Category: news

The film is the penultimate instalment in the Harry Potter franchise

The latest Harry Potter movie looks set to smash UK cinema box office records, according to studio estimates.

Warner Bros said Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 took £5.9m on Friday and £6.6m on Saturday.

This already breaks previous records of biggest Friday, biggest Saturday and biggest single day.

With Sunday estimates of £4.9m it is on course to beat the previous record of £15.3m for a three-day opening, held by the James Bond film Quantum of Solace.

In the US, the latest Harry Potter film took an estimated 125m (£78.2m) on its opening weekend.

It is the best opening weekend in the US for the film series’ history.

In the UK, the previous record for the biggest Friday was held by Quantum of Solace at £4.9m.

The fourth film in the Harry Potter film series, Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire, held both the previous records for the biggest single day and the biggest Saturday at UK cinemas with £5.7m.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 is the penultimate instalment in the fantasy film franchise.

The books’ creator JK Rowling said David Yates’ film – the seventh in the series – was her favourite so far.

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The 2010 Games were hit by claims of shoddy construction and dubious payments to contractors

India’s top investigating agency has arrested a top 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games official for alleged financial irregularities.

M Jayachandran is accused of forgery and cheating over the awarding of Games contracts. He has denied the charges.

He is the third Games official to be arrested over similar charges. All were suspended from their posts in August.

Earlier this month, Suresh Kalmadi, the Games organising committee chief, quit his post in the Congress party.

He has been under investigation over claims of corruption at October’s sporting spectacular, and denies any wrongdoing.

The build-up to the event was overshadowed by revelations of sleaze, incompetence and missed construction deadlines.

Mr Jayachandran, the Games treasurer, was arrested on Sunday in connection with an alleged scam to award contracts to companies at inflated prices.

A high-level investigation was launched last month into corruption charges surrounding the Games.

Earlier this month senior Games officials TS Darbari and Sanjay Mohindroo were arrested over charges of irregularities over the awarding of Games contracts.

In August, the Games’ treasurer, Anil Khanna, quit after claims an Australian firm won the contract to lay tennis courts for the Games because his son headed its Indian arm.

All India Tennis Association chief Mr Khanna denied any wrongdoing.

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Kabul is a “very family orientated society”, said Mark Sedwill

Children may be safer growing up in Kabul than they are in London, Glasgow or New York, a Nato official has said.

Mark Sedwill said the Afghan capital, as a “city of villages”, was better for youngsters than many Western cities, despite dangers posed by the conflict.

The senior civilian representative told CBBC’s Newsround: “Most children can go about their lives in safety.”

But some Kabul youngsters spoke of their fears, and Save the Children said the claim was “wrong and misleading”.

A spokesman for Glasgow City Council also said Mr Sedwill was “wrong” to include the city in his comments.

Kabul has borne the brunt of the war in Afghanistan and although the security situation there has improved of late, it is still deemed a dangerous place to live.

The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office website advises against all but essential travel to parts of Afghanistan, and that nobody visits the areas worst-hit by fighting.

It says Kabul has witnessed a “significant escalation in the number of suicide and rocket attacks in the last year. Since late August 2009, there have been 14 ‘successful’ suicide attacks in the city, with at least five further suicide attacks known to have been thwarted.”

Several young people interviewed by Sonali Shah, a presenter for BBC children’s channel CBBC, spoke of their fear of the violence.

Sohrad, a 16-year-old student, told Newsround: “Because of explosions happening in the city, it is frightening when we come to school. We are afraid of explosions in the school.”

And Manija, 11, also from Kabul, described the reality of growing up in a country at war. She said: “When there are explosions I get sad because people are dying, but the next day when they are living a normal life and celebrating I get happy.”

However Mr Sedwill told the programme: “In Kabul and the other big cities actually there are very few of these bombs. The children are probably safer here than they would be in London, New York or Glasgow or many other cities.

“It’s a very family-orientated society. So it is a little bit like a city of villages.”

But chief executive of Save the Children, Justin Forsyth, said it was wrong to make the comparison with children living in Western cities.

“Afghanistan is the worst place on earth to be born a child – one in four children living there will die before they reach the age of five,” he said.

“We should be listening to what children in Afghanistan are saying. Last year was the deadliest for children since late 2001, with more than a thousand killed because of the conflict.

“But it’s not just about the bombs. A staggering 850 children die every day, many from easily preventable diseases such as diarrhoea or pneumonia, or because they are malnourished.

“The lives of children in Afghanistan are in extreme danger. The international community needs to put as much time, effort and money into stopping children dying unnecessarily as into security operations there.”

A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said it understood it was important to reassure children in Afghanistan about their safety, but added that Mr Sedwill “has got it wrong here”.

“This comparison will simply lead people in Glasgow, London and New York to pull out the statistics showing how very wrong he is and his, very important, message to the people of Afghanistan will be lost,” he said.

When asked why Nato troops had not won the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan, Mr Sedwill said: “It’s not like the Second World War, or other wars that people are familiar with, where you fight on the battlefield.

“Because the Taliban can’t fight that way… [what] they do is, they hide among the people. We are not going to leave Afghanistan. We are not going to leave Kabul until we are absolutely sure the Taliban can’t return.”

Leaders of Nato’s 28 states have backed a strategy to transfer leadership for the fight against the Taliban to Afghan forces by the end of 2014.

Growing Up In A War Zone: A Newsround Special will be broadcast on CBBC at 1815 GMT on Monday 22 November

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Justin Bieber won four prizes from four nominations – awards footage courtesy Dick Clarke Productions

Teen star Justin Bieber dominated the American Music Awards winning four prizes from four nominations.

Bieber, 16, who beat Eminem, Usher, Katy Perry and Lady Gaga to artist of the year, also won best pop album, best pop male, and breakthrough artist.

He said he had “been singing Eminem since I was three and Usher is my mentor – so this is big”.

Eminem led the field with five nods alongside country band Lady Antebellum. He won two awards as did Usher.

Eminem, 38 – who did not attend the ceremony at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles – won best male hip-hop artist and the hip-hop album prize for Recovery.

Usher, 32, meanwhile, won best male R&B singer and the R&B album award for Raymond v Raymond while Lady Antebellum walked away with one award – for best country band.

British band Muse won the alternative rock prize.

Collecting his breakthrough artist award, Bieber – whose album My World 2.0 has sold almost 2 million copies in the US since its release in March – said: “I’m from the smallest town in the world of, like, 30,000 people.

“I never thought this was possible.”

Bieber, who was brought up in Stratford, Ontario, now lives in the US.

Picking up his best pop male prize later in the evening, he thanked Michael Jackson, who last year won four posthumous gongs at the awards.

“Without Michael Jackson, none of us would be here,” he said.

Other winners included best pop band the Black Eyed Peas – who performed new single The Time – and best country female Taylor Swift, who was last year’s big winner with five gongs.

Swift, 20, performed her new single, Back to December, and incorporated OneRepublic hit Apologize.

Kesha gave perhaps the most bizarre performance of the night

Other performers on the night included 1990s boy bands New Kids on the Block and Backstreet Boys who sang together.

Meanwhile, Rihanna – winner of best R&B female – performed a medley of songs from album Loud.

A pregnant Pink performed Raise Your Glass, Kid Rock gave an acoustic performance of Times Like These and Katy Perry used pyrotechnics to play her latest single Firework.

In the absence of Lady Gaga, who did not turn up to pick up her best pop female prize, Kesha gave perhaps the most bizarre performance of the night.

She sported a motorcycle helmet with light beams for eyes as she sang her hit Take It Off.

She then stripped off to reveal a mirrored outfit and was joined by a gang of male dancers dressed like her – complete with fishnet stocking and blonde wigs.

Other winners on the night included Michael Buble, who won best contemporary artist, and Shakira who picked up the Latin music gong.

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Rescuers are close to completing the drilling of a test shaft into a mine in New Zealand where 29 men have been missing since an explosion on Friday.

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Jean Pierre Bemba faces five charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity

The war crimes trial of former Congolese rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba is to start at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

The former vice-president of DR Congo is accused of murder, rape and pillage in the Central African Republic (CAR) in 2002 and 2003.

He is the most high profile figure to face trial at the ICC since it began its work eight years ago.

The trial is expected to last several months.

The 48-year-old faces two counts of crimes against humanity and three counts of war crimes.

At the time of the alleged crimes, Mr Bemba was a militia leader in DR Congo, but his forces went into the neighbouring country of CAR to help the president put down a coup attempt.

It is alleged that attacks carried out by his troops against the civilian population were widespread and systematic.

Jean Pierre Bemba later became a vice-president in his own country and, in 2006, lost a run-off election against President Joseph Kabila.

He was arrested in Brussels in 2008, and handed over to the ICC.

Prosecutors will be trying to show that as a military commander, Mr Bemba was in control of his forces but did nothing to stop them committing the atrocities in question.

Mr Bemba has argued that he was not in command of the militia after it crossed the border.

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Australia vice-captain Michael Clarke is a doubt for the first Ashes Test at Brisbane on Thursday.

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Mr Miliband has been on paternity leave for a fortnight, since second son Samuel arrived

“Profound” changes to the Labour Party on the scale of Tony Blair’s New Labour reforms of the mid-1990s have been promised by leader Ed Miliband.

In a Guardian newspaper interview, as he returns from two weeks’ paternity leave, he warned his party that it faced a “long, hard road” ahead.

The party would review its policies and its organisation, including the rules for electing its leaders, he said.

A commission on Labour’s organisation will be launched at the weekend.

The aim is to turn the party into the “largest community organisation in the country”, Mr Miliband said.

Mr Miliband – elected in September – dismissed claims he had been too low-profile since winning the Labour leadership, saying he was not interested in “short-term fixes”.

“It’s about digging in, and it’s not about short-term fixes, nor shortcuts to success.

“There is a long, hard road for us to travel,” he told the Guardian. I am talking about change as profound as the change New Labour brought, because the world itself has changed massively, and we did not really change fundamentally as a party, or come to terms with the changes, and have not done so since 1994.”

The commission due to be launched will cover the issue of leadership elections, including the influence of the unions.

During the Labour leadership campaign – in which MPs, party members and trade unionists were balloted – Mr Miliband secured the backing of three of Britain’s four biggest trade unions.

His older brother and leadership rival, David Miliband, won a majority of support from Labour’s MPs at Westminster and party members, but Ed was ahead among members of trade unions and affiliated organisations.

Ed Miliband appeared to reject the idea that union members should lose their role in choosing the Labour leader, said BBC political correspondent Gary O’Donoghue.

He said in the interview that unions paying levies to the party had a “link to working people in the country and we’ve got to be linked to them”.

In terms of Labour’s policies there will also be a review, starting with “a blank page”, said Ed Miliband, although “not in terms of values”.

In an indication of the tax policy he intends to pursue, he suggested that he would support the retention of the 50p top rate of income tax into the future.

Shadow chancellor Alan Johnson has said previously that Labour “might not see the need for a 50p tax rate in five years’ time”.

But Mr Miliband said the tax rate was not simply about cutting the deficit: “It’s about values and fairness and about the kind of society you believe in and it’s important to me.”

One of the things that got him out of bed in the morning was that Britain remained a “fundamentally unequal society”, he said.

The plan, said Mr Miliband, was to “move beyond New Labour”.

“Here’s the paradox of Britain today,” he said: “Is Britain materially better off than it was 20 to 30 years ago? Yes, absolutely it is. But for some people the gap between the dreams that seem to be on offer and their ability to realise them is wider than it’s ever been before, and it seems much more of a struggle and that’s what interests me.

“How do you close that gap between the dreams that are apparently on offer and people’s ability to realise them? And I think the [coalition] are widening that gap.”

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Rolls-Royce wins a $1.8bn order from Air China to supply and service 20 aircraft engines, its second Chinese contract this month.

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Council house tenants may be offered homes for as little as two years, under a radical shake up to be announced by the government.

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Harley Ruck’s family said her death was a “horrific tragedy”

A 22-year-old woman is undergoing medical assessment after her baby girl was stabbed to death.

She was arrested on suspicion of murder at their flat in Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, and is being held under the Mental Health Act.

Police found 11-month-old Harley Ruck at the flat and carried out heart massage but she was pronounced dead.

In a statement Harley’s family described her as “beautiful, happy, loving”.

The statement read: “In the event of a horrific tragedy to our beautiful, happy, loving little daughter, grand-daughter, (great granddaughter) niece and cousin who was loved dearly and will be sadly missed by all around her, especially by her lost. heartbroken mum.”

Officers were called to a flat at St David’s Road at around 0530 GMT on Saturday after reports of a “domestic incident”.

A police spokeswoman said: “Initial results from the post-mortem examination have established the child died from multiple stab wounds.”

Det Ch Insp Jon Williams said: “I have a team of approximately 25 detectives and staff working on this case.

“Inquiries are continuing in the area and forensic examiners remain at the scene.

Neighbours have left tributes at the scene

“This is an extremely distressing incident. I would reiterate that we are not looking for anyone else in connection with the death at this time and there is no risk to the wider community.

“However, I would urge anyone with any information about this incident to contact police. It could be crucial in assisting us with this investigation.”

Neighbours left soft toys and flowers at the scene.

A Gwent Police spokesperson said the woman is being detained under the provisions of the Mental Health Act and is undergoing medical assessment.

Officers said the woman was alone in the flat with the child at the time.

A neighbour said: “We can’t believe this. The baby was so cute and such a pretty little thing.

“Police arrived in the street very early followed by the ambulance. Then all hell broke loose and there were cops everywhere.

“It’s all so sad.”

Anyone with any information about the incident should contact Gwent Police on 01633 838111 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

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Ten men from Somalia are to go on trial in Germany, charged with capturing a container ship, in the first piracy trial in Hamburg in about 400 years.

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Double Ashes hero Andrew Flintoff believes England have a better crop of players than Australia and will retain the coveted urn.

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A BBC investigation unearths evidence of anti-Semitic texts in Muslim schools.

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Pupils will change at the age of 14 for the proposed university technical colleges

GCSEs should be taken at the age of 14 – after which pupils could specialise in academic or vocational courses, says a report for an education charity.

The Sutton Trust calls for a fundamental restructuring of upper secondary education in England.

With the school leaving age being raised to 18, report author Alan Smithers says GCSEs will no longer be relevant as end-of-school exams.

Prof Smithers calls for a system to replace the current “untidy mix”.

The report by Prof Smithers and Pamela Robinson of the University of Buckingham says that there should be a clearer divide in England between lower and upper secondary school.

It argues for GCSEs to be taken earlier – at the age of 14 – after which pupils could move on to different types of education, such as academic, vocational or technical courses.

At present in England’s schools, Prof Smithers says, there is a system in which a form of undeclared selection takes place.

Options are chosen at 14 and exams are taken at 16. This determines pupils’ future pathways but in a system which, he says, does not want to be seen as selective.

“We’ve got a bit of a hang-up about differentiating. It’s a hangover from the 11-plus,” says Prof Smithers.

He says it means that “selection is fudged so we don’t have clear pathways in the later years of schooling”.

In particular, he argues, it means that there is a lack of clear routes into technical and work-based training.

“Hence we have to import so many skilled workers from abroad,” he says.

Earlier this week, former education secretary Lord Baker also argued the merits of a transfer at the age of 14, the starting age for the university technical colleges which he is promoting.

These will be aimed at providing high-quality vocational training for teenagers.

The report for the Sutton Trust looked at how other countries structured secondary education and concluded that England needed to make a distinction between lower and upper secondary school, proposing that this boundary should be at the age of 14.

This will raise questions about how pupils would be selected for different paths at this age – with any admissions system likely to be controversial.

But Sir Peter Lampl, chairman of the Sutton Trust, said that “effectively we have differentiation by default: all too often children’s choices are dictated by the school they happen to be in, not their own talents and interests”.

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