely that legal action would be taken against those who assist the suicide of friends or relatives who have a settled and informed wish to die.

However, no such guidance has been given in Scotland.

Even if the general principles of the End of Life Assistance Bill are approved on Wednesday, the legislation would still face a further two parliamentary votes before becoming law, during which time it could be amended.

MSPs are also currently considering a separate bill to strengthen palliative care for the terminally ill, although Holyrood’s health committee has questioned the need for legislation to improve services.

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By Dominic Casciani

Ministers are looking for a way forward on how police bodies are organised

Top police officers who want to be elected as one of proposed new police and crime commissioners should wait four years before standing, say MPs.

The Home Affairs Select Committee said there needed to be “greater clarity” on chief constables’ independence.

And it warned commissioners may not be able to cope with the workload.

The report comes as ministers prepare to unveil radical proposals for directly-elected policing and crime commissioners in England and Wales.

Commissioners would not only set policing priorities, they would also be able to sack chief constables.

The proposed commissioners are expected to be introduced in May 2012, replacing the current system of local police authorities.

At the general election, both coalition parties pledged greater local accountability of the police. The proposed commissioners were a specific Conservative idea.

The Metropolitan Police and City of London Police will not be subjected to the reforms.

However, many chief constables fear the commissioners, similar to the US system, could compromise their ability to plan crime-fighting.

Opponents of the proposals fear the chiefs will be forced to choose between clearing up local crime and putting resources into combating unseen and complex regional and national threats.

In its report, the Home Affairs Select Committee said there should be a “cooling-off period” of four years for every former senior police officer, such as chief constables or deputy and assistant chief constables, who wanted to stand for election.

“The Committee believes that the restriction on senior officers standing is necessary because otherwise they could be in the position of scrutinising decisions they had made while still in office,” said the MPs.

But the committee said that it was also concerned that there was no legal definition of the “operational independence” that ministers have said chief constables would retain.

At present, responsibility for policing is shared between chief constables, the police authorities who oversee broad strategy and the home secretary, who answers to Parliament.

The new system would shift power to the elected commissioners who, in turn, would be scrutinised by new local bodies known as policing and crime panels.

“We recommend that the concept of operational independence should… be developed and clarified in a memorandum of understanding between the home secretary, Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners,” said the committee.

“It is important that arrangements are made for parliamentary scrutiny of the terms of any such memorandum and subsequently its impact on police work.

“The police and not politicians must, as now, be solely responsible for individual decisions with respect to arrest and investigation.”

The committee also warned that the new commissioners could be overwhelmed by the task facing them.

“The concern would be that if police and crime commissioners could not cope with the workload, or could not successfully represent the entire force area, the public’s opportunities to engage with the police might get worse rather than better,” said the committee.

“Police and Crime Commissioners should be responsible for the budget, staff, estate and other assets in their force area.  They should have the same power to appoint and dismiss senior police officers that is currently held by Police Authorities.”

Chief Constable Mark Rowley, of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), said: “The government has been emphatic in its commitment to operational independence, which alongside local accountability is a cornerstone of British policing.

“We are very clear that it is not for chief constables to determine the way in which we should be held to account for the quality of policing we provide to local communities.

“But we do have a right to clarity about how the arrangements are intended to work.”

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South Korea’s intelligence chief says North Korea is very likely to attack it again, a week after an artillery strike on an island.

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