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Student jailed for £250,000 fraud

Mohammed Al-Sulaiti will be deported after completing his sentence.

A Qatari student has been jailed for fraudulently claiming £250,000 in benefits and funding.

Mohammed Al-Sulaiti, 35, enrolled as a PhD research student at Swansea University at the same time as he was claiming asylum in the UK.

He had told the UK Border Agency he had no access to money and could not house and support his wife and six children.

He was jailed for two years at Cardiff Crown Court and will be deported after serving his sentence.

More follows soon.

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

UK warning about Mid-East talks

Avigdor Lieberman and William Hague in Jerusalem, 3 November

A row with Israel’s Foreign Ministry had threatened to overshadow the visit

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague has warned that “the window is closing” on the possibility of a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.

He also expressed “frustration” over a row with Israel which had overshadowed his three-day visit to the region.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry announced it was postponing “strategic” talks with the UK in protest at a British law that puts visiting Israeli officials at risk of arrest for alleged war crimes.

Mr Hague said the law was under review.

Since Israel’s military offensive in Gaza in 2009, Israeli ministers have had to cancel visits to the UK over concerns they could face arrest on war crimes charges brought by pro-Palestinian campaigners.

Earlier this week, it was reported that Israel’s Intelligence Minister, Dan Meridor, cancelled a trip to Britain amid concerns that he risked being arrested for alleged crimes relating to the raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship in May in which nine Turkish activists were killed.

On Wednesday, the first day of Mr Hague’s official visit to Israel, Israel’s Foreign Ministry announced that it was postponing annual strategic talks with Britain over defence and security issues.

A ministry spokesman denied that the move was a deliberate “ambush” to humiliate Mr Hague, but the row has overshadowed his visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories – his first since taking office in May.

Speaking at the end of his trip to the region, Mr Hague told the BBC that “certainly [the announcement] was a little frustrating”.

But he added that he saw it as “a mistake on behalf of the foreign ministry, rather than something with bad intentions.”

The foreign ministry is led by the often controversial right-wing minister Avigdor Lieberman, who has previously rebuked European politicians over their stance on the Middle East, says the BBC’s Wyre Davies from Jerusalem.

Mr Hague said that he had clarified the matter with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and that “the difficulties of yesterday [had] been overcome”.

He said Britain was urgently addressing the issue of amending the laws which could expose visiting Israeli politicians to arrest – a move already announced by the Conservatives.

He also expressed concern that peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians had stalled over the issue of renewed building in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Mr Hague said that both sides had obligations, but that it was largely up to Israel to break the impasse.

“We do want Israel to announce a new moratorium on settlements… That is what the whole of Europe wants, that is what the United States wants,” he said.

“We do urge all concerned to do what is necessary to allow a two-state solution to come about. I am very worried that the window is closing on that possibility, there is a real urgency to this,” he added.

The Palestinians – backed by the Arab League – have pledged not to return to direct talks without a full settlement construction freeze, but have given US negotiators until early November to try to break the impasse.

Israel has refused to renew the freeze despite international pressure.

The talks, which resumed in Washington in September after a break of almost 20 months, are now facing imminent collapse.

Israel has occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since 1967, settling close to 500,000 Jews in more than 100 settlements. They are considered illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.

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

Cell find may aid cancer vaccines

Recruiting healthy cells could aid immunotherapy

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A type of normal cell often found in cancerous growths may be the reason for the failure of anti-cancer vaccines.

Stromal cells may act to protect tumours from the body’s immune system, a study in the journal Science reports.

Cambridge University scientists eliminated some of these cells in mice, and shrank their lung tumours.

Cancer Research UK said the study offered “exciting clues” to how cancer recruited healthy cells, and how to prevent that happening.

Tumours are not just made up of cancer cells – often these are interspersed with normal cells carrying on with their normal functions.

Stromal cells are part of the body’s connective tissue, helping provide fibres and structures to support other tissues and cells.

The Cambridge study suggests that, in some tumours at least, their activity is holding back the immune system from launching attacks which could shrink or destroy tumours.

This is particularly relevant for vaccines used as treatments once a patient is diagnosed with cancer, which aim to boost this immune response.

The failure of these vaccines to significantly affect tumours, even though they provoke an immune response in the body, has been a mystery to scientists.

The stromal cells in question have a protein on their surface called fibroblast activation protein alpha (FAP), which normally has a role in wound healing.

Here, the researchers suspected it was suppressing the immune system in and around the tumour.

“Immunotherapy is a promising area of research, but its use for treating cancer is limited because tumours can hide from the immune system”

Dr Claire Knight Cancer Research UK

To test this, they created a mouse in which FAP-producing cells could be eliminated.

When this happened in animals with well-established lung tumours, the cancer rapidly shrunk.

Only 2% of the cells within these tumours actually produced FAP, so the scientists are convinced that they had a far wider role in protecting the tumour from the immune system.

Professor Douglas Fearon said that identifying these cells, found in many human cancers, including breast and colon cancers, was an “important step”.

He said: “Further studying how these cells exert their effects may contribute to improved immunological therapies by allowing us to remove a barrier that the cancer has constructed.

“These studies are in the mouse and although there is much overlap between the mouse and human immune systems, we will not know the relevance of these findings in humans until we are able to interrupt the function of the tumour stromal cells expressing FAP in patients with cancer.”

Dr Claire Knight, from Cancer Research UK, said the study offered “exciting clues” as to how tumours could recruit healthy cells to help them evade the immune system.

She added: “Immunotherapy is a promising area of research, but its use for treating cancer is limited because tumours can hide from the immune system.

“Finding ways to target these newly-recruited healthy cells could help to make immunotherapy more effective in the future, although more research is needed before this becomes a reality.”

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

Clue to drug-free HIV ‘control’

HIV infects key cells in the body’s defence which co-ordinate the response to infection

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Tiny changes to an “alarm” protein which responds to infections may explain why some with HIV can control their condition without drugs.

Around one in 300 people with HIV are “controllers”, and scientists want to replicate how their bodies behave.

Writing in Science, US researchers say differences in five amino acids in a protein called HLA-B are key.

But a UK expert said there was still a “long way” to go before a vaccine or a new drug for HIV could be developed.

HIV “controllers” were first identified almost 20 years ago. They are able to suppress viral replication with their immune system, keeping viral load at extremely low levels, without using anti-retroviral drugs.

It was already known that certain genes involved with the HLA system were important for HIV control. But scientists had not identified which genes were involved or how they acted.

Drag and drop

The researchers carried out a genome-wide association study of the genetic make-up of almost 1,000 controllers and 2,600 people with progressive HIV.

Around 300 points were found to be associated with immune control of HIV, all in regions of chromosome six that code for HLA proteins.

“ Knowing how an effective immune response against HIV is generated is an important step toward replicating that response with a vaccine”

Dr Bruce Walker Massachusetts General Hospital

Scientists were then able to pinpoint specific amino acids and identified the five in the HLA-B protein as playing the key role.

HLA-B is part of the process by which the immune system recognises and destroys virus-infected cells.

Part of the protein called a binding pocket “drags and drops” peptides from inside the virus onto the cell membrane.

These then mark out the cell for destruction by CD8 “killer” T cells in the immune system.

All five of the amino acids identified by researchers are in the binding pocket.

Scientists from Massachusetts General Hospital, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University carried out the work.

Bruce Walker of the Ragon Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital, one of the lead authors of the paper, said: “We found that, of the 3bn nucleotides in the human genome, just a handful make the difference between those who can stay healthy in spite of HIV infection and those who, without treatment, will develop Aids.

“Knowing how an effective immune response against HIV is generated is an important step toward replicating that response with a vaccine.

“We have a long way to go before translating this into a treatment for infected patients and a vaccine to prevent infection, but we are an important step closer.”

Gus Cairns, editor of HIV Treatment Update of the UK’s National Aids Manual, said: “As the researchers say, this research opens the door to the development of a vaccine that could encourage the body to mimic the most effective kind of immune response, or to drugs that could interfere with HIV’s ability to infect cells and derange the immune system.

“Nonetheless there is still a lot we don’t know about why some genetic variants provide a much less welcoming environment for HIV than others and, although we are becoming clearer about what kinds of specific immune response are effective against HIV, we are a long way from being able to make them happen, or even knowing what we must do to make them happen.”

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

Trainee doctors ‘not supervised’

Concerns are being raised about supervision of trainee doctors

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A review team says it is alarmed that some trainee doctors do not have adequate supervision.

The inquiry into how young doctors spend their first two years in the NHS said the issue must be urgently addressed.

The review heard about a trainee being left in charge of 100 patients overnight and at weekends.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has asked for quick action on the report.

Doctors’ training has been a controversial area since changes to the application system caused uproar in 2007.

This review was ordered to look at trainees’ roles in the two-year foundation programme in England, and how they are regulated.

The team of 14 experts spoke to junior doctors in big cities around England and looked at evidence from a range of other sources.

Chairman Professor John Collins said: “Many exciting things have been done to help these young people integrate into clinical practice.

“But we also found worrying features – particularly newly qualified doctors employed outside their level of competence and without appropriate supervision.

“Over and over again we heard the message about being asked to attend to patients beyond their level of competence.”

Professor John Collins Review chair

“We were given alarming evidence of unacceptable practise.

“One example was a young doctor who told us she had recently qualified. She was left to look after 100 very sick patients at nights and weekends without appropriate cover.

“That is completely unacceptable. It puts patients at risk and gives these young post-graduates the wrong message that sub-optimal care is condoned.

“It is difficult to gauge how common it is, but over and over again we heard this message about being asked to fill rosters or attend to patients beyond their level of competence.

“Even if it is a small number, we must address this.”

Prof Collins said in some cases trainees were being failed by hospital systems, but in other instances they weren’t getting adequate supervision from consultants.

The report also recommends that the curriculum for junior doctors has an increased emphasis on managing chronic illness.

Dr Tom Dolphin, co-chairman of the British Medical Association’s junior doctors committee, said: “It is incredibly stressful for doctors to be put in this position and it will inevitably threaten patient safety.

“Our medical education system produces highly skilled graduates, but they must be properly supported once they begin direct patient care.

“We also need to urgently investigate problems with the selection of doctors into the programme, the length of work placements and the excessive levels of assessment.”

Mr Lansley praised the report as “thorough”.

He said: “I have asked Medical Education England to work with the profession, the service and medical royal colleges to take forward the recommendations as swiftly as possible.

“This will fit with Medical Education England’s ongoing work to improve the quality of training, ensuring that trainees have appropriate supervision and are not undertaking tasks for which they are not yet competent.”

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

Irish announce record budget cuts

A homeless man sits on O'Connell Bridge in the centre of Dublin

The Irish Republic faced one of the deepest recessions in the eurozone

Yields on Irish 10-year bonds have reached a new high of 7.62% ahead of a government announcement on plans to cut the deficit.

The bond sell-off reflects increasing scepticism about the Irish Republic’s ability to pay off its debt.

Finance Minister Brian Lenihan will reveal later the scale of spending cuts and tax rises to be announced in December’s budget.

Reports estimate cuts of between 5bn-6bn euros (£4.4bn-£5.3bn) will be made.

Mr Lenihan has taken the step of releasing the figures more than a month early to soothe investor concerns as Irish borrowing costs have hit a new high every day so far this week.

The 10-year yield rose to 7.62% on Thursday, breaking a day-old record of 7.45%.

Mr Lenihan will also put forward growth forecasts for 2011 to 2014.

The Irish deficit is predicted to be the equivalent of 32% of the country’s economic output this year.

It has been pushed up by the cost of government bail-outs of Irish banks. At the end of September, Prime Minister Brian Cowen revealed that taxpayers’ total bill for bailing out the banks could reach 50bn euros.

Mr Cowen has vowed to reduce the deficit to below 3% of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2014 through major spending cuts.

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

New air cargo restriction imposed

Cargo bomb scene at East Midlands airport

Aviation industry leaders are due to meet Transport Secretary Philip Hammond to discuss security following the air cargo bomb plot.

Airlines, airports and parcel companies will be at the meeting in London.

It follows last Friday’s discovery of a bomb on a US-bound UPS cargo plane at East Midlands airport and a similar bomb on a FedEx plane in Dubai.

Unaccompanied freight flown to the UK from Somalia as well as Yemen has been banned in the wake of the plot.

Home Secretary Theresa May told MPs this week about the ban on toner cartridges over 500g from hand baggage on UK flights,

The move was based on possible contact between al-Qaeda in Yemen and Somali terrorist groups, she said.

Speaking in the Commons, Mrs May said there was no information another attack was imminent, but she confirmed a review of all aspects of air freight security.

BAR UK – which represents more than 80 UK airlines – and airport operator BAA have said they will work with the government on the changes.

French Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux has said that one of the two parcel bombs was defused 17 minutes before it was due to explode.

Mr Hortefeux was speaking to France-2 television but did not reveal his source for the information.

The explosive contained in the device at East Midlands was found after a tip-off and was not picked up by initial screening.

Investigators at the airport carried out a re-examination as a precaution and the bomb was found hidden in a printer cartridge posted in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa.

UK officials said the tip-off came from al-Qaeda member Jabr Al-Faifi, who turned himself in to Saudi authorities two weeks ago.

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

Mr Burnham said there were many outstanding schools but this was not always got across

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The principles behind comprehensive education need to be “rehabilitated”, Andy Burnham has said.

While his faith in its purpose was “unshakeable”, the values underpinning it must be “explained afresh”, the new shadow education secretary said.

Labour’s challenge was “to show how comprehensive can be aspirational”, he told social services directors.

Coalition policy on new schools and tuition fees had an “elitist echo” and risked increasing inequality, he added.

He was speaking a day after the government announced plans to allow universities in England to charge annual fees of up to £9,000.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg defended the plans in a speech on Thursday, saying the existing system of student finance “promotes neither fairness for students, nor financial sustainability for universities” and the poorest graduates would pay less under the new arrangements.

But Mr Burnham, who became shadow education secretary last month, said he detected a “rising echo of elitism” in the government’s approach across a variety of different fronts.

“The notion of comprehensive education has been allowed to fall into disrepair”

Andy Burnham Shadow education secretary

Aside from tuition fees, he said funding for Sure Start was being cut in real terms, education maintenance allowance was being abolished and new “free schools” in the state sector could damage existing institutions and risk “more social segregation”.

“My worry is that the combined effect is to depress aspiration,” he told the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services.

“I can see history repeating itself and the risk of creating a lost generation. The elitist echo was smothered in opposition but in power it is rising.”

On schooling, he said British society was more unequal than forty years ago and where a child was born, rather than their potential, more often than not still determined their life chances.

While a strong comprehensive education system was more important than ever, he said its principles needed “updating” to ensure that it best equipped people for the challenges they would face in life.

While giving every child the opportunity to maximise their opportunities, celebrating success and excellence was important.

“The notion of comprehensive education has been allowed to fall into disrepair,” he said. “Well, my mission in this job is to rehabilitate it. Its values are good and I want to explain them afresh.

“It is about having a plan for everyone rather than just a few. But I also want to rethink it for new times – so that it speaks to a sense of achievement, quality and excellence as well as one of togetherness and fairness.

“That is our big challenge – to show how comprehensive can be aspirational.”

Mr Burnham said he would set out his thinking on the direction of Labour’s schools policy, including early years education, in early 2011 after speaking to parents, teachers, social workers and youth workers.

Under Tony Blair, Labour focused on extending choice in the maintained sector through the introduction of academy schools in areas of particular need.

But despite a big increase in resources, the Conservatives say standards in certain state schools are unsatisfactory and parents in some areas are being shortchanged.

Its plan for 16 “free schools” – directly funded by government and outside local authority control – next year is designed to provide more choice for families and to get parents, charities and other groups more involved in their running.

The coalition has pledged to give schools in England a real terms rise in funding over the next four years and spend £2.5bn on a “pupil premium” for children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds.

But critics have questioned whether this is possible without some schools losing out financially.

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