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Actress Keira Knightley is set to return to the West End in a production of The Children’s Hour, which is scheduled to open early next year.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The rules would make it easier to identify puppies bought from dog breeders The assembly government has unveiled proposals for new rules to tackle bad breeding practices in puppy farms.
It would see compulsory microchipping of dogs in licensed breeding premises and limit one person to being in charge of no more than 20 animals.
The behaviour and socialisation of animals would be taken into account as part of the licensing of dog breeders.
The proposed regulations would will replace the Breeding of Dogs Act 1973 in Wales.
Rural Affairs Minister, Elin Jones said: “While the breeding of dogs for commercial gain is a legitimate business, the welfare requirements of the breeding dogs and their offspring must have paramount importance.”
She said the proposals were based on reports from Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire councils, as well as other written and video reports, suggesting that “some dog breeders were keeping their animals in cramped conditions with little or no provision for their behavioural or environmental needs”.
The Animal Welfare Act 2006 requires that animals should have a suitable environment and diet, the ability to exhibit normal behaviour patterns and be protected from pain, suffering, injury and disease.
RSPCA inspector Richard Abbott said the charity had found dogs in “dark, damp, ammonia-smelling” conditions with “no bedding whatsoever” and with “puppies dead or dying next to them”.
Charlie’s new owner said he was ‘petrified’ and returned him to the dog breeder Ministers want to force breeders in Wales to microchip their dogs, so buyers can identify new pets and be sure about their health and where they’ve come from.
Jade Anthony had to return her new puppy Charlie to the breeder.
Within hours of bringing the dog home, it became clear that there was a problem.
She said: “He was just so frightened.
“If you wanted to talk to him, you would have to go on your hands and knees in order for him to come close to you. He was absolutely petrified.”
But there is opposition to the Welsh Assembly Government’s plans which would also see small breeders with just a few dogs being required to be licensed and face checks.
Terrie Cousins-Brown, a small-scale dog breeder, said: “I think the focus should definitely be on the large-scale puppy farmers and the breeders that are breeding for commercial purposes.
‘Welfare’
“They are the ones more likely to cut corners, in terms of profit, and that means possibly cutting welfare standards.”
The Chief Veterinary Officer for Wales, Dr Christianne Glossop, has welcomed the proposals.
She said: “These regulations bring the welfare obligations in the Animal Welfare Act into the licensing of dog breeders and fits well with the aspirations of the GB Animal Health and Welfare Strategy.”
A 12-week consultation begins on Friday. If approved, the new laws could be in place by March 2011.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Mr Rahman was accompanied by Mr Livingstone on the campaign trail this week A former leader of Tower Hamlets Council who was dumped by Labour then stood as an independent has been voted in as the borough’s new mayor.
Lutfur Rahman secured 51.76% of the vote to become the east London borough’s first directly elected mayor.
Former council leader Mr Rahman was Labour’s initial candidate.
But when he was rebuffed by the party he announced he would stand as an independent with several Labour councillors’ backing.
Thursday’s poll was the first ever ballot for a directly-elected mayor in Tower Hamlets, with a 25.6% turnout.
Labour’s London mayoral candidate Ken Livingstone has risked internal discipline by campaigning for Mr Rahman against the party’s new candidate, Helal Abbas.
Votes were as follows:
Helal Uddin Abbas, Labour Party – 11,254Alan Duffell, Green Party – 2,300John David Macleod Griffiths, Liberal Democrats – 2,800Neil Anthony King, Conservative Party – 5,348Lutfur Rahman, Independent – 23,283
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The strong figures may help the company in negotiations with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp UK broadcaster BSkyB added 96,000 new customers in the three months to 30 September – much more than expected.
Analysts had predicted an increase of only about 69,000 subscribers.
Total revenues were £1.53bn ($2.41bn), a 15% rise on a year ago, helping push the broadcaster’s average revenue per user up to £514, from £469 a year ago.
“We have made a very good start to the year with… a record take-up of our additional subscription products,” said chief executive Jeremy Darroch.
BSkyB did not comment in its latest trading update on the takeover offer that has been made by its largest shareholder, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, which wants to buy the remaining 61% of BSkyB it does not own.
In June, News Corp told the board of BSkyB that it was prepared to pay 700p a share to take full control of the leading satellite broadcaster.
But several rival media groups jointly wrote to Business Secretary Vince Cable earlier this month, urging him to block Mr Murdoch’s move, which they say could reduce diversity in the industry.
The signatories include the heads of the BBC and Channel 4, as well as chief executives of newspaper groups, including the Telegraph, the Mail, the Guardian and the Mirror.
News Corp says it has not finalised its plans – and points out its critics are also commercial rivals.
BSkyB’s directors said the offer was £1 per share too low, but agreed to resume negotiations after regulatory hurdles have been cleared.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
A freight ship hits a passenger ferry in a canal near Amsterdam, reports in Dutch media say.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Students at Bournemouth University are taking part in a global experiment called Unplugged.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Wayne Rooney confirmed he wanted to leave Manchester United on Wednesday Protesters gathered outside Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney’s Cheshire home, following an announcement he wants to leave the club.
Police were called to the footballer’s £4.5m mansion in Prestbury at 2030 BST on Wednesday, after reports up to 30 people were outside.
The group dispersed and no offences were committed, a spokesman said.
Rooney, 24, confirmed in a statement on Wednesday he wanted to leave the club, which he joined in 2004.
He wants to leave Old Trafford because the club cannot match his ambition, he said.
There has been speculation he will sign for rivals Manchester City.
‘Call for patience’
Rooney’s home, Candysfield, which he shares with his wife Coleen and son Kai, is in a quiet tree-lined drive – dubbed Millionaires’ Row – and is surrounded by a wall and gates for security.
His neighbours include fellow United players Wes Brown and Michael Carrick.
A spokesman for Cheshire Police said: “Cheshire Police can confirm that at 8.30pm, a call was received from a resident in Prestbury regarding 20 to 30 people assembling outside their address.
“Police attended the scene and the group dispersed peacefully. No offences were committed.”
Manchester United chief executive David Gill has called on fans to be patient as talks with Rooney continue.
He met manager Sir Alex Ferguson on Thursday, along with Rooney’s adviser Paul Stretford.
However, the club said in a statement there were “no developments of note to report” following the meetings.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Around 100 police moved in overnight prompting strikers to complain of “a scandal” Riot police in France have taken over a major oil refinery east of Paris, one of 12 facilities blockaded by strikers for more than 10 days.
They moved into the Grandpuits refinery, 50km (30 miles) from the capital, in the early hours of Friday.
President Nicolas Sarkozy ordered the authorities to lift the blockade earlier this week after thousands of petrol stations across France ran dry.
The Senate will vote later on pension reforms, which sparked the action.
The Total refinery at Grandpuits, the closest to Paris, is seen as critical for supplying fuel to the city and the main airports at Orly and Charles de Gaulle.
Union official Charles Foulard described the action as “a scandal” because police had acted in the middle of the night.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Red Bull’s Mark Webber is fastest from Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton in practice for the Korean Grand Prix.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
AIA, the Asian arm of US insurance giant AIG, announces the price of a share offering it hopes will raise about $18bn (£11.4bn).
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Nick Clegg said ministers “fundamentally disagreed” with the IFS Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has launched a direct attack on a leading think tank after it branded the government’s Spending Review “unfair”.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies has said poorer families with children will be the “biggest losers” of the cuts.
But Mr Clegg told the Guardian newspaper that the IFS’s definition of fairness was “complete nonsense”.
He said it took account only of tax and welfare and ignored factors like access to public services and social mobility.
Labour has called the planned £81bn over four years a “reckless gamble” with the economy that leaves children “hardest hit”.
It has been estimated that the cuts will lead to the loss of 490,000 public sector jobs.
On Thursday, at a public question-and-answer session, Mr Clegg called for a more “balanced” assessment of what the coalition was doing and accused critics who were complaining its measures were “all very unfair” of “frightening people and that is not right”.
The IFS think tank argues that the Spending Review is “more regressive than progressive”.
Excluding the wealthiest 2% of the population, who the IFS assesses will be the hardest hit, it says the poorest 10% of the population will, on average, lose about 5.5% of their net income compared with roughly 4.5% for the top 10%.
In a direct response to the think tank’s criticisms, Mr Clegg told the Guardian that he and other ministers “fundamentally disagree with the IFS”.
“It goes back to a culture of how you measure fairness that took root under Gordon Brown’s time, where fairness was seen through one prism and one prism only, which was the tax and benefits system,” he said.
“It is a complete nonsense to apply that measure, which is a slightly desiccated Treasury measure. People do not live only on the basis of the benefits they receive.
“They also depend on public services, such as childcare and social care. All of those things have been airbrushed out of the picture by the IFS.”
He said “shrill allegations” that the state was going to be drastically shrunk were incorrect.
“We are going to spend 5% more of national income on the state at the end of this process than Tony Blair and Gordon [Brown] were in 1997. We are going to employ 200,000 more people in the public sector at the end of this process.
“I think it is a cavalier misrepresentation to claim somehow it is a scorched earth policy.”
The Treasury had already rejected the IFS’s claims, but BBC economics editor Stephanie Flanders said its analysis had excluded a third of the benefit changes being proposed and did not factor in the impact of all the changes right up to 2014-15.
Another respected think tank, the OECD, has described the government’s measures as “tough, necessary and courageous”.
Among the changes proposed are a time limit on some incapacity benefits and reforms to tax credits, housing benefit and child benefit.
The aim of many of the changes is to cut long-term welfare dependency and Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith told BBC Two’s Newsnight that those out of work must make “reasonable efforts” to find employment.
“The truth is there are jobs. They may not be absolutely in the town that you’re living in – and this is the key point – they may be in a neighbouring town,” he said.
“My point [is that] we need to recognise that the jobs always don’t come to you – sometimes you need to go to the jobs.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Wayne Rooney’s future at Manchester United remains unclear after a meeting between the club and his representatives 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.
Baidu now commands more than 70% of China’s internet search engine market Quarterly profits at Chinese internet search engine Baidu have more than doubled as it benefits from Google’s troubles in the country.
Net profit between July and September came in at 1.1bn yuan ($158m; £100m) compared with 492m yuan a year earlier.
Revenue for the quarter was 2.3bn yuan, slightly above analysts’ expectations.
Baidu now commands more than 70% of China’s search engine market, a figure that has risen following Google’s spat with the Chinese authorities.
Earlier this year, Google threatened to pull out of China in a row over censorship.
“Strong execution of our initiatives to expand our customer base and enhance customer service drove another quarter of strong results,” said Baidu’s chief executive Robin Li.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Services including refuse collection could be combined to cut costs Three Conservative London councils have announced plans that could see them merge all their services and create the UK’s first “super-council”.
Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, and Westminster say the move could save £50m to £100m a year.
Under the merger, each authority would retain its political identity with its own elected leaders and councillors.
But critics argue a wholesale merger would damage the local provision of services and standards would fall.
They say fewer staff would be trying to cover a bigger area.
Efforts are already under way to merge the three councils’ children’s services departments, which cover education, but now the authorities are considering whether to go further.
The plans will be formally announced later and if they are adopted could create a local authority bigger than Glasgow or Leeds.
A series of working groups will be set up to look at ways of merging three main areas – environmental services, family services and corporate services.
The groups are due to be report back by February next year and afterwards more detailed plans will be put out to public consultation.
In a joint statement, the leaders of the three councils, Colin Barrow (Westminster), Stephen Greenhalgh (Hammersmith and Fulham) and Sir Merrick Cockell (Kensington and Chelsea) said that potentially sharing every service was a way to “reduce duplication and drive out needless cost”.
They insisted the plans would not proceed until there was “a clear democratic, social and economic case to do so”.
“We want to stress though that local priorities will still be driven by local people and the democratic mandate rested in elected councillors, such as ourselves, will be retained,” they said.
“Our plans may be the first of their kind, but sharing of services in this way can no longer be viewed as a radical concept.
“It will soon become the norm for local authorities looking for innovative ways to keep costs down while delivering high quality front-line services.”
When it was announced earlier this year that work was under way to merge children’s services departments – responsible for education, social care and child protection – across the three councils, critics warned that democracy would suffer if schools were not run locally.
Paul Dimoldenberg, leader of the Labour group of Westminster city council, said: “There are huge accountability issues with this plan.
“Parents who want to complain about their child’s education will not know who to complain to.”
The councils reject accusations that local democracy will suffer under a merger, saying the move would make management savings but not cut back councillors, ensuring accountability to the public was retained.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
By Barbara Plett
The UN human rights envoy to Burma called for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and 2,000 others The United Nations human rights envoy to Burma has cast more doubt on the legitimacy of next month’s elections.
In a report, Tomas Ojea Quintana said conditions for genuine elections were limited, with election laws restricting freedom of expression and assembly.
He called on the military government to release more than 2,000 political prisoners, including the detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The military government said the report was based on fabricated information.
The polls will be held on 7 November. Ms Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), won the last election in 1990 but was never allowed to take power.
Aung San Suu Kyi has spent most of the years since then under house arrest. The NLD was forced to disband earlier this year after it said it would boycott the elections because of laws favouring the military.
These elections are meant to be part of an orderly transition from military rule to democracy but, the UN envoy said, the process remains deeply flawed.
He said election laws had further tightened long standing restrictions on freedom of expression and assembly, and listed obstacles faced by political parties which were not backed by the government.
Burma’s military government rejected the report, saying it prejudged the election from a negative perspective.
Mr Ojea Quintana also said justice and accountability were essential for the transition that Burma was making.
He stood by his proposal for a commission of enquiry into possible war crimes carried out by the military rulers, despite opposition from some UN member states who see such a move as counter-productive.
Burma is not on the Security Council agenda, and a UN diplomat said there are no immediate plans for any visits by UN officials to avoid the risk of appearing to endorse the election process.
Officials at the UN headquarters in New York have said they are waiting to see whether there will be opportunities for constructive engagement after the poll.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.