Category: news

A deadline for private security companies to end operations in Afghanistan has been extended by at least two months, President Hamid Karzai has said.

A committee would have until 15 November to draw up a timetable for the closure of the firms, his office said.

Once the timetable is approved, companies would have a maximum of 90 days to disband.

In August, Mr Karzai had given the firms until 17 December to close.

There are more than 50 such companies with thousands of staff registered with the Afghan government, and more unregistered firms are active in Afghanistan.

The BBC’s Quentin Somerville in Kabul says Afghan government ministers warned the president that the country would grind to a halt if security companies were suddenly removed.

When sworn in as president last year Mr Karzai pledged to limit the operations of security firms. Many Afghans believe that their staff often act with impunity.

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 claimed that Mr Sheridan admitted visiting a swingers club

A former MSP has told a perjury trial that she asked Tommy Sheridan to resign the day after she claims he admitted to visiting a swingers club.

Frances Curran, 49, told the High Court in Glasgow that she told Mr Sheridan she had “expected more honesty and principle” from him.

Mr Sheridan and his wife Gail, both 46, are accused of perjury.

They deny lying during his successful defamation case against the News of the World in 2006.

The former Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) leader won £200,000 in damages after the newspaper printed allegations about his private life, claiming he was an adulterer who had visited a swingers club.

Following a police investigation, Mr Sheridan and his wife were charged with perjury.

Ms Curran became the 13th witness to tell Mr Sheridan’s perjury trial that she heard him admit to visiting a swingers club during an emergency SSP meeting on 9 November 2004.

The following day, she said she met Mr Sheridan and fellow SSP MSP Colin Fox for tea and biscuits in an Edinburgh hotel and asked him to resign.

She told the court: “The court action was the big problem for us.

“We couldn’t get the party locked into lying in a court action. We were trying to decouple the party from the court action.

“He could stay as convener if he was prepared to either put his hand up or shut up,” she said, adding that they told Sheridan “he was on his own” if he decided to sue the newspaper.

“We said to Tommy: ‘Are you going to take the court action?’ He said: ‘Yes’.

“I said: ‘Well, we want your resignation.’

Ms Curran said that Mr Sheridan told her he “would have expected more loyalty” from her.

She said she replied: “Tommy, I would have expected more honesty and principle from you.”

Ms Curran said Mr Sheridan was convinced there was “not one scintilla” of proof that he had visited the club, and told her “There is nothing that can tie me to that”.

“He said how did I know it was him,” she added.

“I said: ‘Because you told me last night.’ He admitted he had been to the sex club with Anvar Khan.”

Ms Curran said she told Mr Sheridan she was not prepared to lie for him, but also said she would not go “running to the tabloids” with the story.

She said she told Mr Sheridan: “I’m not going to lie to people I have known and worked with for a long time and I’m not lying in court.

“I said, don’t drag me into court because I’m not lying.”

Ms Curran said she thought her former party leader and long-time Socialist colleague had been “stupid” in his actions.

She said: “I couldn’t believe he had been so stupid. He went to a sex club with a News of the World columnist. I don’t know what he thought she would write about afterwards.

“I also thought he was absolutely crazy to take a case to court.”

Under cross-examination by Mr Sheridan, who is conducting his own defence, Ms Curran accused him of “selling out”.

She told him: “The problem is the crime that you are in the dock for is not your biggest crime.

“Your biggest crime is a sell-out. You sold out your party, you sold out the people who voted for you.

“It’s a disgrace that you are publicly humiliating people in this way.”

Mr Sheridan showed Ms Curran the transcript of her appearance before the Court of Session in Edinburgh in 2006 in which she was asked about the whereabouts of the minutes of the meeting of 9 November 2004.

She had told the court then that she had given the minutes to Alan McCombes, but Mr Sheridan suggested she had lied then, saying that following the meeting the minutes were in fact given to Allan Green.

He said that saying Mr McCombes was given the minutes was part of a “political strategy” decided by the party in advance of the court appearance, and she had “lied under oath”.

Ms Curran responded: “Is this your whole defence? They’re lying, they’re lying, they’re lying?

“Liar, liar pants on fire? Is that your defence in the whole of this?”

It is alleged that Mr Sheridan made false statements as a witness in his defamation action against the News of the World on 21 July 2006.

He also denies another charge of attempting to persuade a witness to commit perjury shortly before the 23-day legal action got under way.

Mrs Sheridan denies making false statements on 31 July 2006, after being sworn in as a witness in the civil jury trial at the Court of Session in Edinburgh.

The trial, before Lord Bracadale, continues.

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

Martin Broughton is also chairman of Liverpool FC

The chairman of British Airways has attacked some airport security checks and has called for the UK to stop “kowtowing” to US security demands.

Practices such as forcing people to take off their shoes, and checking laptops separately, should be abandoned, Martin Broughton said.

He also criticised the increased checks that the US imposes on passengers arriving on international flights.

The US stepped up security in January in the wake of an alleged bomb plot.

It introduced tougher screening rules, including body pat-down searches and carry-on baggage checks, for passengers arriving from 14 nations which the authorities deem to be a security risk.

Passengers from any foreign country may also be checked at random.

Speaking at the UK Airport Operators’ Association annual conference, Mr Broughton – who is also chairman of Liverpool FC – said the UK should only agree to security checks that the US requires for passengers on domestic flights.

“America does not do internally a lot of the things they demand that we do,” he was quoted as saying in the FT. “We shouldn’t stand for that.”

“We should say, ‘we’ll only do things which we consider to be essential and that you Americans also consider essential’.”

Airport security worldwide has risen since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

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

Osama Bin Laden masterminded the 9/11 attacks on America

Osama Bin Laden has reportedly tied the kidnapping of five French people in Niger to France’s treatment of its Muslim minority.

An audio message said to have been recorded by the al-Qaeda leader says the abduction was retaliation for “France’s injustice to Muslims”.

It says forthcoming French curbs on the full veil are “colonial oppression”.

Five French citizens and two others were abducted by al-Qaeda militants at a uranium mine in Niger last month.

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

The class size cap will apply from the start of the next academic year

A legal limit of 25 pupils for primary one classes has been approved by the Scottish Parliament.

The Scottish government said the move was “an important stepping stone” towards its target of class sizes of 18 or fewer for all pupils in the first three years of primary.

Previous plans to reduce class sizes have failed because schools could not legally say classes were full.

The new class size cap will apply to the 2011-12 academic year.

Until now, each teacher could have up to 30 pupils in their class.

Education Secretary Mike Russell said: “Councils asked us to put a new legal limit in place for P1 class sizes to put them on a more sound footing when considering placing requests from parents.

“Councils supported these regulations unanimously during our consultation and parliament has now given its backing, putting in place across Scotland a legal maximum of 25 pupils in P1.”

Mr Russell also said he was “absolutely committed”, even in current difficult financial circumstances, to work with councils to deliver further progress on class sizes.

Last month he said progress was being made with council umbrella body Cosla towards having 20% of primary one to three pupils in class sizes of 18 or fewer.

But opposition leaders have accused the SNP government of failing to deliver their manifesto commitment to reduce class sizes to 18.

The Liberal Democrats said they supported the new regulatons.

Lib Dem education spokeswoman Margaret Smith commented: “We believe that good quality teachers are the most important component in delivery of education. However, all teachers will benefit from teaching in smaller class sizes in Primary 1.

“I am concerned at the Scottish government’s admission that they will count one classroom of 36 pupils and two teachers as being the same as having two classes of 18 pupils each. That’s why I’ve asked the cabinet secretary to monitor numbers of children in team teaching situations.”

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

Ed Miliband has been urged by his aides to ask short, snappy questions

Ed Miliband should use memorable “cheer lines” at prime minister’s questions to ensure coverage on TV news bulletins, leaked advice to Labour’s leader says.

A memo to Mr Miliband on what to do at the weekly session, seen by The Times, urges him to ask simple questions to make PM David Cameron look “evasive”.

It also stresses the importance of body language and enjoying the encounter.

Mr Cameron seized on it at Wednesday’s session, saying his rival had “a plan for PMQs but no plan for the economy”.

Mr Miliband faced the prime minister across the despatch box for the third time on Wednesday in an exchange dominated by the government’s proposed reforms to housing benefit.

Earlier, The Times published details of a three-page briefing given to the leader of the opposition by two close aides on how to perform at the high-profile encounter.

It encouraged Mr Miliband to deploy snappy phrases, to ensure coverage on TV news bulletins for the rest of the day.

“It is important to have a cheer line that goes down well in the chamber and can be clipped easily by the broadcasters. Mocking humour is particularly useful here, especially if it strikes a chord with Tory backbenchers to silence them.”

Due to the often noisy atmosphere in the Commons, the memo suggested it was hard for an opposition leader to develop a line of argument in their six allotted questions and it was best to be concise and specific.

It continues: “The big prize is usually to provoke the PM into appearing evasive by repeatedly failing to answer a simple question, often one that requires a simple yes or no.”

Mr Miliband appeared to follow this advice on Wednesday, pressing the prime minister on whether he was going to drop any of the coalition’s planned reforms to housing benefit, whether the plans were fair, and how many families in London would be affected.

Among other tips for Mr Miliband, according to the memo, is to use pro-active body language.

“It is important to get to your feet looking as it you are seizing on something new,” it added. “If you ‘umm’ or look like you are just moving to the next part of your script, they will think he wrong-footed you in his answer”.

The memo also suggested Mr Miliband should seek to exploit what it suggested were the PM’s weakness, including a tendency to “answer in generalities” and to quickly resort to “practised anger”.

Mr Cameron quoted the memo back to his opposite number at the end of Wednesday’s prime minister’s questions, saying “everyone had had a chance to read about it”.

He told him: “He has got a plan for PMQs but he has got no plan for the economy, no plan for the debt and no plan for the mess they [Labour] made.”

BBC political editor Nick Robinson said it was no surprise that the prime minister had raised the subject, saying it would have been “irresistible” for him.

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

A 17-year-old boy has been stabbed to death in north-west London.

Police were called to reports of a disturbance when they found the boy at 0025 BST, close to the junction of Bray Road with Bittacy Hill in Mill Hill.

He had suffered a stab wound to the torso and died soon after being taken to hospital. Eleven males have been arrested over the stabbing and they remain in police custody.

Post-mortem tests will be held later and his next-of-kin have been informed.

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

A tsunami triggered by a 7.7-magnitude earthquake that hit a group of remote Indonesian islands has killed at least 272 people.

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

Mr Freil was working on the 88.31 metre high tower

An inquest jury has found that a man who was working on the construction of Belfast’s tallest building died after he fell through an unprotected void.

Jonathan Friel, 35, fell three floors through a void when plywood gave way under him at the Obel Tower in in 2008.

The inquest heard that the void was not fenced off by a guard rail.

Fernwave Limited were fined £30,000 after it admitted three breaches of health and safety legislation in relation to Mr Friel death.

The construction company were fined in May 2010 and has since been liquidated.

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

Rebecca Aylward was reported missing after failing to return home

A 15-year-old boy is to appear in court charged with the murder of a schoolgirl whose body was found in woodland in south Wales.

Rebecca Aylward, 15, from Maesteg, near Bridgend, was found dead with head injuries in nearby Aberkenfig on Sunday morning.

Police said the boy is to appear before Bridgend magistrates at 1000 BST.

A second 15-year-old boy who was also arrested on suspicion of murder has beenn released without charge.

In a statement issued on Tuesday night police said: “South Wales Police, investigating the death of 15-year-old Rebecca Aylward have charged a 15 year old boy with murder.

“The other 15-year-old boy in custody has been released without charge.

Anyone with information in relation to the investigation should contact the incident room on 01656 679585.”

Rebecca attended Archbishop McGrath Catholic High School, which has opened during half-term to offer support for pupils.

In a statement issued via South Wales Police, her family said her death had left them “shattered”.

They said: “Rebecca, also known as Becca, was dearly loved by all her family.

“She will be sadly missed, she was a very happy young girl, she had an outgoing and bubbly personality.

“She was very motherly towards her younger brother and sister who absolutely adored her; they have been left devastated by her death.

“She had a wide circle of friends and was popular and well liked by all who knew her.”

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

The authorities are involved in a big crack down on illegal file-sharing

An injunction issued by the US district court in New York has effectively shut down LimeWire, one of the internet’s biggest file-sharing sites.

It ends four years of wrangling between the privately-owned Lime Group and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

The injunction compels Lime Group to disable its searching, downloading, uploading and file trading features.

The firm plans to launch new services that adhere to copyright laws soon.

Visitors to the LimeWire website are confronted with a legal notice that reads: “This is an offical notice that LimeWire is under a court ordered injunction to stop distributing and supporting its file-sharing software.”

It adds that “downloading or sharing copyrighted content without authorisation is illegal”.

The RIAA told the AP news agency that it was pleased by the judge’s decision.

“It will start to unwind the massive piracy machine that LimeWire… used to enrich themselves immensely,” said RIAA spokesman Jonathan Lamy.

LimeGroup appeared to acknowledge defeat.

“We are out of the file-sharing business, but you can make it known that other aspects of our business remain ongoing,” Lime Group spokeswoman Tiffany Guarnaccia told AP.

The firm is working on developing new software that will adhere to copyright laws.

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

Anton Ferdinand already had 12 points on his driving licence

Sunderland footballer Anton Ferdinand has been banned from driving after being convicted of using a mobile phone at the wheel.

The 25-year-old brother of England captain Rio was banned for six months because he already had 12 points on his licence from a previous offence.

He was spotted using a mobile phone while driving his Range Rover in Newcastle on 13 July.

The Premier League star was also fined £1,000 by magistrates in Newcastle.

The defender, of Baltic Quays, Newcastle, spoke only to answer his name and address during the brief hearing at the city’s magistrates’ court.

The player was also ordered to pay £85 court costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

Kerry Gate, prosecuting, said Ferdinand was stopped by a police officer who had followed the defender from the Tyne Bridge to Ponteland Road, two miles away.

Mrs Gate said: “He was leaning towards the centre of the car as if leaning on an arm rest and had his mobile telephone in his left hand against his left ear.

“As the officer drew up alongside, he realised he was a police officer and immediately put the phone down from his ear.”

Ferdinand told the officer he was on his way to the airport and that he had needed to take an important call from his mother.

The court heard Ferdinand had served a previous six-month driving ban imposed in May 2007 after exceeding the points limit.

Ferdinand was arrested earlier this month after failing to turn up before magistrates for sentencing. The player then handed himself in to officers in Newcastle.

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

Desmond Tutu was an outspoken critic of apartheid and was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1984

South Africa’s Cape Town Opera has turned down an appeal from Nobel peace prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu to call off a tour of Israel.

He said it would be as inappropriate as it had been for international firms to visit South Africa during apartheid.

But Cape Town Opera’s managing director said the company was reluctant to take the political stand of shunning cultural ties with Israel.

It hopes to negotiate a later tour which might include Palestinian venues.

“Our artists act as ambassadors and exemplars of the free society that has been achieved in democratic South Africa”

Michael Williams Cape Town OperaTutu in his own words

The opera’s production of Porgy and Bess will be performed in Tel Aviv next month.

In his letter the archbishop, who retired from public life earlier this month, said it would be wrong for the Cape Town singers to perform “in a society founded on discriminatory laws and racial exclusivity”.

He said the tour should be postponed “until both Israeli and Palestinian opera lovers of the region have equal opportunity and unfettered access to attend performances”.

“Only the thickest-skinned South Africans would be comfortable performing before an audience that excluded residents living, for example, in an occupied West Bank village 30 minutes from Tel Aviv.

“To perform Porgy and Bess, with its universal message of non-discrimination, in the present state of Israel, is unconscionable.”

But Cape Town Opera’s managing director said she believed in the “transformative power of the arts”.

“I am proud that our artists, when travelling abroad, act as ambassadors and exemplars of the free society that has been achieved in democratic South Africa,” Michael Williams said in a statement.

She added that their production of the Gershwin opera has “much which should provide food for thought for audiences in Israel”.

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Anderson also created Crusader Rabbit which was broadcast in the 1950s

Rocky and Bullwinkle creator and animation artist Alexander Anderson Jr has died at the age of 90.

The pioneering cartoonist, who had been suffering from Alzheimer’s, passed away at an assisted living facility in California.

The show spawned movie spin-offs including The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle (2000) which starred Robert De Niro.

Before Rocky and Bullwinkle, Anderson worked on Mighty Mouse.

Anderson’s wife Patricia told the Associated Press news agency that the inspiration for Bullwinkle came from a dream he had where he was playing poker with some friends and a moose.

The character’s name came from a car dealership in Berkeley called Bullwinkel Motors, which Anderson had found funny at the time.

Anderson began his own company with college friend Jay Ward.

The duo worked out of a garage behind Anderson’s family home in Berkeley where they created Crusader Rabbit and his friend Rags the Tiger along with Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties and Rocky and Bullwinkle.

Crusader Rabbit was among the first animated series produced for television and aired on NBC in the 1950s.

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

Trouble erupted in the Rathcoole estate for the second night in a row

The UVF were involved in a second night of rioting at the mainly loyalist Rathcoole estate in Newtownabbey, a senior police officer has said.

A bus was hijacked and set on fire after its female driver was dragged out of her cab and punched. She was shocked but her injuries were not serious.

Children as young as nine were involved in the disturbances, a bus drivers union spokesman has claimed.

ACC Alistair Finlay said he was worried about UVF activity.

The rioting followed police searches carried out in the area as part of an ongoing serious crime branch investigation into a series of murders and other crimes by the UVF in north Belfast.

The UVF decommissed weapons in June 2009 but the Independent Monitoring Commission said in September that the loyalist paramilitary group sanctioned the murder, four months earlier, of Bobby Moffett on the Shankill Road because he was perceived to have flouted its authority.

The assistant chief constable said on Wednesday there had been “some worrying developments around this organisation’s management, discipline and commitment”.

“We have to see them step forward and take responsibility in playing their part in a peaceful Northern Ireland in the future,” he added.

Translink spokesman Billy Gilpin said the bus which was destroyed on Tuesday night had been recently bought for £200,000.

“We do want people to get home from work but we will not be taking any risks with our staff, our passengers or property,” he said.

Discussions are taking place on Wednesday about the future of bus services in the area following this latest trouble.

Michael Dornan of the Unite union, which represents some bus drivers, said Translink withdrew bus services in the area at about 1850 BST on Tuesday.

However, the woman’s bus was not equipped with a radio and she did not know to avoid Rathcoole.

The woman was returning to an Ulsterbus depot when her vehicle was hijacked near the Cloughfern roundabout in the mainly loyalist Rathcoole estate, where six cars and a bus were burned out a night before.

Mr Dornan of Unite, which represents some bus drivers, said the decision to withdraw bus services was made as crowds gathered in the area for a second night.

“Most of those youths were aged between nine and 12, until the crowd started to swell,” he said.

“A brick can be just as lethal, regardless of the size of the youth.”

He added: “This civil unrest is doing nothing but depriving the community of public transport.

“We are not prepared to run the gauntlet and drive through areas where tension is building up.”

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