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Initial examinations of two suspicious packages bound for the US show they appeared to have contained explosive materials, US President Barack Obama has confirmed.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Jim Heasley was attacked in Lisburn earlier this month A 70-year-old man who was attacked in Lisburn earlier this month has died in hospital.
He was Jim Heasley, of Craig Gardens in the city.
Police say they have launched a murder inquiry following Mr Heasley’s death in hospital on Friday.
He was left in a critical condition after the attack in the Manor Park area on Sunday, 17 October.
Detectives from the PSNI’s Serious Crime Branch are investigating his death.
Senior Investigating Officer, Detective Chief Inspector Justyn Galloway, said it had been “an unprovoked attack on a defenceless 70 year-old-man who was on his way home after a night out with his friends”.
“Jim was known locally as ‘Sunshine’, and from our enquiries over the last few days we have learned that Jim was a well known and respected member of the community and will be sadly missed by his family and his friends,” he said.
“Jim left the pigeon club in Longstone Street, and we know he was attacked in Manor Park. We want to speak to anyone who saw any movement in those areas between 1245am and 1am.
“We particularly want to speak to a blonde woman and a man seen walking into Manor Park sometime shortly after 1am. You may be able to help us with this enquiry and we would like to speak to you as witnesses.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Hurdler Maoi Chinn Tire stuns punters and bookmakers as he lands odds of 200-1 when claiming a race at Wetherby.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini says Roque Santa Cruz is free to leave the club in January, while Fulham have already expressed an interest.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Passengers have forced open the doors of a train after it broke down near a Cambridgeshire village station.
The First Capital Connect Service to Cambridge from King’s Cross, stopped outside Foxton, near Cambridge, shortly before 1700 BST.
About 15 people broke open the doors and walked along the track to the station.
The remaining passengers are waiting to be collected. British Transport Police have been called to the scene.
A spokesman for First Capital Connect said problems with overhead power cables stopped the train, which also called at Hertfordshire.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Take That fans have reported major problems trying to buy tickets for the group’s new tour – their first with original member Robbie Williams in 16 years.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Take That’s last tour was seen by a million people at 20 stadium shows Take That’s concert promoter has apologised after fans were forced to battle major technical problems to buy tickets for the group’s next tour.
Many fans spent hours trying through to ticket websites and phone lines, which buckled under “unprecedented” demand.
SJM Concerts managing director Simon Moran said a record one million tickets were sold in one day. “We coped with it in the best way possible,” he said.
Ticket agency Ticketmaster also said sorry for the “frustrating delays”.
Robbie Williams will rejoin his bandmates on the road for the first time in 16 years when they play at least 25 stadium shows in the UK and Ireland next summer.
Robbie Williams (right) has rejoined the group for the tour and a new album In a statement, the band said they were “speechless” and “truly and utterly shocked” at the speed of the sales.
“To sell one million tickets in a day is mind blowing and we think we’ll be in shock for a few days,” they said. “We want to thank everyone who has bought tickets today and look forward to seeing them next year.”
More fans will watch the Progress Live tour than any other tour in UK and Irish history – beating the group’s previous record set in 2009.
Mr Moran, who is responsible for staging the shows, told BBC News that the technical problems were “unfortunate”.
“But it’s due to the absolutely unprecedented and never-before- seen demand for these tickets to watch Take That,” he said.
“We’re over 950,000 tickets sold which is far in excess of [what] anyone’s ever done in one day. So it’s a case of coping with it as best we’re able to.”
Although the official ticket agencies regularly updated their ticketing systems, they “didn’t work today”, he admitted.
“We have undoubtedly seen an unparalleled level of demand today”
Ticketmaster
“We did our best to ensure we used all of the major ticketing platforms,” he said. “They’re the market leaders. It’s unfortunate but we have sold 950,000 tickets so people have bought them over the course of time.”
The website for Ticketmaster, one of the ticket agencies selected, received 20 million page views on Friday.
That was “far in excess” of the number seen when tickets for Michael Jackson’s planned comeback concerts at the O2 arena in London went on sale last spring, the company said.
Ticket agents “struggled to cope with the sheer volume of people”, Ticketmaster admitted.
“We had planned for the demand for Take That tickets to potentially exceed anything we’d ever experienced before at Ticketmaster, and believed that we would be able to respond,” a statement said.
“It is madness in this day and age that the ticket companies cannot gear up for days like today”
Iggy, Take That fan
“But we have undoubtedly seen an unparalleled level of demand today and whilst hundreds and thousands of tickets have been sold, we know that many of our consumers have experienced frustrating delays in securing their tickets.
“We apologise for these problems and acknowledge that this is far from the experience we usually deliver.”
The band’s tour will include seven nights at the City of Manchester Stadium and a further seven at Wembley Stadium. They will also stop in Sunderland, Cardiff, Glasgow, Dublin and Birmingham. Many dates are now sold out.
Thousands of people also queued at venue box offices, while BT said the national phone network received between three and four times the normal number of calls on Friday morning.
Meanwhile, hundreds of tickets appeared on eBay and other secondary websites at inflated prices.
Police have warned fans not to buy from unofficial agencies, which they said may not fulfil orders and may use personal details in identity theft.
Some fans found queuing at the venues to be a more reliable way to get their hands on tickets Fans wrote to the BBC to express their anger at the difficulties. “Ticket buying is a nightmare!” wrote Louise from Birmingham.
“You would think there would be something in place to prevent the nightmare of crashing sites.”
Nik from Ipswich, another fan, said: “It is very frustrating as you don’t know if all the tickets have gone or not.
“I don’t really understand why the sites can’t have more bandwidth or servers at times like this.”
Iggy in Barrowford, Lancashire, wrote: “It is madness in this day and age that the ticket companies cannot gear up for days like today.
“As for the tickets already appearing on resale sites, how is this fair to the genuine fans?”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The BBC’s Lyse Doucet says both young and old are paying their respects
The body of Argentina’s former president Nestor Kirchner is expected to be buried in southern Argentina later on Friday.
Mr Kirchner’s body was scheduled to be flown from Buenos Aires to the town of Rio de Gallegos for the funeral.
His widow, current President Cristina Fernandez, returned to the government palace to stand by his coffin during the final hours of his wake.
The family is reportedly planning to hold a private funeral ceremony.
Mr Kirchner died on Wednesday aged 60.
Succeeded by his wife as president, he was expected to run in the 2011 election.
His body was scheduled to be taken in a funeral procession through Buenos Aires to the Aeroparque military base at 1000 local time (1400GMT).
But Argentine media reported that the procession was delayed due to bad weather, and the wake was extended until midday.
The former president, who ran the country from 2003 to 2007, had been lying in state in the government palace – the Casa Rosada or Pink House – since Thursday morning.
Thousands of Argentines and South American leaders, including Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, paid tribute to Mr Kirchner during the wake.
“This is a great loss for Argentina but also for the whole continent”
Juan Manuel Santos Colombian president
Local media reported that about a thousand people passed through the palace every hour, in groups of 150-200 people.
On Friday morning, thousands were again lining the streets outside the palace, waiting for the procession to begin.
People were also still filing past Mr Kirchner’s body during the final moments of the wake.
President Fernandez, dressed in black and wearing dark glasses, stood next to the flag-draped coffin and hugged or held hands with some mourners.
She was accompanied by relatives, political allies and friends and accepted condolences from Spain’s Foreign Minister Trinidad Jimenez and the former Spanish president, Felipe Gonzalez.
On Thursday, Ms Fernandez had spent 11 hours next to her husband’s coffin.
Many of the well-wishers were carrying candles, flags and flowers, sometimes accepted by Ms Fernandez personally.
Many applauded, others sang or shouted slogans like “Nestor, the people is with you”. Some made emotional statements and asked Ms Fernandez to be strong and to continue to lead the country.
Mr Kirchner had suffered health problems and had a heart operation last month but nevertheless his death shocked many in Argentina, where three days of national mourning were declared.
People were still lining up to pay tribute to Mr Kirchner 24 hours after the wake had begun The country’s football matches this weekend have been called off.
All matches from the first division to lower semi-professional leagues were suspended, the Argentine Football Association said.
Mr Kirchner’s body was flown back to Buenos Aires early on Thursday from the southern town of Calafate, where he died in hospital with his wife by his side.
The former president is expected to be buried in the family plot in a cemetery in his hometown of Rio Gallegos in Argentina’s Patagonian south.
Mr Kirchner served as mayor of Rio Gallegos before becoming governor of the wider region – the oil and gas-rich province of Santa Cruz.
“This is a great loss for Argentina but also for the whole continent,” said Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos as he left Buenos Aires on Friday.
“But we have to move on now, as I said to the president yesterday,” Mr Santos, who had participated in the wake, added.
“She has special talents,” he said of Mrs Fernandez. “So I believe that she will continue to be a strong leader.”
Mr Kirchner came to power as Argentina was emerging from a profound political and economic crisis, and he oversaw the country’s return to relative stability and prosperity.
He also supported the prosecution of those responsible for human rights abuses under military rule in the 1970s and 1980s.
He was a polarising figure, very popular among the trade unions and in the industrial belt around Buenos Aires and deeply unpopular among the wealthy.
He and his wife had faced some criticism for appearing to get around the constitutional limit on two consecutive terms.
Just as Mr Kirchner stood aside for his wife in 2007, it was widely thought Mrs Fernandez would step back and allow her husband to run in the October 2011 election.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Conrad Black had served two years in prison for fraud Former media tycoon Lord Conrad Black has lost an attempt to overturn all his convictions for fraud and obstruction.
A Chicago appeals court upheld one fraud conviction and one for obstruction of justice, but reversed two fraud counts.
After serving two years of a six-and-a-half year sentence, Black was recently freed from a Florida federal prison pending the appeal.
He once controlled a media empire that included the Daily Telegraph.
The appeals court said that a recent US Supreme Court ruling on so-called “honest services” law meant two fraud convictions had to be dismissed.
Black’s convictions rested partly on the idea that he had deprived his former company of his honest services as a corporate officer.
It is possible that Black will be re-sentenced on the fraud and obstruction charge, and prosecutors will have to decide whether to retry him on the other charges.
Despite losing on two counts, the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois said in a statement: “We are pleased that the Court of Appeals affirmed the convictions on fraud and obstruction counts.
“We will make our further intentions known to the District Court at the appropriate time after we have studied the opinion carefully.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Ehud Netzer, 76, the Israeli archaeologist credited with discovering the tomb of the biblical King Herod, has died after falling during a dig.
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BBC News coverage of plane bomb alert
A “suspicious object” found at East Midlands Airport was on a flight from Yemen to Chicago, the BBC understands.
Parts of the airport were sealed off twice following the package’s discovery but the cordons have now been lifted.
The BBC’s Danny Shaw said it is understood that the item was on board a UPS cargo plane on a routine stop at East Midlands.
It was re-examined after UPS cargo planes were later grounded at Newark in New Jersey and Philadelphia.
Scotland Yard says there is nothing to suggest that any location in the UK was being targeted.
No other UK airports are affected by the security alerts.
The plane travelling from Yemen to the US had stopped at East Midlands airport. The cargo was examined, tests were carried out and the object has now been sent for “scientific examination.”
According to the BBC’s Home Affairs correspondent Daniel Sandford, it was not a “bomb” but was “potentially sinister”.
Emergency services were called to the Donington site at East Midlands airport at about 0330 BST and evacuated a distribution centre. The area was reopened just before 1000 BST but a cordon was re-imposed just before 1400 BST so the package could be re-examined.
All cordons were lifted at about 1740 BST.
A Leicestershire Constabulary spokesman said the package at East Midlands was re-examined “as a precaution”.
This meant a freight distribution building and a number of offices were closed, together with two internal airport roads.
No details have been given as to why the package was re-examined after being declared safe.
A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said: “We are aware of the incident and it is a matter for the police. The Department for Transport is taking the lead on this.”
According to the Home Office, the current threat level from international terrorism to the UK is classed as severe, meaning a terrorist attack is highly likely.
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Japan are likely to emerge with credit after ensuring tough negotiations were not derailed The UN biodiversity meeting in Japan has agreed a 10-year plan aimed at preserving nature.
Targets for protecting areas of land and sea were weaker than conservation scientists wanted, as was the overall target for slowing biodiversity loss.
Most developing countries were pleased with measures aimed at ensuring they get a share in profits from products made from plants and other organisms.
Nations have two years to draw up plans for funding the plan.
“This agreement reaffirms the fundamental need to conserve nature as the very foundation of our economy and our society,” said Jim Leape, director-general of WWF International.
“Governments have sent a strong message that protecting the health of the planet has a place in international politics, and countries are ready to join forces to save life on Earth.”
The meeting settled on targets of protecting 17% of the world’s land surface, and 10% of the oceans, by 2020.
These are regarded as too small by many conservation scientists, who point out that about 13% of the land is already protected – while the existing target for oceans is already 10%.
Biodiversity is the term used to describe the incredible variety of life that has evolved on our planet over billions of years. So far 1.75m present day species have been recorded, but there maybe as many as 13m in total.
The term “biodiversity” refers to diversity of ecosystems, species and genes. In wetlands, for example, you might find different types of fish, frogs, crabs and snails; and within each species, differences in the genes which determine disease resistance, diet and body size. Research shows that ecosytems containing more variety are more productive and more robust.
Biodiversity loss affects most of the major branches of life on Earth. Amphibians and corals are among some of the most threatened. Rising human populations, habitat loss, invasive species and climate change all take their toll.
Around half of the planet’s natural environments had been converted for human use by 1990. The IUCN projects that a further 10-20% of grass and forest land could be converted by 2050.
Deforestation represents one of the most serious threats to biodiversity. The map shows the extent of the planet’s remaining frontier forests – which exist in a state untouched by human interference – and the original extent of forest cover.
The rising population and economic growth mean that natural resources are used at less and less sustainable rates. WWF calculates that by 2050, humanity’s resource use would need two-and-a-half Earths to be sustainable.Many poorer countries say they do not have the resources to implement such targets.
“The forest and the other biological resources we have serve the general interests of the global environment,” said Johansen Voker from Liberia’s Environmental Protection Agency.
“So we expect assistance to be able to effectively conserve our environment for the common good of the world community.”
Developed nations agreed to establish mechanisms for raising finance to help them – which could amount to hundreds of billions of dollars per year by 2020.
They are required to have a plan to raise such sums in place by 2012, when Brazil will host the second Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.
The sums might appear astronomical – particularly when you recall that governments are already committed to raising $100bn (£125bn) per year for climate change by 2020 – but French Ecology Minister Chantal Jouanno said it was not impossible.
“If you think that to solve the prob of biodiversity only public funds can be sufficient, it’s just a dream, because the amounts necessary are so huge,” she told BBC News.
“It needs to be private funds too – and not only voluntary private funds but… binding funds [from business].
“You are making profits from the use of biodiversity; so it’s logical and it’s legitimate that those profts return to biodiversity.”
The trickiest issue – the agreement on sharing profits from the development of products drawing on genetic resources in developing countries, known as Access and Benefit-sharing (ABS) – was resolved after developed nations, led by the EU, made some crucial concessions.
In particular, they agreed that the measures should cover anything made from this genetic material, technically known as “derivatives”.
They had previouslty argued for a much narrower scope.
‘More work needed’
Conservation groups warned that the agreement as it stands does not guarantee the erosion of species and ecosystems will be stopped.
“Participants may be leaving Nagoya, but they still need to be working to save life on this planet from Monday morning,” said Jane Smart, head of the species programme at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
“We need to harness the energy of this meeting, where we’ve seen huge and significant commitments in terms of reinvigorated political will as well as real money from the likes of Japan, and in terms of pledges to increase protected areas from the likes of Guinea Bissau.”
Japan looks set to emerge with credit, having steered the tough negotiations through its final hours.
“What the Japanese government really wants to do here is to get agreement so they can be proud of the Nagoya CBD,” said Wakao Hanaoka, oceans campaigner with Greenpeace Japan.
“What is really needed, since the Japanese government has just started its role of chairing the CBC intil 2012, is to keep doing what they have promised to international society.”
This meant, he suggested, taking effective conservation in the marine environment – including backing cuts in fisheries for threatened but lucrative fish such as bluefin tuna.
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About 30 people are trapped in the air on a Legoland ride in Windsor after a power cut at the theme park.
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The teenagers are on board the Fryderyk Chopin to learn how to sail A tall ship with more than 35 teenagers on board is in difficulty in the Atlantic Ocean after losing a mast in gale force winds and heavy seas.
The Polish-registered sail training vessel Fryderyk Chopin lost its foremast about 100 miles (160km) south west of the Isles of Scilly.
There are concerns a second mast could also be lost, Falmouth Coastguard said.
There have been no injuries reported among the 47 crew, which includes 36 sailing trainees, all aged 14.
Coastguards said the master of the vessel requested assistance at about 0800 BST after the 180ft (55m) long vessel lost the 120ft (37m) mast in southerly force nine gales.
A container ship, a bulk carrier and a large fishing vessel have all responded to an appeal for assistance from coastguards and are en route to the stricken square rigger.
A Royal Navy rescue helicopter from RNAS Culdrose is on standby on the Isles of Scilly to fly out to the vessel.
It is hoped the vessel can be towed to sheltered waters.
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The shutdown at Kronospan, Chirk, is part of Europe-wide protest by similar firms A factory in Wrexham is to close for two hours in protest at what the firm and its 600 staff say is the risk to jobs caused by “unfair subsidies”.
The Kronospan plant in Chirk will join a coordinated mass protest by wood panel plants across Europe.
The firm claims biomass subsidies encourage electricity generators to burn virgin wood rather old timber.
The UK government said electricity generators using waste wood avoided the cost of paying landfill tax.
Kronospan makes wood-based panels and associated products for furniture, construction, distribution and DIY industries.
In the UK, the Wood Panel Industries Federation is calling for a reversal of the “consequences” of the UK’s obligation to generate an increasing proportion of electricity from renewable sources.
Mike McKenna, director of Kronospan’s Chirk factory, said the subsidies for electricity generators which use biomass encouraged them to take “the easy option” of burning freshly felled timber.
He told BBC Radio Wales: “The easy option for them is cutting down trees and burning them for electricity generation.
“That’s because the subsidies are worth more than twice the value of the wood.
“If we pay £30 for a tonne of timber, the electricity generator will get a subsidy of about £70 for burning that timber to generate electricity.
“So you can see, he can price this industry out of the market.”
Clwyd South MP Susan Jones and North Wales AM Mark Isherwood are attending the symbolic shutdown at the plant from 1100 BST to 1300 BST.
A spokesman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) said: “Support through the Renewables Obligation for electricity from wood is based on the costs of generation.
“In the case of waste wood, generators are avoiding paying for landfill and that is why support levels are lower.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
