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New York’s Pennsylvania Station is celebrating its 100th anniversary as calls grow to recreate its former neo-classical glory.
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Thousands of people are set to take to the streets of Dublin for a protest against the Irish Republic’s four-year austerity plan.
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Switzerland mulls plans to expel foreigners who commit crimes
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Drives across the UK are warned to be careful on their commutes Severe weather warnings remain in place across much of the UK, with Scotland and north-east England predicted to have the heaviest snowfalls.
BBC meteorologist Darren Brett said snow had fallen in north-east England down to East Anglia, with coastal Hampshire and Dorset also at risk.
Warnings are also in place for icy roads in Northern Ireland and Wales.
Some weekend sporting events have been cancelled as forecasters say the early cold spell could last for two weeks.
The UK has seen the earliest widespread snowfall for 17 years.
Mr Brett said a band of snow was moving west across Scotland and that the north-west of England could be affected overnight.
The latest Met Office severe weather warnings for Scotland are for Orkney and Shetland, the Highlands and Grampian, Central, Tayside, Fife, south-west Scotland, Lothian and Borders.
Heavy snow has been predicted for south-west England.
Snow and ice warnings have been added for eastern areas of England – the North East, Yorkshire and Humber, East Midlands, Norfolk and Suffolk.
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
There is also a warning of widespread icy roads for London and parts of south-east England until at least 1100 GMT Saturday.
Mr Brett said there could be 10-15cm of fresh snow by 0900 GMT on Saturday in some parts of the north of England.
He added that coastal areas were also affected
“It’s the sea temperatures that are higher than the land temperatures that are helping to trigger this instability and trigger those showers – which is why we are seeing a lot of them near the coast.”
He said there was likely to be some fog in east Wales and West Midlands, but not Northern Ireland.
He said: “It is very treacherous on Saturday morning. We will see some sunshine though for the south-west of Scotland, north-west England, Midlands and across Wales and Northern Ireland.
The snowfall is expected to continue over the weekend “It’s a little bit of a quieter day but a cold one with temperatures struggling to get to 2C.”
Heavy snowfall and ice caused disruption across the UK on Thursday and Friday.
On the M4 in south Wales there were reports of a 26-mile tailback in the Friday evening rush hour westbound from the Severn Bridge toll booths to Miskin, while more than 160 schools had earlier been closed or partially closed in Scotland.
Schools in Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, East and North Yorkshire, and Wales were also affected.
The AA said it had been a “very busy day” with 1,220 call-outs every hour with Wales and the North East of England being the worst for breakdowns.
The coldest recorded temperature on Friday was in Carterhouse in the Scottish Borders, at -7.8C. Benson in Oxfordshire recorded -7.6C, Newcastle dropped to -4.3C, while the temperature at Kew Gardens in London sank to -3.8C.
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Saturday’s horse racing meeting at Newcastle has been cancelled, with Gosforth Park under 18cm of snow. The meeting at Towcester, Northamptonshire, has also been called off, while events at Carlisle and Leicester on Sunday are in doubt.
The weekend’s FA Cup second round matches could also be at risk.
But Rugby Union bosses insist that England’s match against South Africa at Twickenham on Saturday will go ahead.
Animal charity the RSPCA urged dog owners to keep pets safe by avoiding iced-over lakes or ponds.
The unusual weather is being caused by high pressure over Greenland and low pressure in the Baltics, forcing cold winds from the north-east across Europe.
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A&E units tend to gear themselves up for the winter Taking the temperature outside A&E could give staff an accurate way to predict number of injuries and who will suffer them.
Experts know that extreme weather can affect A&E patient numbers.
Warwick University researchers found that even 5C falls or rises could make a difference to injury rates.
Rates for children were up to 70% higher in summer compared to winter, the Emergency Medicine Journal reported.
Many trusts plan ahead for winter, when the arrival of frost, snow and ice, as well as flu and pneumonia, is traditionally linked to busier shifts.
The study of 60,000 patients found that each 5C drop in minimum temperature during the day meant a three per cent rise in serious accidents to adults.
The arrival of snow and ice led to an eight per cent rise, as the number of slips, trips and car accidents rose.
However, the study found other increases linked to the heat of the summer, often viewed as a slightly calmer period in emergency departments.
Even among adults, every five degree centigrade rise in maximum temperature during the day, and additional two hours of sunshine, meant a 2% rise in the rate of serious injury.
“We’ve always known that there is increased activity in emergency departments during winter, but in recent years, we’ve noticed that this doesn’t really diminish during the summer months – we remain busy all year round”
Professor John Heyworth College of Emergency Medicine
This effect was particularly noticeable in children, who are more likely to get injured while playing outside during the warmer months.
For them, a 5C rise meant a 10% increase in injury cases, and two hours of extra sunshine boosted cases by six per cent.
While these connections were made by comparing records of hospital admissions with historical weather data, the researchers are convinced that the principle could be used to help emergency teams plan ahead for days when their workload is likely to be higher.
They wrote: “This model could clearly be used to provide predictions of daily admissions, with clear implications for the scheduling of staff and other resources at UK trauma-receiving hospitals.
“The challenge for the future is to improve forecast accuracy further in order to provide sufficient time for the detailed planning and allocation of resources that would be necessary to implement these models.”
Professor John Heyworth, president of the College of Emergency Medicine, agreed that the detailed study could help clinical teams know what to expect on any particular day, although he questioned whether the current accuracy of medium-term weather forecasts was good enough to justify staffing changes.
He said: “We’ve always known that there is increased activity in emergency departments during winter, but in recent years, we’ve noticed that this doesn’t really diminish during the summer months – we remain busy all year round.
“If you have your emergency department set up to deal with this expected load, then you can deal with extra cases due to weather conditions.
“However, this is a very helpful study.”
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The camp had been set up as a protests against living conditions in Laayoune Moroccan officials have been accused of repeatedly abusing people detained after clashes in Western Sahara by the campaign group Human Rights Watch.
The group said security forces had deliberately targeted civilians in the raid on a protest camp in the disputed territory earlier this month.
At least 12 people were killed in the raid and hundreds injured.
Morocco has not commented on the HRW report but has previously defended the police, saying they acted peacefully.
Troops moved in to shut down the Gadaym Izik camp – outside the regional capital Laayoune – on 8 November.
The camp had been set up by some 20,000 Sahrawis, as a protest against poor living conditions and lack of jobs in the territory.
At least 12 people were killed in the violence which followed the raid. Officials say most of them were members of the security forces.
HRW said its own investigations found that security forces had directly attacked civilians in the camp and then joined with Moroccan civilians in carrying out retaliatory attacks on Sahrawi homes in Laayoune and in preventing some injured people from getting medical care.
It said hundreds of people had been arrested and more than 100 remained in custody.
HRW said it had interviewed seven released Sahrawis, all of whom had severe bruising or other injuries.
It said they had all alleged that they had been abused in custody. In some cases, they said they had been beaten until they lost consciousness, had urine thrown at them or were threatened with rape.
Seized by Morocco in 1975 after Spain and Mauritania withdrewPolisario Front seeks independence but Morocco is only prepared to grant autonomyTerritory rich in phosphates, fisheries and possibly offshore oilPolisario fought a guerrilla war against Morocco but a ceasefire has been in place since 1991Regions and territories: Western Sahara In pictures: Africa’s forgotten war
Lawyers representing those still in custody told HRW one detainee had allegedly been raped while others had also complained of beatings and abuse.
The group called on Morocco to end the abuse of detainees immediately and to carry out an independent investigation into the allegations.
“The security forces have the right to use proportionate force to prevent violence and protect human life, but nothing can justify beating people in custody unconscious,” said HRW’s Middle East and North Africa director, Sarah Leah Whitson.
Morocco’s Interior Minister Taieb Cherkaoui said earlier this month that the police intervention had been peaceful and accused the protesters of using knives and petrol bombs against security forces.
The violence at the camp came on the eve of UN-mediated talks in the United States to try to find a way out of one of Africa’s longest-running territorial dispute.
Morocco annexed Western Sahara after Spanish settlers pulled out in 1975.
The Polisario Front founded the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) and waged a guerrilla war against Moroccan troops until a UN-brokered ceasefire in 1991.
Morocco is offering to grant Western Sahara autonomy, but Polisario is demanding a referendum on full independence.
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Soldiers have blocked off the entrances to the Alemao and Penha neighbourhoods Brazilian soldiers have joined forces with police in Rio de Janeiro to drive out suspected drug traffickers from one of the city’s poor areas.
Defence Minister Nelson Jobim said he had deployed 800 soldiers, 10 armoured vehicles and two helicopters to gain control of the Penha and Alemao areas.
Hundreds of suspected gang members were seen fleeing there after police took control of neighbouring Vila Cruzeiro.
Thirty-five people are reported to have died in six days of clashes.
Mr Jobim told a news conference that “the confrontation is necessary so we can have a state in peace”.
Police said Thiago Ferreira Faria, 24, whom they accuse of leading a drugs ring in the Alemao area of Rio, was shot dead on Friday during the confrontation.
At least three soldiers and six civilians were injured, among them a two-year-old girl hit by a bullet in her arm.
Gen Fernando Sardemberg, one of the commanders deployed to Alemao, told Brazilian newspaper O Globo the soldiers were surrounding the neighbourhood to prevent the alleged gang members from fleeing, but stressed they would not harass local residents or motorists.
And spokesman for the military Enio Zanan said that even though the soldiers had been fired upon, they had not fired back out of fear of hitting civilians.
The massive military deployment comes a day after the authorities took control of the Vila Cruzeiro neighbourhood, a move Rio state governor Sergio Cabral called “historic”.
Rio’s favelas have for years been controlled by heavily armed drug-trafficking gangs.
The city’s pacification programme is aimed at improving security and the rule of law in the run-up to Brazil’s hosting of the football World Cup in 2014 and Rio’s staging of the Olympic Games two years later.
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This counterfeit sandwich maker had no fuse, despite boasting a forged CE mark Consumers buying electrical goods on the internet in the run-up to Christmas are being warned that many of them can cause serious injuries.
An industry safety body says as many as one in ten items bought online can result in a fire.
Shoppers are being advised to take particular care when buying goods from outside the European Union, as they are often not designed to be used in Europe.
“Faulty electrical products can cause electric shock, ” says Kevin Sweeney, who works for a testing laboratory.
“And of course, electric shock can kill people.”
At the Intertek labs in Leatherhead in Surrey there is a collection of “horrors” to underline his point.
One is the charred remains of a sandwich-maker.
On the bottom it is marked with the name of a reputable brand, and it even has the CE safety mark.
But it turns out it contained no thermal fuse, so when it was left on it just got hotter and hotter, until it burst into flames.
The markings on the bottom were just a forgery.
Tim Lockwood, from Lowestoft in Suffolk, ordered a simple laptop charger earlier this year from a website based in Hong Kong.
Testing faulty electrical goods at the Intertek laboratory What arrived in the post was, by Tim’s reckoning, “very dangerous indeed”.
The plug fitted well into a UK 13-amp socket, but it had no fuse in it.
By chance Tim happens to be an electrician, so he immediately noticed the fault, which constituted a fire risk.
“I was absolutely amazed,” he said.
“I couldn’t believe that such a thing would be sent to the UK for use in our system.”
Unsurprisingly, many such electrical items sold into Europe do not meet European safety standards.
Next time Tim says he will make sure he gets one from a UK site.
But determining which sites are based in the UK is not always a simple process.
The suffix “.co.uk” is no guide, as anyone in any country can register a domain name with that particular ending.
At the Electrical Safety Council (ESC) they are advising shoppers to carry out particular checks if a website is based outside the European Union.
One very dodgy fuse – can you spot what is wrong? “There’s nothing wrong with buying products from overseas,” says Phil Buckle from the Council.
“But people must satisfy themselves they’re not putting themselves or their families in danger.”
However the ESC’s own statistics suggest that websites outside the EU are only slightly more culpable than ones based in Europe.
In a sample of 2,000 internet shoppers, nearly 8% reported buying an electrical item from an EU site, and subsequently having a fire.
The figure for non-EU websites was 12%.
But the figures assume that people knew where the website they were buying from was based.
Finding an address for a website is one of the few precautions that consumers can take.
That way, faulty goods can be returned.
Certainly the CE safety mark provides little reliable evidence that goods are fit for purpose.
This mark is obligatory for all EU manufacturers, and only signifies a claim by the maker that the item complies with European standards.
Third-party testers provide much more reliable marks, but there is a huge number of them, and like the CE mark, they can be easily counterfeited.
As a result, consumers are being warned to be particularly careful as they surf the internet in the run-up to Christmas.
One particular feature of internet shopping is that consumers are driven by low prices.
And that is exactly the danger.
“Don’t be tempted to buy from a cheap online deal,” says Kevin Sweeney of Intertek.
“You should know the source, and the brand,” he advises.
But how many people, under pressure to get the shopping done, will be prepared to pay a little extra, and to locate the website’s country of origin?
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Mr Stevenson will be part of the UK delegation to the Cancun conference Scotland’s climate change minister, Stewart Stevenson, has been included in the UK delegation at this year’s UN climate change conference in Mexico.
Last year, the UK government refused to allow Scottish ministers to be part of its official delegation in Copenhagen.
It argued then that it would negotiate for the UK as a whole.
But it has now been confirmed Mr Stevenson will join the UK team for the conference, which opens in Cancun on Monday.
Mr Stevenson has said he will use the opportunity to call for the international community to be more ambitious in its efforts to tackle climate change.
And he will argue that the transition to a low carbon economy is sensible, sustainable and ultimately unavoidable.
However, the Mexican government has already warned it is unlikely that a comprehensive deal will be secured in Cancun.
The Scottish government has set tough targets for a long-term reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in Scotland.
Earlier this year it said emissions had dropped by 21% since 1990, halfway towards its goal of a 42% reduction by 2020.
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England seek to finish off Australia’s first innings on day three of the first Ashes Test in Brisbane.
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The 800m-long tunnel has a ventilation system, electricity, and a rail system Border police in the United States and Mexico have found a drug smugglers’ tunnel linking the Mexican city of Tijuana with California.
It is close to where police found a tunnel earlier this month, equipped with rails, ventilation and lights.
Police are still investigating, but local media are speculating the new tunnel, almost 800m (2,600ft) long, could be even be more sophisticated.
The authorities say it was used for smuggling marijuana into the US.
The tunnel leads from a house in Tijuana to a warehouse in Otay Mesa, California, the San Diego Tunnel Task Force said.
Officials said several suspects had been arrested as part of the operation and an amount of marijuana seized, although they did not say how much.
They said Mexican police and US agents were co-operating in the search of the tunnel, where they suspect to find more drugs.
Earlier this month, border police found more than 20 tonnes of marijuana during an operation centred on a smugglers’ tunnel running along a similar route to that found on Friday.
Police say drug traffickers are building the tunnels to bypass ever more stringent controls aimed at curtailing the cross-border trade in illegal drugs and guns.
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A National Trust plan to rent Beatrix Potter’s former home to tourists triggers local controversy
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More snow is forecast for the weekend and into next week Severe weather warnings have been issued for much of the UK following a day of disruption to roads and schools.
Met Office warnings of heavy snow and icy roads are in place for most of Scotland – from Orkney to the Borders – on Friday evening into Saturday.
Severe conditions are also predicted for Wales, south-west and north-east England and the East Midlands.
Some weekend sporting events have been cancelled as forecasters say the early cold spell could last for two weeks.
It is the earliest widespread snowfall for 17 years.
The latest severe weather warnings for Scotland are for Orkney and Shetland, the Highlands and Grampian, Central, Tayside, Fife, south-west Scotland, Lothian and Borders.
The snow warning in Wales lasts until 1900 GMT on Friday and forecasters urge caution on icy roads until late on Saturday morning. A heavy snow prediction for south-west England has been issued until 0200 GMT on Saturday.
Further heavy snow and ice warnings have been added for north-east England, Yorkshire and Humber and the East Midlands.
There is also a warning of widespread icy roads for Northern Ireland and London and south-east England on Friday evening into Saturday.
Sub-zero temperatures were recorded across the UK overnight into Friday, far lower than those normally experienced in November.
Northern Scotland and north-east England were hardest hit by fresh snowfalls which also moved into South Wales and south-west England later in the day.
The coldest recorded temperature on Friday was in Carterhouse in the Scottish Borders, at -7.8C. Benson in Oxfordshire recorded -7.6C, Newcastle dropped to -4.3C, while the temperature at Kew Gardens in London sank to -3.8C.
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Up to 10cm (4in) of snow has been forecast in Wales for Friday, with up to 15cm on higher ground. Most other places will see 2-5cm of snow in low-lying areas.
BBC weather forecaster Simon King said drivers should expect difficult conditions on Friday evening in south Wales, and parts of Devon, Somerset and Dorset.
On the M4 in south Wales there were reports of a 26-mile tailback in the evening rush hour westbound from the Severn Bridge toll booths to Miskin.
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
As the snow clears away to the south overnight there will be further snow showers up the eastern side of Britain and temperatures could drop to as low as -9C.
On Saturday more snow showers are forecast for eastern and northern Scotland and north-east England, and further falls are expected on Sunday with some flurries further south.
On Friday the severe weather disrupted schools in many areas, with more than 160 schools closed or partially closed in north-east Scotland, mostly in Aberdeenshire.
Schools in Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, East and North Yorkshire, and Wales were also affected.
Saturday’s horse racing meeting at Newcastle has been cancelled, with Gosforth Park under 18cm of snow. The meeting at Towcester, Northamptonshire, has also been called off, while events at Carlisle and Leicester on Sunday are in doubt.
The weekend’s FA Cup second round matches could also be at risk.
Rugby Union bosses have vowed that England’s match against South Africa at Twickenham on Saturday will go ahead.
Travel incidents included a plane with 189 passengers overshooting the runway at Newcastle airport in icy conditions on Thursday night. No-one was injured but the airport was closed for a time.
The BBC’s James Cook describes a snowy scene in Aberdeenshire
The AA had attended nearly 12,000 weather-related breakdowns by Friday afternoon, it said. Aberdeenshire, the Newcastle area and North Yorkshire saw 70% increases in incidents on Friday morning.
Up to 15cm of snow blanketed parts of northern and north-east Scotland, and north-east England, on Thursday.
The unusual weather is being caused by high pressure over Greenland and low pressure in the Baltics, forcing cold winds from the north-east across Europe.
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Hugh Dallas parts company with the Scottish FA after the head of referees is accused of sending a tasteless email about the Pope.
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Ed Miliband is launching a major Labour policy review Ed Miliband will launch a major review of Labour Party policy by telling his MPs the party has “lost its way”.
Signalling a break with New Labour’s focus on economic growth, the Labour leader will say voters were feeling “squeezed” even before the recession.
He will add they felt Labour lost touch with their aspirations and stopped offering a “route to a better life”.
The two-year review aims to give the party a fresh platform to fight the next election.
It will be headed by Cabinet Office Minister Liam Byrne and will draw on expertise from outside the party in an echo of a similar exercise carried out by David Cameron when he was elected leader of the Conservative Party in 2005.
Key issues that need to be resolved at an early stage include where the party stands on tax – with Mr Miliband still apparently at odds with shadow chancellor Alan Johnson over whether the 50p top tax rate should be permanent and what form a graduate tax should take.
The policy review is being launched on Saturday at a special meeting of Labour’s National Policy Forum, in Gillingham, Kent.
“We need to move beyond New Labour”
Ed Miliband Labour leaderMiliband squeezed middle ‘muddle’
In his strongest criticism yet of the Blair-Brown era, Mr Miliband will say: “Over the last 13 years we saw a tremendous expansion in opportunity. But people’s ability to take advantage of those opportunities did not keep pace.
“And so, even before the financial crisis, people came to feel squeezed – by an economy that demanded more and more of them, by public services which didn’t keep pace with their rising expectations, by the pressures on family and community life outside of their control.”
And he will add: “The hard truth is that New Labour which set out to help people have a better life lost its way and people felt that we were no longer offering them a route to a better life.
“And it is our job now to learn the lessons of that defeat so we go into the next election with a new solution for the future that provides better answers to the questions people ask of us – how will we help them find security?
“How will we help them achieve their hopes and dreams.
“We need better answers to those questions. Because more of the same from us will not close the gap between what people want out of life and what they can achieve at the moment.
“That is why we need to move beyond New Labour.”
Mr Miliband has given few hints about the shape of the policy platform which may emerge from the review, beyond saying that he backs social mobility and fairness.
But his focus on the “squeezed middle” has been ridiculed by the Conservatives, who have claimed he does not know who they are.
They claim the Labour leader used six different definitions of the phrase in an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Friday.
These ranged from “people who are working hard” to “those not on six-figure salaries, who are in the middle of the income distribution”.
Tory chairman Baroness Warsi said it is no wonder that Labour’s policies are a “blank sheet of paper,” adding: “The only thing he knows for sure is that he is a socialist and will stick up for the trade unions.”
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