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Sinn Fein wins Irish by-election

Boats in the harbour at Killybegs. Pic by Shane McCaul.Donegal SW is a largely rural and coastal constituency
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The result is due of the first by-election in the Irish Republic since it sought a bail-out from the EU and the International Monetary Fund.

Voters in the Donegal South-West parliamentary constituency went to the polls on Thursday.

The Irish government sought tens of billions of euros in assistance due to concerns about its fiscal deficit and the state of its banks’ balance sheets.

Sinn Fein’s Pearse Doherty has been heavily tipped to win the seat.

The successful candidate is likely to be a member of the Irish parliament, Dail Eireann, for only a short time with the Irish prime minister promising a general election in the new year.

Donegal South-West is a largely rural and coastal constituency with a significant number of native Irish speakers.

The seat became vacant after Pat ‘The Cope’ Gallagher of the ruling Fianna Fail party was elected to the European Parliament in 2009.

The poll was held after a successful High Court challenge by Sinn Fein to the government’s delay in holding a by-election.

On Thursday, the government announced plans to cut public spending by 15bn euros over the next four years.

The proposals will be voted on in December by parliament, where the ruling coalition has a slim majority.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Freeze to go on as snow sweeps in

Icy country road in WalesSnow has fallen unseasonably early in some parts of Wales
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Drivers are being urged to take care on the roads as weather forecasters predict widespread icy roads in many parts of Wales.

The Met Office is warning the UK faces a 10-day cold snap, with the earliest widespread snowfall for 17 years.

A number of councils across Wales have begun precautionary road gritting and most say their salt barns are full.

Severe ice warnings have been issued for Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Gwynedd, Anglesey, and Pembrokeshire.

Councils in Wales insist that they are better placed than last year to respond to a return to wintry conditions.

Last winter it snowed every month from December through to March and some councils struggled to keep the roads clear as their rock salt supplies ran low.

In addition to what each council has, the Welsh Assembly Government has said there are 130,000 tonnes of rock salt stored for road gritting, with a further 38,000 ordered and due to be delivered shortly.

Deputy First Minister and Minister for the Economy and Transport, Ieuan Wyn Jones said: “This will be stored in barns across the country.

Snow on roadCouncils say they are better prepared for the winter weather than last year

“A different approach to how salt is used will also mean that it is utilised more effectively and will last longer.”

An icy mountain road has been closed all night after an accident involving two vehicles on Thursday evening.

Blaenllechau Road in Ferndale, Rhondda Cynon Taf, known locally as the Llanwonno mountain road, which links Ferndale and Llanwonno, was due to remain closed until 1000 GMT on Friday.

Meanwhile Welsh Water is advising householders to avoid frost damaged pipes as the winter weather strikes by checking that all pipe work, cisterns and tanks in unheated areas are well insulated.

The Met Office’s ice warning carries through to 1100 GMT but BBC Wales meteorologist Derek Brockway said Friday’s frosts and icy roads could be accompanied by 2cm-5cm of snow especially in the north and west.

He said: “Parts of the east and the south east may get away with next to nothing but it will stay very cold over the weekend.

“Next week will be very cold. On Tuesday and Wednesday, there’s a 30-40% chance of a blizzard, which would cause major disruption.

“This is only a possibility at this stage but it is worth keeping an eye on weather reports.”

BBC Wales has the latest online travel news and weather updates.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

EU says no plans for Portugal aid

Protesters in LisbonProposed austerity measures have proved deeply unpopular in Portugal

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has dismissed reports that Portugal is next in line for a financial rescue package.

Mr Barroso said the reports were “absolutely false, completely false”. The Portuguese government has made similar denials.

Speculation that Portugal would follow the Irish Republic in asking for help has been rising this week.

The euro has fallen sharply on fears the Irish debt crisis could spread.

The euro fell one cent against the dollar to $1.3265 on Friday. It has now fallen by almost four cents, or 3%, this week.

A report in the Financial Times Deutschland suggested that some eurozone countries and the European Central Bank were putting pressure on the country to ask for financial assistance.

However, the Portuguese government said the reports were “completely false”.

The Portuguese parliament is voting later on billions of euros of proposed austerity measures.

This week’s fall in the euro was triggered by the Irish Republic’s request for financial assistance last weekend.

It is currently negotiating with the European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over a rescue package expected to amount to 85bn euros ($113bn; £72bn).

Euro v US DollarLast Updated at 26 Nov 2010, 06:56 ET *Chart shows local time EUR:USD intraday chart€1 buys change %1.3212–

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The Republic will be the second eurozone economy to be rescued, after Greece was granted a 110bn-euro bail-out over the summer.

In order to tackle its high budget deficit, and meet conditions of any loan package, the Irish government unveiled a tough recovery plan on Wednesday, designed to save 15bn euros over the next four years.

However, there are doubts about whether the measures will be passed when parliament votes on the budget next month.

All eyes in the Republic are on the result of the Donegal by-election, due later.

The impending EU/IMF bail-out has failed to calm investors’ fears that the Irish debt crisis could spread to other countries with high budget deficits, particularly Portugal and Spain.

Government bond yields – an important indicator of investor confidence – have also risen this week, but were virtually unchanged on Friday.

Portugal will vote later on its own austerity budget, which outlines measures to cut the country’s deficit from 7.3% of economic output this year to 4.6% in 2011.

It proposes public spending cuts and raising VAT – measures that have proved very unpopular with voters.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Net-dedicated satellite launches

Ariane 5 (Arianespace)Hylas will ride into orbit on an Ariane 5 – the European rocket’s 40th mission
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The first satellite dedicated to delivering broadband services to Europe is all set for launch.

The Hylas spacecraft is designed to fill so-called “not spots” – remote locations such as rural villages where it is currently not possible to get a fast internet connection.

The satellite will be carried into orbit on an Ariane 5 rocket.

The vehicle is expected to lift off from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana at 1539 local time (1839 GMT).

Hylas (Highly Adaptable Satellite) is a commercial venture operated by start-up Avanti Communications of London, but the spacecraft itself incorporates technology developed with public funding through the European Space Agency (Esa).

“It is a fairly small spacecraft but rather capable,” said Esa project manager Andrea Cotellessa.

“The payload has flexibility to reallocate bandwidth and power in each of the eight spot beams that cover key market areas selected by Avanti.

“Normally, satellites have this frequency plan fixed at the design stage and it can’t be changed in orbit.

“On Hylas, this can be done at any moment in time from the control centre. This agility is important because it will allow Avanti to keep up with market evolution.”

Hylas was prepared at the Portsmouth, UK, factory of EADS Astrium, Europe’s largest space company, and in Bangalore by Antrix, a commercial arm of the Indian space agency (Isro).

The 2.6-tonne spacecraft will operate in the Ka radio band and deliver broadband services to some 350,000 subscribers.

The UK government put £40m into the Hylas development programme.

It has a commitment that everyone in Britain should have access to a decent net connection by 2015. That means a minimum of two megabits per second (Mbps).

Some three million UK homes currently fall below this standard; and across Europe, there are many millions more who cannot currently get an adequate connection through terrestrial technology.

Hylas satellite (Esa)Hylas will be released by the rocket just over 30 minutes into the flight from Kourou

Hylas will be offering up to 10Mbps to its users.

“It is the first of what will be many satellites,” explained Avanti CEO David Williams. “We’ve already got our second satellite under construction at the moment and that launches in about 15 months’ time.

“That will put more capacity into the UK but also it puts new capacity into new areas in Africa and the Middle East. And then we are planning more satellites for Latin America, India and other parts of Asia.”

In Europe, Avanti faces competition from the long-established Eutelsat space communications company, which is putting up its own net-dedicated Ka-band satellite for Europe, delivering 10Mbps through its Tooway service.

Eutelsat’s KA-Sat is due for launch on a Russian Proton rocket on 20 December.

Astrium worked on both Hylas-1 and KA-Sat, and at one stage the two satellites were sitting inside the same Portsmouth cleanroom separated by a few metres.

Friday’s Ariane will also be orbiting a telecommunications spacecraft for Intelsat. The US platform will deliver a wide range of services across Europe, the Middle East, Russia and Asia.

Intelsat-17 will be ejected by the Ariane upper-stage 27 minutes into the flight; Hylas will come out seven minutes later.

Hylas satelliteThe satellite was prepared by EADS Astrium and Antrix

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This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Black Friday bargains go on sale

Shoppers on an escalator in Tyson's Corner, Virginia, 26 November 2010Black Friday is the biggest consumer event in the US calendar

Millions of Americans are expected to head to the shops as Black Friday gets under way in the US.

Many stores opened their doors overnight, hoping to entice customers with cut-price bargains.

Black Friday – the day after the Thanksgiving public holiday – is traditionally the start of the Christmas shopping season.

Consumers are spending in an uncertain environment as fears about the health of the US economy persist.

Thousands of people queued late on Thursday evening in the hope of being the first to find a bargain.

Many shops are offering deep discounts on clothing, electronic goods and toys.

Several chains opened even earlier than the typical midnight start. Children’s retailer Toys R Us threw open its doors at 2200 on Thursday for the first time. Others stayed open after trading on Thanksgiving itself.

“Business has been getting progressively better”

Amy Avitabile Lord & Taylor, New York

Despite continued concerns over the US economy and a stubbornly high unemployment rate of 9.6%, analysts are predicting a better holiday season than last year.

The National Retail Federation says it expects sales to be 2.3% higher than 2009, totalling $447m (£285m). That could bode well for the US economy, with consumer spending making up about 70% of total economic output.

Amy Avitabile, from Lord & Taylor department store on New York’s Fifth Avenue, is hoping for an improvement.

“Customers pulled back on spending in 2008 and 2009, but business has been getting progressively better. I’m excited to see what this weekend and the season has in store for us,” she told the BBC.

Black Friday is so named because it is the day of the year when retailers traditionally hope to leave the “red” and enter the “black”, breaking even or making a profit.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

No to AV campaign in Gove error

Education Secretary Michael GoveMr Gove is said to be “undecided” over the issue of voting reform
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Campaigners against changing the Westminster voting system have wrongly included Michael Gove on a list of politicians supporting their cause.

Those opposed to replacing first-past-the-post named a list of high-profile Labour and Conservative politicians who they said would back their campaign.

But they were forced to remove the education secretary’s name, admitting he was “undecided” over the issue.

Both sides are mobilising support ahead of an expected referendum on 5 May.

The coalition government has promised a public vote on whether to replace the current system of electing MPs with the Alternative Vote (AV) model.

The No to AV campaign published a list of senior politicians whom it said would help to advise on strategy and act as spokespeople, saying they demonstrated the cross-party nature of its approach.

Those involved include veteran Labour politicians Margaret Beckett, David Blunkett, Lord Falconer, Lord Reid and Lord Prescott and Conservative Cabinet ministers William Hague and Ken Clarke.

But it was forced to remove Mr Gove’s name after his advisers said he had never been “involved” in the no campaign and had not made up his mind on the issue.

“The people backing this campaign come from a by-gone era”

Jonathan Bartley Yes to Fairer VotesQ&A: Alternative Vote referendumSend your comments

Advisers blamed a “misunderstanding” at the No campaign for the mistake.

As the two sides seek to raise the profile of their campaigns, Mr Blunkett, a former home secretary, said he would not mind campaigning alongside the likes of William Hague and Ken Clarke.

“We are the people with the experience over a lifetime in politics,” he told the BBC News Channel.

“That is why we are joining together to say ‘if there was something desperately wrong with our present system and if there was an alternative that provided all the answers that people want then by all means let’s consider a change but we are not’.

“We are talking about a system that does work being replaced by an unknown system that could distort completely the votes of those who have the temerity to actually vote from one of the two major parties.”

But those supporting voting reform said their opponents were stuck in the past.

“The people backing this campaign come from a by-gone era,” said Jonathan Bartley, from the campaign group Yes to Fairer Votes.

“An era of two parties where there was a narrow range of issues and people trying to influence a very small number of voters. Those days are gone.

“Now we have three parties, possibly more, and a much wider range of issues. We need a new voting system to reflect that.”

The Conservatives and Lib Dems agreed to hold a referendum as part of their coalition deal but Prime Minister David Cameron and his deputy Nick Clegg are on different sides of the argument over the need for change.

WHAT IS ALTERNATIVE VOTE

Under the AV system, voters rank candidates in their constituency in order of preference.

Anyone getting more than 50% of first-preference votes is elected.

If no-one gets 50% of votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and their backers’ second choices allocated to those remaining.

This process continues until one candidate has at least 50% of all votes cast.

David Cameron has indicated he will campaign against reform, insisting that the current system is the best way to provide stable and accountable governments.

But Mr Clegg maintains the current system is “not fit for purpose” and “a relic that deserves to be consigned to the past”.

Labour leader Ed Miliband has suggested he will campaign for a switch to AV but is opposed to holding the referendum on 5 May, the same day as devolved elections in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Among other Labour politicians thought to favour a switch to AV are Alan Johnson and David Miliband.

It is not clear what role the party leaders will play in the referendum campaign, with suggestions that the two camps want non-political figures to take the lead in trying to engage the public.

MPs have approved plans for the referendum date despite concerns that combining it with devolved elections will detract from these polls and potentially confuse voters.

Peers are currently debating the bill paving the way for the referendum.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Peter Stringfellow asks to repay winter fuel grant

Peter StringfellowMr Stringfellow said he did not need help to pay his bills
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Peter Stringfellow has written to ministers to ask to repay his winter fuel allowance, saying the money is “totally unnecessary” to him.

The millionaire night club owner said he did not feel entitled to receive the money, paid to all those over 60, given the UK’s current “financial hardships”.

He said people who did not need the payment ought to be able to opt out.

The government has said it will protect the tax-free payment, worth up to £400, amid wide-ranging budget cuts.

Mr Stringfellow said he had written to Work and Pensions Secretary Ian Duncan-Smith to raise concerns that he had received the allowance – paid automatically to those eligible – for 10 years.

“It is my opinion that giving people of my standing this generous payment is totally unnecessary,” he said.

“I am quite aware that there are thousands of people who need such payments and are very thankful for it.

“People like myself, whilst we appreciate the sentiment and goodwill, surely feel that this is an unnecessary payment, certainly while the country is facing such financial hardships.”

He said people should have the option not to accept the money if they did not want to.

Unless the matter was resolved within the month, he said he would donate 10 years’ worth of payments to the Help For Heroes charity.

More than 12.5 million people received one-off tax-free payments last year towards their winter heating, varying in amounts from £125 to £400 depending on their age and circumstances.

The Department for Work and Pensions said “anyone can return their winter fuel payment at any time by simply getting in touch with the department”.

National Energy Action say about 5.5 million households in the UK are living in fuel poverty, spending more than 10% of their income on energy.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Paedophile ring ‘abused 30 girls’

James Machin, John Barrett, John WreyBarrett (middle) passed two girls to Machin (left) and Wrey (right)
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A third man involved in a paedophile ring which police say abused dozens of girls has been convicted of sex crimes.

James Machin was found guilty at Truro Crown Court of 10 sex offences relating to girls under 13. Two others were convicted of sex abuse charges in 2008.

Police described the abuse by the men in the Camborne area, found in a three-year investigation, as “horrific”. One victim was five years old.

Inquiries began in December 2007 after a victim’s parent raised concerns.

Two girls were abused by the same three men, the court heard.

John Barrett, 49, from the Camborne area, abused two girls, who were aged five and seven when the crimes first started, and passed them on to John Wrey to do the same.

Barrett was jailed for 14 years and 6 months in 2008 for 16 sexual offences.

“They are despicable, horrible, nasty individuals who preyed on vulnerable young children”

Det Insp Simon Snell Devon and Cornwall Police

Wrey, 55, from Hayle, who was arrested at the same time as Barrett, is serving a five-and-a-year sentence for his part in the abuse after he was also convicted in 2008.

On Friday a jury decided, after two days of deliberations, that Machin was also guilty of similar sex offences against the girls which Barrett had passed on to him.

Machin, 54, from Falmouth, who was arrested in June 2009 and had denied all 10 counts, has yet to be sentenced.

The court heard that the men left messages for each other in public toilets.

It was also told that Barrett and Machin took two young girls to a house at Flushing, near Falmouth, where they abused them.

The girls were given cigarettes and sometimes had to sniff drugs during their ordeals.

The court heard that hours before Barrett was arrested, he phoned Machin to warn him that the net was closing in.

Machin then tried to cover his tracks by steam-cleaning the inside of his black Mercedes van.

He also tried to erase the hard drives of two laptops which contained child pornography.

Another man, Alan Wills, also abused the same two girls.

No link was established between Wills and the others, the court heard, but the pair of victims were abused by all four men.

Wills, 46, also from Camborne, was jailed for 16 years earlier this month for abusing a total of seven victims.

Devon and Cornwall Police said the inquiry, named Operation Lakeland, was one of the largest and most complex sex abuse investigations it had ever dealt with.

The chief investigating officer, Det Insp Simon Snell, said detectives had spoken to 30 victims and that there were real concerns there could be more.

Speaking after the Machin case, he added: “They are despicable, horrible, nasty individuals who preyed on vulnerable young children.

“My heart goes out to those children.

“I don’t think they will ever get over this absolutely appalling abuse by the men involved.”

Reporting restrictions which had been in place have now been lifted.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

US warns allies on possible leaks

War Logs website that organised some of the earlier WikileaksWikileaks has previously released documents relating to Iraq and Afghanistan
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The US has briefed a number of foreign governments, including the UK, about the possible release of diplomatic files by whistleblower site Wikileaks.

Reports say Turkey, Israel, Denmark and Norway have also been warned to expect potential embarrassment from the leaks.

The state department said the release of diplomatic cables would “create tension” between US diplomats and “friends around the world”.

Wikileaks has said the US authorities are afraid of being held to account.

Analysts say the US and its allies have the potential to be embarrassed by the publication of candid assessments of foreign governments by its officials.

Wikileaks has not confirmed exactly when the documents will be made public.

The website, founded by Julian Assange, said earlier this week that the release would be nearly seven times larger than the nearly 400,000 Pentagon documents related to the Iraq war it published in October.

‘Speculation’

State department spokesman PJ Crowley warned on Wednesday that the release could weaken trust in the US as a diplomatic partner.

“They will not help, they will simply hurt our ability to do our work here”

James Jeffrey US ambassador to Iraq

“When this confidence is betrayed and ends up on the front pages of newspapers or lead stories on television or radio, it has an impact,” he said.

A spokesman for UK Prime Minister David Cameron said on Friday: “Obviously, the government has been briefed by US officials, by the US ambassador, as to the likely content of these leaks.

“I don’t want to speculate about precisely what is going to be leaked before it is leaked.”

The BBC’s Steve Kingstone, in Washington, says the state department is clearly in high gear, contacting embassies around the world.

The media does not yet know precisely what Wikileaks has – in what could be up to three million documents – and it is possible that the state department does not know exactly what the site has either, our correspondent says.

Newspaper reports indicate the release will include papers suggesting that Turkey helped al-Qaeda militants in Iraq, and that the US helped Iraq-based Kurdish separatists who have been engaged in a long conflict with Turkey.

The release is also thought to include cables concerning Israeli-American relations.

‘Absolutely awful’

Washington’s ambassador to Iraq, James Jeffrey, is quoted by AFP news agency as saying Wikileaks is an “absolutely awful impediment” to US efforts to build trust with other nations.

“I do not understand the motivation for releasing these documents,” he told reporters in Baghdad. “They will not help, they will simply hurt our ability to do our work here.”

The source of the documents potentially involved in the latest Wikileaks release is not known.

However, US Army Pfc Bradley Manning, a military analyst who was arrested in June on suspicion of leaking classified data, is currently in custody awaiting trial.

He is alleged to have abused access to a secret-level network to obtain tens of thousands of US state department cables, some of them classified.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.