Irish cabinet to meet on deficit

A worker enters the Department of Finance in DublinThe Irish government will open its books to a team of international experts

The Irish government is to hold a cabinet meeting this weekend to finalise its four-year-plan to cut its budget deficit, the BBC has learnt.

The meeting will take place on Sunday, with details published by Tuesday.

Meanwhile talks between Dublin and the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are continuing.

The Republic is negotiating the terms of a bail-out worth tens of billions of pounds to shore up its public finances.

Two key areas will form the basis of the discussions, says BBC business correspondent Joe Lynam:

The country’s precarious fiscal situation which has pushed the budget deficit to 32% of gross domestic productHow best to prop up the country’s enfeebled banking sector which has been frozen out of international markets and all-but nationalised

Dublin’s four-year plan is expected to set out how it will reduce the deficit to below 3% by Tuesday at the latest.

Then, and only then, are the terms of any international bailout expected to be published, says our correspondent.

However, the Irish government has insisted it will not raise the country’s low corporation tax rate in return for a European Union-led bail-out.

Deputy Prime Minister Mary Coughlan said the 12.5% rate – much lower than the EU average – was “non-negotiable”.

Her comments come as speculation grows that France and Germany want Dublin to raise the tax in return for aid.

Meanwhile, Allied Irish Banks (AIB) said 13bn euros ($18bn; £11bn) of deposits had been withdrawn this year, mostly from businesses and institutions – implying that the bank does not face a run by ordinary depositors.

The figure represents 15% of the 84bn euros of customer accounts that the bank reported possessing at the end of last year.

Although the Irish government claims to be fully-funded until the middle of next year, it has provided a blanket guarantee to the Irish banks, some of whom are now finding it impossible to borrow money in the markets.

On Thursday, the Irish government admitted for the first time that it needed outside help.

Finance Minister Brian Lenihan said he felt “no sense of shame” over the country’s economic record, but that it now needed outside help.

Previously the government had said it did not need any financial support from the European Union and International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The Republic’s low corporation tax has been criticised by other EU nations, who argue that it gives the country too much of an advantage in attracting overseas investment.

They now argue that the Republic should not be allowed to solely rely on a bail-out, and that it should instead raise the tax rate to help boost government funds.

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

Nigeria seizes heroin from Iran

Apapa port, Lagos, Nigeria, 27 October 2010Apapa port was where agents found the heroin haul and last month’s illegal arms shipment
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Nigerian officials say they have seized heroin worth nearly $10m (£6.25m), concealed in engine parts shipped from Iran.

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) said agents made the seizure at Apapa seaport in Lagos.

The haul comes just days after Nigeria reported Tehran to the UN Security Council over an illegal arms shipment from Iran that was intercepted.

West African ports are key transit hubs for drugs heading to Western markets.

NDLEA spokesman Mitchell Ofoyeju said the agency had received “strong intelligence” from “foreign collaborators” four months ago, so it had been monitoring the consignment before it arrived in Nigeria.

“The NDLEA… decided to get a welder to cut open the engine parts and behold, we found hidden inside them 130kg (20 stone) of heroin,” said Mr Ofoyeju.

A customs spokesman told AFP the drugs were brought into Nigeria aboard a foreign vessel, the MV Montenegro.

Three Nigerians have been arrested in connection with the drugs shipment.

In October, Nigerian security forces found a shipment of weapons at the same port.

Rocket launchers, grenades, explosives and other weapons were found in containers labelled as building materials shipped from Iran.

Iran said the weapons were the subject of a “misunderstanding”, which had been cleared up.

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

Crash closes Birmingham Airport

Breaking news graphic

All flights at Birmingham Airport have been suspended and the runway closed after it was believed a small aircraft crashed near the site.

Two casualties were reported in the incident, West Midlands Police said.

Eyewitnesses described smoke coming from a light aircraft at the end of the runway.

A Birmingham Airport spokesman said: “Following an incident on the airport site all flights are currently suspended and the airport is closed.”

Manchester Airport said it was taking five diverted flights from Birmingham and expected to take more.

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

BBC ‘committed to success of S4C’

Mark ThompsonMark Thompson said he had sought the advice of colleagues at BBC Wales

The director general of the BBC says the corporation is committed to the future success of an “independent” S4C.

Mark Thompson, speaking to BBC Wales, added the BBC was “passionately committed” to Welsh language broadcasting.

His comments follow changes announced last month that will see S4C part-funded by the BBC, instead of the UK Government.

S4C chiefs fear the channel will lose its identity and independence.

Mr Thompson said: “The BBC agrees with it because we think it’s workable and we think it has significant advantages, not least because the BBC is passionately committed to broadcasting in the Welsh language, not just in radio but in television.

“We’ve been part of Welsh language television for more than half a century so we are, ourselves, passionately committed to the future success of S4C.

“We believe we can help achieve that.”

“S4C has been a partnership with the BBC since its inception, a deep partnership”

Mark Thompson BBC director general

Mr Thompson said the idea for the new partnership with S4C had come from the UK Government.

“It was a government proposal but it’s a proposal which we had some time, some days to consider,” he said.

“I was able to talk to colleagues in BBC Wales and seek their advice and knowledge.”

Mr Thompson said it was necessary to find the right “governance solution”, which would involve an “independent S4C”.

The solution must also feature “real certainty for independent producers in this country, that they will continue to have commissioners who are separate from the BBC and can commission entirely separately”.

He said an independent S4C should offer a sense of a broadcaster with “a range of perspectives, which is commissioning from a different point of view from, say, BBC Wales, which continues to be open to all of the talents of the independent sector in Wales and which you can rely on”.

“It’s worth saying, at the moment, S4C’s programming includes some critical programming from the BBC. We are a big part of S4C already,” he said.

“The BBC has never been just a supplier to S4C.

“When the Welsh public watch Newyddion, they don’t think the BBC just happens to be a supplier of this programme, they regard it as a piece of news broadcasting from the BBC with all of the weight of the BBC behind it.

“S4C has been a partnership with the BBC since its inception, a deep partnership.

“Before this new funding idea came up, the BBC in Wales and S4C had been talking about deepening the partnership, looking at ways in which perhaps they could work more closely together.”

“It’s clearer than ever that the BBC-Tory pact is going to kill off the channel unless something changes”

Menna Machreth Welsh Language Society

S4C interim chief executive Arwel Ellis Owen has said the decision to transfer responsibility for its funding to the BBC was the “wrong model” for the channel.

“Some people feel in three years’ time S4C will be called BBC Cymru,” he said.

The Welsh Language Society pressure group (Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg) approached and spoke to Mr Thompson as he arrived for a meeting in Cardiff Bay.

Menna Machreth, broadcasting spokesperson for the society, said: “Mark Thompson was repeatedly asked by our members whether he could give a guarantee of funding for S4C after 2015 when the agreement between the London Government and the BBC in London to fund S4C runs out.

“He was unable to give any such guarantee.

“S4C faces real term cuts of over 40% to its funding, a BBC takeover and slash-and-burn powers in the hands of the ministers in Westminster.

“It’s clearer than ever that the BBC-Tory pact is going to kill off the channel unless something changes.”

The UK Government has said it remains committed to a strong and independent Welsh language television service.

The BBC will take over part-funding S4C from 2013.

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