Category: news

Germany’s Deutsche Bahn brings trains to London to put its case for Channel Tunnel route access.

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Focus on fears about two new Royal Navy aircraft carriers

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An Indian government panel has recommended that environmental clearances for a steel plant to be built by South Korean company Posco be scrapped.

The $12bn plant in Orissa is India’s largest foreign investment project.

Critics of the project say it will exhaust iron ore deposits in 20 years.

India earlier rejected plans by mining giant Vedanta to extract bauxite in eastern Orissa state saying it would damage the local environment.

A panel of India’s environment ministry has been investigating to see if Posco’s project has been complying with the country’s green law, including rehabilitating and resettling local people displaced by it.

Three out of the panel’s four members have now recommended that environmental clearances for the project be cancelled, saying there are flaws in the manner in which it is being implemented.

The panel’s report is not final, but could have an influence on the eventual outcome and at the very least, delay it considerably, says the BBC’s Sanjoy Majumder in Delhi.

Posco said it still wanted to go ahead with the project.

“We, of course, want to proceed with this project. We are now watching closely the development. We will withhold any further comment until the environment ministry makes a final decision,” a company spokesman told AFP news agency.

The project was conceived in 2005 and is India’s single biggest foreign investment.

Based in the port city of Paradip, it was expected to create nearly 50,000 jobs.

But it has been opposed by many groups who argue that Posco will exhaust Orissa’s iron ore resources in two decades while creating lasting environmental damage.

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Patient care in England faces serious risks if the government pushes through planned hospital reforms, the British Medical Association (BMA) has warned.

The government wants all NHS hospital trusts to have achieved foundation trust status, which offers them greater independence, by 2014.

But the BMA has branded the timetable “foolish” and warned it will cause unavoidable and unacceptable risks.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley insisted patient care will not suffer.

Dr Mark Porter, chairman of the BMA consultants’ committee, said: “The push to foundation trust status for all is something that carries with it the unavoidable risk that the leadership of an NHS organisation will be focused on that above all.

“And that risk for patients I think goes too far.”

In an interview for BBC Radio 4’s File on 4, he added: “I feel really quite strongly that these artificial constraints imposed on the structure of NHS organisations are both wrong and detract from the primary mission which is the delivery of safe and effective health care to the local population.”

Dr Porter’s concerns have been echoed by Roy Lilley, a former NHS trust chairman, who called the coalition government policy “barmy” and “dangerous”.

The foundation trust model was first introduced in England seven years ago. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland do not have the same system.

The aim was to give hospital managers, who were able to satisfy certain requirements, more financial autonomy and independence.

But a number of trusts which have already achieved foundation status are struggling with massive debts, management issues or failing patient care.

According to the health watchdog, the Care Quality Commission, of the 22 trusts where problems with care have been highlighted, 12 are foundation trusts.

And Monitor, the body in charge of assessing whether NHS trusts comply with the requirements of foundation trust status, said it had highlighted issues of concern with 17 trusts.

Health secretary Andrew Lansley hit back at the BMA, saying he did not believe patient care would suffer.

“Why is there a risk to patients? I simply do not accept that at all,” he said.

Commenting on Care Quality Commission figures he added: “The Care Quality Commission is applying essential standards of quality and safety as part of their registration process and they apply exactly the same standards to NHS trusts as they do to foundation trusts.

“I believe in foundation status but I don’t believe the purpose is as a badge of clinical quality.

“It’s about them having freedoms, the corporate governance and financial strength to be able to improve their services in the longer term because of their financial and corporate strengths.”

He has given NHS trust bosses until the end of next month to explain how they are going to achieve foundation status within the time scale.

File on 4 is on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday 19 October at 2000 BST. Listen again via the iPlayer or download the podcast.

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At least 10 people have been killed in the Philippines by a typhoon which hit the north of the country on Monday.

Officials say the toll could rise; communications links are down and the full extent of damage is not known.

Typhoon Megi was the strongest to hit the Philippines for several years and caused significant damage, tearing the roofs off houses and cutting power.

It has now passed over the main island, Luzon, and is heading towards the southern coast of China.

Floods in Vietnam have swept travellers away and flooded thousands of homes, killing at least 31 people, with 23 people missing.

Flash floods have also hit northern Thailand’s Nakhon Ratchasima province.

Forecasters say the typhoon is now heading towards southern China, where heavy weather is predicted by the weekend.

On the southern Chinese island of Hainan, the rain prompted more than 100,000 people to leave their homes over the weekend.

Four people were killed on Monday in Pangasinan province, north of the capital, Manila – three were a mother and her children crushed in their house by a falling tree.

The fourth person was killed by lightning, a national Red Cross spokesman Alex Rosete said.

A storm surge at the coastal town of Maconacon in Isabela province, further north, drowned three more people, the provincial governor Faustino Dy said.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council had earlier reported three people killed elsewhere in the north of Luzon, the Philippines’ main island, but the details remain unclear.

Typhoon Megi was the strongest to hit the country in four years, with its full force directed at the northern coastal provinces and the Cagayan valley.

It was a category five super typhoon with winds in excess of 250 km/h (155 mph) when it hit the east coast of north Luzon shortly before noon on Monday.

The agriculture department has estimated that at least 10% of the region’s rice crop had been damaged.

However, aid officials are hoping the human cost will stay low, and crediting a rare degree of preparedness, including evacuations, for the relatively low toll.

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By Joshua Rozenberg

The government was wise to defer a decision on whether the media should be able to report family court hearings, according to a senior judge.

Sir Nicholas Wall told the BBC that legislation was not the best way to balance privacy against openness.

Laws intended to make family courts more transparent were rushed through Parliament under Labour.

But the senior family judge in England and Wales said the coalition had been right not to bring them into effect.

News organisations had feared that the Children, Schools and Families Act 2010 would make reporting of family cases more difficult than at present.

Last week, the government announced that it would wait for the recommendations of its family justice review next autumn before deciding whether to bring the legislation into force.

Sir Nicholas said: “I think the government is wise not to implement the present Act, which is not popular with the press, not popular with the judges and not popular, I think, with most litigants. I think we have to reach an accommodation with the press.”

Explaining why he thought an agreement with the media was preferable to legislation, Sir Nicholas said he had been troubled when tendentious and one-sided leaks from family cases were reported in the media.

“The present Act does nothing to remedy that because the journalist can go into court on day one, report the opening and is under no obligation to report the judgment.”

Sir Nicholas also said it would be acceptable for lengthy disputes over contact with children to be resolved away from the courts and without legal aid. Ministers are thought to be considering similar moves as part of this week’s spending review.

Referring to what he described as the “intractable contact dispute”, he said the government could legitimately take many such cases out of the system altogether

“The government would be perfectly entitled to say ‘I’m very sorry, we can’t afford, in the present economic climate, to fund litigation which goes on and on and on.'”

Sir Nicholas was appointed president of the High Court Family Division in the spring and was giving his first media interview to the Radio 4 programme Law in Action.

His comments on transparency in the family courts were welcomed by media representatives.

Bob Satchwell, executive director of the Society of Editors, said he was pleased that the government was not bringing the new legislation into effect.

“We need to sit down and talk about it and get it right,” he added. “The legislation was rushed through in response to powerful lobbying.”

Mr Satchwell said the new laws would stop journalists from naming everyone involved in a family case, including the judge.

Law in Action is broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday 19 October at 1600 BST. Or download the free programme podcast.

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Police in Indian-administered Kashmir have arrested a prominent separatist leader who they say has been responsible for the recent protests against Indian rule in the valley.

Masrat Alam was arrested from a relative’s home on the outskirts of the summer capital Srinagar on Monday.

Police said Alam went underground after launching the anti-India protests in June.

More than 100 Kashmiris have been killed since June in the protests.

The “Quit Kashmir movement” has been marked by shut-downs and protests by stone pelting crowds and put life on hold in the Kashmir valley for the last four months, says the BBC’s Altaf Hussain in Srinagar.

Senior separatist leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, took over leadership of the protests soon after his release from prison in August.

Meanwhile, the Indian government has announced a range of measures aimed at defusing tension in the valley.

They include appointing mediators to begin a dialogue with people in the valley, re-opening all schools and universities which were closed during recent unrest and pulling down some security bunkers.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in Kashmir since an armed revolt erupted in 1989.

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Mexican soldiers in the city of Tijuana, on the border with the US, seize 105 tons of marijuana – the largest such drug haul for many years.

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Sir Elton John also says he dislikes TV talent shows and refused to be a judge on one because he could not “slag anyone off”.

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Shoplifters cost UK stores £4.4bn in the year to the end of June, a survey of 42,000 European retailers suggests.

More than a third of thefts – the highest number in Europe – were carried out by members of staff, according to the Centre for Retail Research.

It claims that theft adds about £180 to the average family’s annual shopping bill as stores pass on the cost.

Branded clothing is the most common target, but meat, cheese, alcohol and seafood are also often taken.

The survey, carried out on behalf of retail security company Checkpoint Systems, found that an average of £12,054,794-worth of goods were stolen every day in the UK in the 12 months to 30 June.

The £4.4bn total bill was actually 5.8% lower than in the previous year, but retailers say the UK still has one of the worst records in the world.

Neil Matthews, from Checkpoint Systems, said a typical “theft spree” saw £93-worth of goods taken.

“While the amount stolen in the UK may well have gone down, that doesn’t mean the overall impact on the general public is any less significant,” he said.

“Shoplifting results in a £180 financial burden on every family in the country and so there is a real social obligation on the retail industry to do everything it can to tackle retail crime.

“Retailers are definitely making strides in the fight against shoplifting and their efforts have already started to pay dividends.”

About £970m was spent on increased retail security last year, but it did not stop UK stores being targeted by their own staff.

Dr Adrian Beck, head of criminology at the University of Leicester, told the BBC: “In an organisation, it could be that there are very few controls, that you’re badly paid, the morale is very low, and you realise that the risk of being caught is also very low.

“Then people are much, much more likely to take the opportunities that are presented to them.”

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Israel’s PM says he wants to amend a controversial bill so that Jews as well as non-Jews taking citizenship would pledge loyalty to Jewish state.

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What happens when a nation loses its ‘birth certificate’?

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The southern New Zealand city of Christchurch has been shaken by a strong earthquake weeks after a more powerful tremor caused extensive damage.

The 5.0 magnitude tremor cut power and telephone services, and some residents fled into the streets, reports said.

The earthquake hit at about 1130 (2230 GMT Monday).

Christchurch is still recovering from the damage caused by a 7.1 quake on 4 September.

The quake on Tuesday struck around 10km (six miles) southwest of the city and its epicentre was 9km (five miles) below the ground, the country’s geological agency GNS Science said.

The city has been shaken by many aftershocks since the earthquake six weeks ago destroyed buildings and roads.

Some of Christchurch’s most historic buildings were damaged beyond repair on 4 September, but there were no fatalities.

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US regulators are warning patients that drugs used to protect brittle bones may increase fracture risk in rare cases.

The Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) says all drugs in the bisphosphonate class must carry an alert on their label about this unusual side effect.

They say patients should keep taking the pills unless they are told by their doctor to stop.

In the UK, only one bisphosphonate drug – alendronate – carries the warning but regulators are reviewing this decision.

Nearly three million people in the UK have osteoporosis, a condition that makes the bones brittle and causes about 230,000 fractures a year.

Bisphosphonates are given to more than half a million of these patients in a bid to strengthen their bones and reduce their risk of a fracture.

But experts are becoming increasingly concerned that the drugs may cause the very thing they are trying to prevent after finding a link between their use and an unusual type of leg fracture.

The FDA says it is not clear whether bisphosphonates are the cause of these thigh bone breaks, but they are concerned enough to tell manufacturers to add warnings to medication packets.

FDA medical officer Theresa Kehoe said they would continue to monitor the safety of the drugs, adding: “In the interim, it’s important for patients and health care professionals to have all the safety information available when determining the best course of treatment for osteoporosis.”

The FDA says patients should keep taking their medication unless they are advised by their doctor to stop.

The UK’s drug regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), said it had begun to look at the possible increased risk of fractures in patients taking bisphosphonates in case it was an effect common to all members of that drug family, not just alendronate.

A spokeswoman said: “The committee will now review all available data thoroughly, including published data, non-clinical and clinical data, and post-marketing reports, to clarify whether atypical stress fractures are a class effect of bisphosphonates, and will assess their impact on the balance of risks and benefits of these medicines.”

A spokesman for the National Osteoporosis Society said: “At present it is uncertain whether these fractures are directly related to treatment but an association has not been excluded.

“Bisphosphonates slow down the rate at which bone is destroyed and replaced, by reducing the activity of osteoclast cells that break down bone.

“Although this is a useful process to prevent bone loss and fractures, there are concerns that over a prolonged period of time, this may result in bones becoming ‘older’ and more brittle.”

He said it should be remembered that these unusual fractures are rare and that in the vast majority of patients the benefits of treatment will far outweigh the risks.

A recent study, published last month in the British Medical Journal, linked bisphosphonate use to cancer of the gullet.

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Repeated viewing of violent scenes in films, television or video games could make teenagers behave more aggressively, US research suggests.

The National Institutes of Health study of 22 boys aged 14 to 17 found that showing dozens of violent clips appeared to blunt brain responses.

Dr Jordan Grafman said it might make aggression feel more “acceptable”.

However, a UK expert said the reasons behind violence were too complex to be explained by laboratory research.

The effect of violent imagery on young people has been debated from the early days of television, and, more recently, that debate has expanded to include video games.

Various studies have suggested that exposure appears to have an effect on the way that the brain processes emotional responses, yet it is unclear whether this can have a direct impact on behaviour.

The US study, published in the journal Social Cognitive & Affective Neuroscience, involved 60 violent scenes from videos being collated, mostly involving street brawling and fist fights.

The violence was ranked “low”, “mild” or “moderate”, and there were no “extreme” scenes.

The response of the boys as they watched the clips was measured in a number of ways.

They were asked to rate whether they thought each clip was more or less aggressive than the one which preceded it, and were brain scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging, which shows in real time which areas of the brain are active.

In addition, electrodes attached to the fingers detected increasing sweat – a sign of an emotional response.

The longer the boys watched videos, particularly the mild or moderate ones, the less they responded to the violence within them.

In particular, an area of the brain known as the lateral orbitofrontal cortex, thought to be involved in emotional processing, showed less activity to each clip as time went on.

Dr Grafman said: “Exposure to the most violent videos inhibits emotional reactions to similar aggressive videos over time and implies that normal adolescents will feel fewer emotions over time as they are exposed to similar videos.”

He said that this could actually produce more violent reactions from the teenager.

“The implications of this include the idea that continued exposure to violent videos will make an adolescent less sensitive to violence, more accepting of violence, and more likely to commit aggressive acts since the emotional component associated with aggression is reduced and normally acts as a brake on aggressive behaviour.”

However, another academic said it was almost impossible to explain violence in these terms.

Professor David Buckingham, the director of the Centre for the Study of Children, Youth and Media, said that violence was a “social problem” with many contributing factors, not simply a matter of looking at how the brain worked.

“The suggestion is that, over a period of time, people can develop a kind of tolerance to these images – but another word for that is just boredom.

“This debate has been going on since before we were all born. In the 19th Century people were panicking about the effect of ‘Penny Dreadfuls’.

“If we are truly interested in violence and aggression, rather than blaming the media for everything wrong in the world, we need to look at what motivates it in real life.”

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