Category: news

Russia has agreed to co-operate on Nato’s programme to defend against ballistic missile attacks, Nato’s chief has said.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen said at a Nato summit in Lisbon that the two sides had agreed in writing that they no longer posed a threat to one another.

“For the first time the two sides will be co-operating to defend themselves,” Mr Rasmussen said.

The Lisbon summit has been redrawing Nato’s focus to face new challenges.

It is the first Nato summit Russia has attended since the Russia-Georgia war two years ago.

Nato members had earlier agreed on a programme to develop and deploy defences against ballistic missile attack on their territories.

Mr Rasmussen said he had extended an offer to Russia to co-operate on the programme and was “very pleased that [Russian President Dmitry] Medvedev has taken up that offer”.

Mr Rasmussen said this agreement was of “real political importance”.

There would be an exchange of information on the threats to European skies, he said, and the two sides “could conceivably co-operate on shooting down an incoming missile”.

1: Infrared satellite system picks up heat signatures of hostile ballistic missiles launched towards Nato target. 2: Information is transmitted to ground stations for processing. 3: Processed information is then sent to Nato command and control network. The command and control network relays information to sensor and weapons systems in the region. Once the missiles’ engines burn out, the infrared satellite can no longer detect them. 1: Long-range sensors such as the US AN/TPY-2 high-resolution radar and the Dutch sea-based Air Defence and Command Frigate (ADCF), continue to track the missile to help command system calculate options for destroying them. 2: Information is constantly shared among the sensors and weapons systems. Command system has the option of shooting down the hostile missiles while in the upper or lower layers of the atmosphere. As tracking continues, greater accuracy is achieved. Lower-layer shooter systems include the German or Dutch Patriot battery systems connected to the Nato network.

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Pc Barker had been with the Cumbria force for 25 years

A community vigil has been held to remember the floods in Cumbria and Pc Bill Barker who died when a bridge collapsed.

Pc Barker was directing traffic away from Northside Bridge, in Workington, when it collapsed early on 20 November, 2009, and he was swept away.

His widow Hazel Barker and her children have organised the memorial tribute.

The region suffered unprecedented rainfall last November during many homes and businesses were destroyed.

The vigil was held in the Tesco car park next to the River Derwent in Workington and was being followed by a fundraising event.

Money raised from the charity event will be split between the Great North Air Ambulance, which was Mr Barker’s preferred charity, and the Care of Police Survivors (COPS) which support families of officers killed while on duty.

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Birmingham airport reopened on Saturday after a private jet crash-landed in foggy conditions on Friday, injuring two male crew members on board and closing the airport overnight.

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

The couple had been married for two weeks

Police in South Africa say they have arrested a third suspect in connection with the murder of a woman from Bristol who was killed on her honeymoon.

Anni Dewani and her husband Shrien were in a taxi near Cape Town on 13 November when they were kidnapped by armed men.

Police spokesman Captain Frederick van Wyk said they arrested a 31-year-old Cape Town man on Saturday afternoon.

Two men were arrested earlier this week. One of them, Xolile Mngeni, was charged with murder and robbery.

He appeared in court on Thursday.

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

Russia has agreed to co-operate on Nato’s programme to defend against ballistic missile attacks, Nato’s chief has said.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen said at a Nato summit in Lisbon that the two sides had agreed in writing that they no longer posed a threat to one another.

“For the first time the two sides will be co-operating to defend themselves,” Mr Rasmussen said.

The Lisbon summit has been redrawing Nato’s focus to face new challenges.

It is the first Nato summit Russia has attended since the Russia-Georgia war two years ago.

Nato members had earlier agreed on a programme to develop and deploy defences against ballistic missile attack on their territories.

Mr Rasmussen said he had extended an offer to Russia to co-operate on the programme and was “very pleased that [Russian President Dmitry] Medvedev has taken up that offer”.

Mr Rasmussen said this agreement was of “real political importance”.

There would be an exchange of information on the threats to European skies, he said, and the two sides “could conceivably co-operate on shooting down an incoming missile”.

1: Infrared satellite system picks up heat signatures of hostile ballistic missiles launched towards Nato target. 2: Information is transmitted to ground stations for processing. 3: Processed information is then sent to Nato command and control network. The command and control network relays information to sensor and weapons systems in the region. Once the missiles’ engines burn out, the infrared satellite can no longer detect them. 1: Long-range sensors such as the US AN/TPY-2 high-resolution radar and the Dutch sea-based Air Defence and Command Frigate (ADCF), continue to track the missile to help command system calculate options for destroying them. 2: Information is constantly shared among the sensors and weapons systems. Command system has the option of shooting down the hostile missiles while in the upper or lower layers of the atmosphere. As tracking continues, greater accuracy is achieved. Lower-layer shooter systems include the German or Dutch Patriot battery systems connected to the Nato network.

BACK {current} of {total} NEXT

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

It is believed the Cessna hit the airport’s landing system antennae in foggy conditions

Thousands of people have continued to be affected as flights were suspended at Birmingham Airport after a plane carrying a transplant liver crashed.

The plane, from Belfast, hit the airport’s landing system antennae.

Two men were injured, one critically, but the nearby Queen Elizabeth Hospital said the liver transplant operation went ahead successfully on Friday.

The airport reopened shortly after 1200 GMT but dozens of flights were still affected.

About 45 flights were thought to have been affected on Saturday.

The airport’s chief executive, Paul Kehoe, said about 4,000 to 5,000 passengers had been affected so far on Saturday.

However, he said the airport building had remained open for check-in.

Mr Kehoe had advised people to check with their airline and added they could not necessarily speak to anybody at the airport as “the volume of calls has been so great”.

The airport said the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) had finished its investigation there and the site had been handed back. The debris was being cleared at the site.

The pilot of the Cessna, a 58-year-old man, was trapped in the wreckage after the crash, suffering from multiple injuries, and was airlifted to hospital, while the other casualty was less seriously hurt.

The organ was safely delivered to the hospital by a police motorbike following the crash involving the private jet, which happened when it came in to land at 1535 GMT on Friday.

Some passengers on Saturday morning flew out to their destinations by checking in at Birmingham Airport and then getting a bus to East Midlands Airport or Manchester Airport on Saturday morning.

The transplant liver was on board a Cessna that crash-landed on the tarmac in foggy conditions.

The donor organ was retrieved from the burning wreckage of the light aircraft and taken to Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

A spokeswoman for the hospital said the transplant had been carried out “successfully”.

She added: “The recipient is stable, as would be expected at this time.”

She said the operation was the sixth liver transplant in five days at the hospital.

The spokeswoman added: “The transplant team would like to thank the pilot of the light aircraft and his colleague for their bravery. Our thoughts are with the individuals and their families.

“The team would also like to thank the quick-thinking of the fire and rescue teams at the scene who saved the organ.”

The airport has been advising passengers to check the situation with their airlines

It emerged that a pilot from the Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance (WNAA) approached the remains of the burning Cessna to cut its fuel supply after the crash.

An air ambulance spokesman said the foggy conditions on Friday afternoon had made the rescue mission extremely difficult.

The spokesman described the air ambulance pilot on the scene as “brave”.

He said: “[He used] his aviation and technical knowledge to locate and cut the fuel supply to the engine and make the patient more accessible to the fire service”

A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokeswoman confirmed one man was seriously injured in the crash and was airlifted to University Hospital of Coventry and Warwickshire for further assessment and treatment.

She said a second man, believed to be in his 30s, was treated at the scene for flash burns to his body and a back injury and was taken to Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham.

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

The comments appear to soften the Roman Catholic Church’s hardline stance on contraception

Pope Benedict XVI is reported to have said the use of condoms is acceptable “in certain cases”.

In a book due to be published on Tuesday, he said they could reduce the risk of infection with HIV, such as for a prostitute.

The pontiff is reported to have made the comments in an interview with a German journalist. The Vatican newspaper ran excerpts on Saturday.

The comments appear to soften the Roman Catholic Church’s hardline stance.

When asked whether the Catholic Church is “fundamentally against the use of condoms”, he is said to have replied, in the book entitled Light of the World: The Pope, the Church and the Signs of the Times:

“It of course does not see it as a real and moral solution.

“In certain cases, where the intention is to reduce the risk of infection, it can nevertheless be a first step on the way to another, more humane sexuality,” he said.

The Pope spoke to German author Peter Seewald in a series of long interviews last summer.

If the comments were accurately reproduced, this would provide a significant departure from the Vatican’s traditional hardline approach to the use of condoms, says the BBC’s Duncan Kennedy in Rome.

Until now, the Vatican had banned the use of any form of contraception – other than abstinence – even to prevent sexually transmitted diseases.

This has led to the Vatican being heavily criticised for its position in the context of the Aids crisis.

On a visit to Cameroon last year, the Pope said the use of condoms could endanger public health and increase the problem of HIV/Aids, rather than help to contain the virus. This drew criticism from several EU states.

Campaigners say condoms are one of the few methods proven to stop the spread of HIV.

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Police investigating a mysterious explosion in the Scottish countryside say they are following “positive lines of inquiry”.

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Prime Minister David Cameron insists the withdrawal of British combat troops from Afghanistan by 2015 is a “firm deadline” that will be met.

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The UK Border Agency said it needed to reduce costs

A protest is to be staged in Glasgow later over plans which could see hundreds of asylum seekers in the city forced to leave temporary housing.

The UK Border Agency (UKBA) cancelled a contract with the city council to provide housing for asylum seekers after failing to agree on costs.

The charity, Positive Action in Housing, is planning a demonstration outside the agency’s Glasgow office.

UKBA said it wanted any moves to be handled as smoothly as possible.

It emerged earlier this month that the UKBA had cancelled the contract with Glasgow City Council after the two sides disagreed over the level of funding required to meet the asylum seekers’ housing needs.

The local authority currently provides accommodation to 1,311 asylum seekers in 584 properties.

Linda Dempster, deputy director for the UK Border Agency in Scotland and Northern Ireland, said: “We share the city council’s wish that these changes are handled sensitively taking full account of individual circumstances.

“We will continue to work closely with the council, who we met this week, to ensure the transition is handled as smoothly as possible and disruption is kept to a minimum.”

Hundreds of families have received letters warning that they may need to be re-homed by next February.

Some of those affected are expected to burn the letters when the demonstration gets under way on Saturday morning at the UKBA office in Govan.

Robina Qureshi, director of the Positive Action in Housing, said: “The UKBA sent out those disgraceful letters to 600 families on 5 November – Guy Fawkes Day – and broke their hearts.

“We have now been informed of cases of two women being put into mental hospitals after breaking down when they received the removal letter.

“It should not be forgotten that on 7 March 2010, a Russian family of three committed suicide together after being sent a letter from the UK Borders Agency.”

Ms Qureshi pledged to support the “many asylum seekers” who had told her they would refuse to move

Archbishop Mario Conti, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Glasgow, said in a letter that he would not be able to attend the protest but offered his support.

“The human cost of this decision is horrendous, and will involve children being uprooted from schools where they are flourishing, a return to the anguish of the unknown for people already bearing a heavy burden of fear and the wanton destruction of communities which have grown up in recent years as Glasgow has successfully welcomed asylum seekers and refugees,” he said.

“There must be a solution to the financial issues behind this decision which does not involve such human suffering.”

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England take on Samoa and Scotland face world champions South Africa before Ireland host New Zealand in Saturday’s autumn international matches.

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Almost 7,000 children complete the unofficial transfer test used mainly by Catholic grammar schools.

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Mr Karzai believes Afghanistan will be ready to handle security by the end of 2014

Afghan President Hamid Karzai is preparing to meet Nato leaders in Lisbon for talks on withdrawing troops from his country by the end of 2014.

A spokesman for Mr Karzai said he and Nato shared the “same strategic interests” but that there were many issues still to be worked out.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is also due to address the summit.

On Friday, the military alliance agreed to develop a joint missile defence shield covering all member states.

The Portugal summit also backed the swift ratification of the Start treaty between the US and Russia, aimed at cutting the nuclear weapon stockpiles of both sides.

Nato’s International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) has some 130,000 soldiers based in Afghanistan, most of them from the US.

US President Barack Obama said the Isaf mission was “moving to a new phase”, and that the target for handing over the overall responsibility for security to the Afghans was still 2014.

Some Nato members have expressed concerns that Afghanistan may not be ready to manage its own security by that time, but Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said the goal is “realistic”.

Mr Rasmussen said there would still be a role for Isaf troops in the country in 2015 and onwards, but that would largely be in training Afghan forces.

Mr Karzai’s spokesman and advisor, Ashraf Ghani, said Nato and Kabul had “the same strategic objectives” for the withdrawal – they now needed “to work out a lot of implementation issues” and set milestones for the intervening years.

“A journey that has a clear sense of destination is a much easier journey than a journey into the unknown,” the Associated press quoted him as saying.

“We have now agreed on the destination, this becomes the question of aligning ends and means, together determining the pace and bringing about a common understanding of strategy.”

The two-day Lisbon summit has been billed as one of the most important in the alliance’s history as it seeks to update its strategy and structure to face new security threats.

On day one, the member states reached an agreement to develop and deploy defences against ballistic missile attack on its territories.

Mr Obama said the agreement “responds to the threats of our times” and shows Nato’s “determination to protect our citizens”.

Nato hopes Russia will also agree to join the project, and will speak about the issue with Mr Medvedev on Saturday.

But the BBC’s diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus says that bringing Russia on board will not be easy – Moscow has rejected all previous invitations over fears its own missile force might be compromised.

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Doctors could be faced with angry patients questioning spending decisions if NHS reforms go ahead, the new leader of the Royal College of GPs warns.

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It is believed the Cessna hit the airport’s landing system antennae in foggy conditions

Thousands of people have continued to be affected as flights were suspended at Birmingham Airport after a plane carrying a transplant liver crashed.

The plane, from Belfast, hit the airport’s landing system antennae.

Two men were injured, one critically, but the nearby Queen Elizabeth Hospital said the liver transplant operation went ahead successfully on Friday.

The airport reopened shortly after 1200 GMT but dozens of flights were still affected.

About 45 flights were thought to have been affected on Saturday.

The airport’s chief executive, Paul Kehoe, said about 4,000 to 5,000 passengers had been affected so far on Saturday.

However, he said the airport building had remained open for check-in.

Mr Kehoe had advised people to check with their airline and added they could not necessarily speak to anybody at the airport as “the volume of calls has been so great”.

The airport said the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) had finished its investigation there and the site had been handed back. The debris was being cleared at the site.

The pilot of the Cessna, a 58-year-old man, was trapped in the wreckage after the crash, suffering from multiple injuries, and was airlifted to hospital, while the other casualty was less seriously hurt.

The organ was safely delivered to the hospital by a police motorbike following the crash involving the private jet, which happened when it came in to land at 1535 GMT on Friday.

Some passengers on Saturday morning flew out to their destinations by checking in at Birmingham Airport and then getting a bus to East Midlands Airport or Manchester Airport on Saturday morning.

The transplant liver was on board a Cessna that crash-landed on the tarmac in foggy conditions.

The donor organ was retrieved from the burning wreckage of the light aircraft and taken to Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

A spokeswoman for the hospital said the transplant had been carried out “successfully”.

She added: “The recipient is stable, as would be expected at this time.”

She said the operation was the sixth liver transplant in five days at the hospital.

The spokeswoman added: “The transplant team would like to thank the pilot of the light aircraft and his colleague for their bravery. Our thoughts are with the individuals and their families.

“The team would also like to thank the quick-thinking of the fire and rescue teams at the scene who saved the organ.”

The airport has been advising passengers to check the situation with their airlines

It emerged that a pilot from the Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance (WNAA) approached the remains of the burning Cessna to cut its fuel supply after the crash.

An air ambulance spokesman said the foggy conditions on Friday afternoon had made the rescue mission extremely difficult.

The spokesman described the air ambulance pilot on the scene as “brave”.

He said: “[He used] his aviation and technical knowledge to locate and cut the fuel supply to the engine and make the patient more accessible to the fire service”

A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokeswoman confirmed one man was seriously injured in the crash and was airlifted to University Hospital of Coventry and Warwickshire for further assessment and treatment.

She said a second man, believed to be in his 30s, was treated at the scene for flash burns to his body and a back injury and was taken to Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham.

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