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The euro remains near 11-month lows against the US dollar as European debt concerns continue to focus on Portugal.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
President Nursultan Nazarbayev has been criticised for failing to improve Kazakhstan’s rights record World leaders and top diplomats are in Kazakhstan for a rare summit of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
The talks in Astana are expected to focus on Afghanistan, international drug trafficking and terrorism.
Human rights campaigners have said Kazakhstan’s poor record on democracy and rights make it an unsuitable venue.
Critics say the event is just a talking shop, and a clever way for the oil-rich country to boost its image overseas.
This is the by far the biggest international event ever to be held on Kazakh soil.
Heads of state and high-level diplomats from the 56 European and former Soviet states that make up the OSCE are gathering in the capital Astana.
It is the first such summit in a decade – and it comes amid the continuing Wikileaks controversy.
Regional security, frozen conflicts and the war in Afghanistan are on the agenda.
But throughout its chairmanship of the OSCE this year, Kazakhstan has been criticised for its poor human rights record.
The government had promised to make amends when it was awarded the chairmanship in 2007.
But, human rights groups say, now that the country’s leadership has achieved its main foreign policy goal of hosting the summit, it is happy to weather international criticism.
And, given that many of the leaders present will be facing each other for the first time since the latest Wikileaks US diplomatic cables were published, any residual concerns about Kazakhstan’s human rights record are likely to be almost entirely drowned out.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Mr Hutton found that public sector executives’ pay had risen faster than that of other civil servants Top pay in the public sector should not normally be more than 20 times that of the lowest paid worker in any public body, the government has been advised.
The idea has been put forward by Will Hutton of the Work Foundation.
In May the government asked him to devise a way of ensuring that the pay of the highest paid executives in the public sector was fair.
Mr Hutton’s final recommendations will be published in March 2011.
“There is a strong case for public sector organisations having to comply with, or explain why they do not comply with, a maximum pay multiple, such as 20:1,” Mr Hutton said.
“This would demonstrate fairness by reassuring public opinion, address a problem of collective action across remuneration committees, and benefit organisations’ productivity.
“The range of top pay deals across the public sector has little coherence or relationship to the public’s priorities in generating genuine public value.”
The government asked Mr Hutton to investigate the issue because of concern that the rise in top executive pay in the public sector was unfair.
“There are significant upward pressures on senior pay and, before the pay freeze, some increasingly eye-catching settlements”
Will Hutton Chief executive, Work Foundation
He found that in the past decade their pay had risen faster than that of their average and low earning staff – just as it has in the private sector.
There, the pay and remuneration of the most senior executives in the biggest companies has boomed spectacularly in recent years, particularly with the aid of bonuses and lucrative share options.
As a result the average pay of a chief executive of a FTSE company is now 88 times that of their lowest paid staff.
Mr Hutton pointed out that this trend inevitably had the effect of driving up top pay of public bodies sought to recruit executives from the private sector.
He warned that the public sector was in danger of being caught up in a top pay “arms race”.
And he pointed out that some of these pay deals might be “irrational” and have no bearing on the ability of the organisations to serve the public.
“In parts of the public sector that have more autonomy – such as universities, foundation trusts and arms length bodies in general – there are significant upward pressures on senior pay and, before the pay freeze, some increasingly eye-catching settlements,” Mr Hutton said.
“When the public sector does recruit from the private sector it has to pay significantly more for staff, creating knock-on inflationary pressures.”
Dave Prentis, General Secretary of Unison, the UK’s largest public sector union, said that the review missed the point.
“By concentrating on the 20:1 pay ratio, that affects a miniscule 0.0001% of the public sector workforce, the report misses the elephant in the room, namely the scandal of low pay across the sector.
“The government likes to talk about fairness, but actions speak louder than words,” he said.
“Public spending cuts, plus the drive to privatise local services, is depressing wages, fragmenting the workforce and undermining moves towards fairness.”
Only a small minority of top earners – 20,000 out of 290,000 – work in the public sector Mr Hutton’s initial report found that in 2009, the pay of top private sector executives far outstripped that of top public servants.
Only 20,000 public servants were among the UK’s 290,000 highest earners who were paid more than £117,523 a year, which put them in the top 1% of all earners.
Of these 20,000, 4,000 were managers and most of the rest were doctors and dentists in the NHS.
The average pay ratio of public sector staff just below the level of a lead executive was less than 12:1.
Mr Hutton’s initial report on public sector fair pay says organisations should be able to pay more than the suggested 20:1 limit, but should have to justify it for those “exceptional” cases.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The head of a task force dealing with metal thefts in Wales says the problem threatens to “fracture social cohesion”.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
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
WEATHER AND TRAVEL INFO
Get the latest on school closures and travel problems via your local website Check if snow is forecast in your area at BBC Weather Details of motorway and local road closures and public transport disruption are available at BBC Travel News For advice on handling difficult driving conditions, see the Highways Agency website For information about severe weather warnings, see the Met Office website For information about staying healthy in the cold weather, see the NHS Winter Health website
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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Eric Pickles urges councils in England to make use of the £10bn in reserve funds at their disposal in the tough climate but local authorities say the money is set aside for “very good” reasons.
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Film-maker John Waters on why he is no longer an outsider
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Secret cables released by Wikileaks reveal US concerns over the activities of Cuban intelligence agents in Venezuela.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
US and UK diplomats feared Pakistan’s nuclear material could fall into the hands of terrorists, the latest leaked classified US diplomatic cables reveal.
The documents, released by Wikileaks, warn that Pakistan is rapidly building its nuclear stockpile despite the country’s growing instability.
One senior UK official said in one cable in 2009 that Britain had “deep concerns about the safety and security of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons”.
The US has condemned the disclosures.
However, it says international partnerships it had worked hard to build would withstand the challenge.
In one cable from among the latest leaks, US ambassador to Islamabad Anne Patterson told Washington: “Our major concern is not having an Islamic militant steal an entire weapon but rather the chance someone working in government of Pakistan facilities could gradually smuggle enough material out to eventually make a weapon.”
Another secret cable relating to a US intelligence briefing in 2008 said: “Despite pending economic catastrophe, Pakistan is producing nuclear weapons at a faster rate than any other country in the world.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
By Richard Black
Reporting emissions did not tie businesses up in tape, the report found UK companies that measure their carbon emissions do not find the exercise arduous or expensive – and some say it brings benefits, a report concludes.
The report was commissioned by the government as it prepares to decide if emissions reporting will be mandatory.
Just over half the firms surveyed said reporting emissions carried a net benefit for their business.
The CBI welcomed the finding, affirming that it “strongly supports” emissions reporting because it helps cut carbon.
The researchers – from consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), a non-profit organisation helping companies to count carbon – used a range of methods, including a survey of 155 companies, focus groups, interviews and reviews of information already in the public domain.
They found no direct tangible benefits from the act of reporting emissions; but, they relate, reporting emissions forces a company to measure them first, and that does bring benefits.
“Government needs to act now to introduce mandatory reporting”
Martin Baxter IEMA
Companies reported that measuring emissions produced an incentive to reduce them, through routes that include spending less on energy.
“Reporting drives the action of measuring, helping companies to identify opportunities for emission reductions,” said Joanna Lee, chief partnerships officer at CDP.
“It also helps companies set meaningful and achievable reduction targets, as well as advancing better risk management and increased awareness of new market opportunities.”
Most companies said the costs of measuring and reporting emissions did not meaningfully impact their businesses, with two-thirds spending less than £50,000 on the exercises.
The majority said the benefits outweighed the costs.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), which commissioned the research, said it was encouraged by the findings.
“I am pleased to see that the many companies already voluntarily involved in reporting greenhouse gas emissions are finding the process beneficial to their business and investors,” said Environment Minister Lord Henley
“The next steps for government will be to consider the findings of the report. We’ll be announcing a way forward in early 2011.”
The Climate Change Act requires government to make emissions reporting mandatory by 2012, or to explain to parliament why it has not done so.
The Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA), whose own research shows that only 22% of FTSE-listed companies are fully reporting greenhouse gas emissions, urged the government to act swiftly, or risk being left behind by other countries.
“Government needs to act now to introduce mandatory reporting to ensure that UK businesses gain the benefits from embedding sustainability into their corporate strategy,” said Martin Baxter, IEMA’s executive director of policy.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Mr Gates said combat troops’ concerns about gays are not insurmountable Allowing gay troops to serve openly in the US military would carry only a low risk of hindering fighting ability, a Pentagon study has found.
The survey also found a large majority of personnel would have no problem serving with openly gay comrades.
Defence Secretary Robert Gates urged Congress to repeal the ban but said the military would need careful preparation before repeal were implemented.
Under the ban, gay troops may serve but must hide their sexual orientation.
The report, ordered by US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, lays out how repeal would affect “unit cohesion”, benefits, housing and training.
The survey, answered by more than 115,000 US military members and more than 44,000 military spouses, found that 70% of those who replied said the presence of an openly gay or lesbian servicemember in his or her immediate unit would have “positive, mixed or non-existent” effects on the military.
And 69% surveyed said they believed they had already worked alongside a gay or lesbian comrade.
But about 40-60% of combat troops foresaw negative effects on unit cohesion. Mr Gates said that did not present an insurmountable barrier to repeal.
“I strongly urge the senate to pass this legislation and send it to the president for his signature before the end of this year,” Mr Gates told reporters at the Pentagon.
Failure to do so would risk leaving federal courts to order an immediate overturn of the ban before the military could properly prepare, which would be “disruptive and damaging”, he said.
He said thorough and careful education and leadership would mitigate risks to military effectiveness.
“The level of risk is tied intimately to the quality of preparation,” he told reporters at the Pentagon. “If a court ordered us to do this tomorrow I believe the risk to the force would be high. If we have plenty of time to prepare the force, to prepare the leadership… the more effectively we do that preparation the lower the risk.”
Mr Obama and top US military chiefs have said they support ending the 17-year-old ban, but Republicans this autumn blocked an effort to repeal it.
Supporters of the ban had said they would await the results of the Pentagon study before deciding whether to back repeal. Mr Obama and the Democrats would like to repeal the ban during the current “lame duck” session of Congress – in part because Republicans made significant gains in the recent mid-term elections.
Meanwhile, a poll released on Monday suggested a 58% of Americans favour allowing homosexuals to serve openly in the military, compared with 27% opposed. Two federal courts have ruled the ban is unconstitutional.
Mr Gates and US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm Mike Mullen – both of whom support repealing the ban – are to appear at a US Senate hearing to discuss the findings of the Pentagon study.
Britain, Israel and dozens of other countries allow gay personnel to serve openly, but under the US policy established in 1993, gays may serve in the military but cannot acknowledge their orientation. The military is forbidden to inquire but may expel service members found to be gay.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The snow has caused problems for drivers across the country Severe winter weather is set to cause further disruption across the country with schools closed and problems on the roads.
Hundreds of schools have already confirmed they will not be opening due to problems created by snow and ice.
Trains are also subject to cancellations or delays and operators have warned passengers to check their websites before travelling.
The Northern Isles, Caithness and the north east will see the heaviest snow.
However, BBC weather forecasters said this would not be as heavy as recent days.
Temperatures will be struggling to rise above freezing.
Edinburgh Airport closed for the second time in 24 hours on Monday night and engineers were working to restore power to 450 homes in the Tayside and central area.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Protesters clashed with police in Westminster
Students are staging demonstrations and marches across the UK in the third day of protests against increasing tuition fees and university budget cuts.
Students have been moving quickly across Westminster and London’s West End in what appears to be an attempt to avoid police “kettling” tactics.
There are also protests in Leeds, Sheffield, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Manchester and Bristol.
Business Secretary Vince Cable says he might now abstain in the vote on fees.
National Union of Students leader Aaron Porter attacked the Liberal Democrats for failing to keep their promise to vote against raising fees.
“The anger felt at this betrayal is real, justified, and desperately disappointing to those who placed in you their hope for a different politics,” said Mr Porter, in a letter to Lib Dem leader, Nick Clegg.
In Sheffield, students have staged a protest near to Mr Clegg’s constituency office.
In freezing conditions, thousands of protesters gathered in Trafalgar Square – many appearing younger than university students.
Mounted police have been moving through Westminster, the scene of clashes in two previous protests.
Demonstrators appear to be trying to avoid being caught in police lines, after thousands were held in a “kettle” last week.
Surreal scenes on Oxford Street where students are marching along, shouting slogans while Christmas shoppers look on with an air of slight bemusement.
There appears to be a game of cat and mouse going on with students trying to avoid getting caught in a police kettle.
I saw a man from the No Cuts campaign in a luminous vest guiding students to go in the opposite direction once he had seen that police had blocked off one exit.
Somebody cranked up a portable soundsystem, and there were cries of delight as protesters ran across the grass to another location.
Few seem to be older than 18, and several I have spoken to were under 16, having sneaked away from lessons without the knowledge of their schools.
A 19-year-old student told the BBC their strategy was to avoid being contained by police: “Whenever the police block us off, we turn round and go the other way.
“We also do not want to be panicked into violence. Smashing up windows was necessary in the beginning to get the demonstrations on the front pages, but now any violence would be counter-productive.”
Unlike last week’s demonstration in which students were held on Whitehall as a single group, this protest has been broken up into groups moving quickly around London’s West End.
Although traffic has been stopped at various points, there appears to be no sign of violence.
The National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts has accused the police of having “pre-emptively blocked” the protest route.
MPs are expected to vote on the fees package before Christmas.
It remains uncertain whether Liberal Democrat ministers will abstain or support the proposals to raise tuition fees to £9,000 per year.
At the general election, Liberal Democrat candidates gave personal pledges to students that they would vote against any increase in fees.
Vince Cable, the secretary of state responsible for universities, has indicated that he might not vote in favour of the fee rise, but might abstain.
Labour’s Shadow Business Secretary, John Denham, says it would be “extraordinary and appalling” if the secretary of state did not vote for his own proposals.
Protests have also been taking place around the country.
More than a thousand students protested in the centre of Manchester.
In Nottingham, about 150 protesters are reported to have staged an occupation at the university.
Occupations are continuing in a number of other universities, including University College London, Cambridge and Newcastle.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Prime Minister David Cameron insists he will ignore the furore over corruption claims levelled at Fifa as he tries to secure the 2018 World Cup for England.
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Universities in Wales have lobbied for tuition fee increases to meet a funding gap Welsh students will be protected from increased tuition fees, the Welsh Assembly Government says.
Education Minister Leighton Andrews made the commitment as he outlined Wales’ response to the UK government’s plan to increase fees in England.
In Wales, basic tuition fees will rise to £6,000 per annum, or £9,000 in some circumstances.
But the assembly government will meet the cost of extra fees for students from Wales attending any UK university.
In a statement to the Senedd chamber, Mr Andrews said: “In other words, the increase in fees for Welsh domiciled students, whether they study in England or Wales or Scotland or Northern Ireland, will be paid by the Welsh Assembly Government.
“Welsh domiciled students will not have to find either £6,000 or £9,000 to study.
“The public purse will continue to subsidise higher education for Welsh domiciled students.
“Welsh students who go to university in 2012-13 will be paying the same in real terms as students who go to university in this academic year.”
“I believe that the arrangements we’ve put in place are both fair, equitable and sustainable,” he added.
He told AMs he was proposing to pay for the subsidy by top-slicing the teaching grant for Welsh universities.
He added: “Higher education should be on the basis of the individual’s potential to benefit, and not on the basis of what they can afford to pay.
“This is a ‘Made in Wales’ policy which demonstrates the benefits of devolution. We are preserving the principle that the state will subsidise higher education and maintain opportunities for all.”
The income repayment threshold for student loans will increase from £15,000 to £21,000 with a variable progressive rate of interest charged depending on income.
Part-time students will be able to access a tuition fee loan depending on the level of intensity of their course.
In addition, Welsh domiciled students will continue to be eligible for subsidised loans to meet the costs of the current level of tuition fee, £3290 per annum, plus inflation in future years.
The new arrangements will apply only to new students starting university in September 2012.
Should Parliament refuse to endorse the proposals of the UK government, the Welsh Assembly Government will develop an alternative approach.
Welsh Conservatives education spokesman, Paul Davies AM, said: “It has become increasingly clear that the current funding arrangements for Welsh higher education institutions are unsustainable.
“The policy of no top-up fees, which the Welsh Conservatives have supported for many years, has resulted in increased economic activity in Wales’ university towns and cities.
“The challenge now is to ensure we can improve the competitiveness of Wales’ higher education institutions and at the same time narrow the funding gap which has widened between Welsh institutions and those in other nations of the UK.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
