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The BBC has learned that the police are seeking access to more than £200m of funding over five years to combat the threat from dissident republicans.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Dawber had denied sexual assault and allowing her boyfriend to take indecent photos of the baby A woman has been convicted of sexually assaulting a five-month-old baby while her paedophile boyfriend took indecent pictures of the abuse.
Tracy Dawber, 44, formerly of Southport on Merseyside, had pleaded not guilty at Winchester Crown Court.
Her now ex-boyfriend Colin Blanchard, 40, formerly of Rochdale in Greater Manchester, had previously admitted being involved in the assault.
Both are due to be sentenced at a later date.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Hostile computer attacks are classed among the most serious threats to national security Terrorism and attacks on computer networks are set to be named as among the biggest threats to UK security.
The threats will be described in the National Security Strategy.
The strategy has been drawn up by the National Security Council, which was set up by David Cameron in May.
It will form the background for Tuesday’s Strategic Defence Review, setting out the shape of the UK’s forces after budget cuts put at 8%.
After months of study and debate, the NSC has produced a paper that identifies 16 threats to the UK.
The most serious – which they are calling “Tier 1” – comprises acts of international terrorism, hostile computer attacks on UK cyberspace, a major accident or natural hazard such as a flu pandemic, or an international military crisis between states that draws in the UK and its allies.
BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says that with all the recent talk of budget cuts, the government has been at pains to convince sceptics that the UK does have a national security strategy, and that this is not all just a cover for a vast cost-cutting exercise.
Whitehall officials have placed an emphasis on the need for preventing conflicts before they start.
A special BBC News season examining the approaching cuts to public sector spending
Intelligence, counter-terrorism and cyber security are all expected to escape major cuts and in some cases may even be given fresh investment.
Last week, Iain Lobban, the head of the UK’s communications intelligence agency GCHQ, spoke of hundreds of malicious e-mails already being aimed at government computer networks each month.
He also highlighted the use of cyber techniques by countries to target each other and steal their secrets.
The BBC’s Gordon Corera says that with a quarter of a trillion e-mails being sent each day, cyberspace is becoming the new battleground.
It is one whose terrain is continually contested and which is moving to the centre of national security thinking, he adds.
Defence Secretary Liam Fox has said personnel numbers in the armed forces will “fall a bit” following the planned cuts, but said there would be no weakening of the UK’s strategic position.
The Treasury had wanted cuts of between 10% and 20% to the Ministry of Defence’s budget, but it is understood that Mr Fox has negotiated this down to 8%.
The Defence Secretary confirmed Prime Minister David Cameron had been “extraordinarily helpful” in representing the Ministry of Defence’s case during negotiations.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Michael Henning, seen shortly after the 2005 attack, was badly injured A survivor of the 7/7 attacks has told an inquest into the bombings that he is a “deeply lucky person”.
Michael Henning was only yards from Shehzad Tanweer when he detonated a device on a Circle line train at Aldgate Tube station.
He said he was lucky to survive after choosing to get on the third carriage instead of the second carriage, where Tanweer was standing.
Some of the families of those killed have also given testimonies.
The inquests into the 52 deaths in 2005 are expected to take up to five months.
Mr Henning described the blast, saying it felt “completely real to me now as I speak”.
He added: “I can feel the right-hand side of my face because I was standing right on to the explosion. I can feel it tense up now, I can feel heat. It’s extremely real.
“One moment you had the sense of reality as you know it, your everyday Tube travel, and the next, it’s all changed.
“I remember the questions in my head – ‘What is this? What is this?’ – as I’m being twisted and thrown down to the ground and then I realised it was a bomb. It’s strange the thoughts that go through your mind, but I think it was one of those completely British understatements, ‘Oh, this isn’t good’.”
Mr Henning told the inquest he thought he had died until he felt blood on the right side of his face, caused by flying glass.
He said he then heard screams from seriously injured people in the second carriage and when he looked to see if he could help, saw a horrifying sight.
“I looked through the twisted windows to see the darkness and I could see people moving slowly in pain,” he said.
Victims of the four bombs:
26 at Russell Square13 on bus at Tavistock Place7 at Aldgate6 at Edgware Road
Suicide bombers:
Hasib HussainMohammad Sidique KhanGermaine LindsayShehzad Tanweer
“I don’t want to go into too much detail about what I saw because I know the police reports have detailed such things, but it is a very difficult image to hold.”
One of the family members to give evidence was the father of 24-year-old Carrie Taylor, who was visibly moved as he spoke of his youngest child.
John Taylor recalled how his daughter, a drama and theatre student at Royal Holloway, University of London, particularly loved Russian plays, something the rest of the family “never grasped”.
He added: “It was Carrie’s dream to work in the arts and this is something that we always encouraged.”
He told the inquest she would return to the family home in Billericay, Essex, every weekend.
“She had friends from a variety of backgrounds. It was a mark of her temperament that she didn’t have any prejudices and always found the best in people,” he said.
The mother of Lee Baisden said her son had hoped to marry his partner before he was killed in the Aldgate blast.
Lee Baisden had planned to marry his partner but was killed in the blast Denise Baisden read a statement to the inquest on behalf of his family and former boyfriend, saying her son would be “greatly missed”.
Mr Baisden, 34, from Romford in Essex, an accountant for the London Fire Brigade, was one of the seven who died on the Circle line train.
Mrs Baisden said: “Lee was one of a kind. He was loyal, sensitive, trustworthy and caring.
“He planned to get married to his partner Paul Groman and he enjoyed life to the full. He will be greatly missed by all and his loss has left a massive hole in all our lives.”
Italian Benedetta Ciaccia, 30, was two months away from her wedding day when she was killed, her father told the inquest.
In a statement read to the court, Roberto Ciaccia said his daughter, a business analyst from Norwich, “was a beautiful, sweet, Italian girl who greatly loved life.
“All she worked for was to have a family of her own with many children which she really loved.”
She had also just completed a part-time degree course in IT but died before she could find out her results.
Richard Ellery, 21, who worked for Jessops camera store in Ipswich, near his home, was on his way to a training course at the firm’s Kensington branch when he was caught in the Aldgate blast.
Statements read to the inquests referred to him as being a “footloose and fancy-free type of guy”.
A statement read out from one of his flatmates said: “He had a great sense of humour and was quick-witted. The only time he was grumpy was in the morning.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Somali Islamist group al-Shabab orders mobile phone companies to stop their popular money transfer business, saying it is “unIslamic”.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Alan Johnson: Banks should pay more Shadow chancellor Alan Johnson has accused the coalition of basing their timetable for spending cuts on the next election rather than on economics.
Mr Johnson, setting out Labour’s position ahead of Wednesday’s Spending Review, said ministers would be taking a “huge gamble with growth and jobs”.
He said Labour would halve, rather than eradicate, the deficit by 2013/14.
In his central London speech he said banks should contribute around £7.5bn to cutting the deficit by 2015.
“The banking sector is contributing £2.4bn whilst child benefit freezes and cuts will raise substantially more, so families take the strain while bankers grab the bonuses,” he said.
“There’s no justification for such an unfair sharing of the burden, so we will ask the government to think again and come forward with proposals for the banks to make a greater contribution.”
Mr Johnson added: “The coalition’s austerity strategy amounts to a huge risk with growth and jobs. By going hell-for-leather on cuts at a time when the private sector cannot be expected pick up the slack, they run the risk of leaving us with higher unemployment, deprived communities and a diminished society.
“And it will make getting the deficit down harder. Taking a slower, less-damaging route, as we propose, provides a credible plan; securing growth and protecting public services.
“Requiring a greater contribution from the banks and tough choices on spending and welfare. So there is another way, and the government needs to unlash itself from the mast and take a new direction.”
Chancellor George Osborne has accused Labour of being “in denial” about the deficit, and insisted the cuts were needed to provide a brighter future for the UK economy.
Mr Osborne also received the backing of the leaders of 35 of the UK’s biggest companies for his spending cuts plans in a letter to Monday’s Daily Telegraph.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Citigroup reports net income of $2.2bn for the past three months as the level of provisions made for bad debts falls.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Chris Huhne said the scheme’s costs were “excessive” Plans for a 10-mile barrage across the Severn estuary to generate renewable electricity from the tides have been dropped by the UK government.
Energy Secretary Chris Huhne said the scheme’s costs were “excessive”.
Mr Huhne said other low carbon options represented a better deal for taxpayers and consumers.
Shadow Welsh Secretary Peter Hain earlier said scrapping the barrage plan would be “equally disastrous” for the economy and the environment.
The Severn Tidal Power feasibility study conclusions, published on Monday, found there was no strategic case for major public sector investment in a large-scale energy project in the Severn estuary at this time.
It would be very costly to deliver and very challenging to attract the necessary investment from the private sector alone, the study said.
The study showed that a tidal power scheme in the estuary could cost in excess of £30bn, making it high cost and high risk in comparison to other ways of generating electricity.
“The study clearly shows that there is no strategic case at this time for public funding of a scheme to generate energy in the Severn estuary”
Chris Huhne Energy Secretary
The report did recommend that a Severn tidal project should not be ruled out as a longer term option if market conditions change.
But it noted significant uncertainty over complying with regulation and that a scheme would fundamentally change the natural environment of the estuary.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change also announced eight sites it considered suitable for new nuclear power stations to be built, including at Wylfa, Anglesey.
Commenting on the report Mr Huhne said: “The study clearly shows that there is no strategic case at this time for public funding of a scheme to generate energy in the Severn estuary.
“Other low carbon options represent a better deal for taxpayers and consumers.
“However, with a rich natural marine energy resource, world leading tidal energy companies and universities, and the creation of the innovative Wave Hub facility, the area can play a key role in supporting the UK’s renewable energy future.”
Mr Hain said the change of heart marked a “terrible day for Wales” but environmentalist group Friends of the Earth Cymru (FOE) welcomed the decision.
The 10-mile long tidal barrage would have been built between Lavernock Point near Cardiff, to Brean Down near Weston-super-Mare.
Supporters of the project argued it could have generated up to 5% of Britain’s electricity – equivalent to two nuclear power stations.
The barrage scheme has been scuppered because the government has said it will not put any public money into it, and without public money no developer has the certainty to develop it.
My government sources say it might make a comeback in the 2020s or 2030s, but certainly not for the time being because they do not think it represents the best value for money.
There were three reasons why the barrage was turned down. Firstly, environmentalists are heavily split over it, and pressing ahead with such a controversial scheme without the wholehearted support of the green lobby, which is championing renewable energy, would have been politically risky.
Secondly, they felt that wind power offered much better value for money.
The third reason was that this was such a big barrage, and such a one-off scheme, that there would not be much learning from it that anyone else could apply elsewhere. If there had been a small barrage proposed, and I suspect there will be soon, then the government would have been far more likely to back it on the grounds that there would be learning.
But those opposed to it, including FoE and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), have always argued it would have an irreversible impact on the wildlife of the Severn estuary.
Mr Hain said: “This is a decision that is equally disastrous for the Welsh economy and our environment.
“Not only is Chris Huhne turning his back on the proposed barrage scheme that would have created hundreds of good quality green jobs for Welsh people, it appears that he decided to abandon in its entirety the idea of using the Severn Estuary as a generator of electricity.”
He said the UK government had “decided to shift their attention, but minimal funding” to technologies which “may not deliver a single kilowatt of clean energy in the foreseeable future”.
Mr Hain accused the coalition government of hiding behind cost, arguing the scheme would have been privately funded, with the only public cost related to planning.
“It is a terrible day for Wales and demonstrates once again how little regard this Government has for the Welsh people,” he added.
Dr Rob Kirby, an independent expert on the Severn Estuary, who has worked on the project for the last 40 years, said the u-turn was down to “environmental fundamentalism”.
“We have long argued that the Cardiff to Weston-super-Mare Severn barrage would have been too costly in both financial and environmental terms”
Gordon James Friends of the Earth Cymru
He added: “It’s quite unambiguous – the Cardiff to Weston (barrage) can only benefit the environment and those who say otherwise are not telling the truth.”
News of the expected announcement had been welcomed earlier by FoE Cymru director Gordon James.
He said: “We have long argued that the Cardiff to Weston-super-Mare Severn barrage would have been too costly in both financial and environmental terms, and that better options exist to harness this important source of clean energy.
“The costs of construction would very likely have risen from the estimated £22bn while it would have caused irreversible damage to wildlife sites that are meant to be protected by law.
“This could have resulted in prolonged legal challenges that would have further delayed a project that would not have delivered the clean energy we so desperately need for over 20 years.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Qasab was found guilty of mass murder A court in the Indian city of Mumbai is due to begin hearing an appeal by the sole surviving gunman of the attacks on the city in November 2008.
Mohammad Ajmal Amir Qasab, a Pakistani national, is expected to contest the death sentence passed by a special court in May.
More than 170 people died when Qasab and nine other militants attacked various targets.
Qasab was found guilty of mass murder and waging war against India.
Due to security concerns, he will appear at the high court in Mumbai via a video link from prison.
During the appeal hearing – which is expected to last several months – a panel of judges will review evidence previously submitted.
But this might not be the gunman’s final legal challenge; if he loses this appeal he has the right to take his case to the country’s Supreme Court and then to the president of India.
Ten gunmen attacked Mumbai on 26 November 2008. All of them except Qasab were killed during the attacks.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
A survivor of the 7/7 attacks tells an inquest into the bombings that he is a “deeply lucky person”.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Bandar Abdulaziz was found beaten and strangled in the Landmark Hotel A servant allegedly beaten and strangled by a Saudi prince died without putting up a fight, the Old Bailey has heard.
Bandar Abdulaziz, 32, was so worn down by the “sadistic” abuse he had suffered that he “let the defendant kill him”, jurors heard.
He was found beaten and strangled in the Landmark Hotel, Marylebone, on 15 February.
Saud Abdulaziz bin Nasser al Saud, 34, denies murder but admits manslaughter.
He also denies one count of causing grievous bodily harm with intent in relation to an earlier alleged attack in a hotel lift.
Jonathan Laidlaw QC, prosecuting, said they had a “master-servant” relationship in which Mr al Saud abused his aide for his “own personal gratification”.
The victim’s injuries showed the assault leading to his murder “was a really terrible,… really brutal attack”, Mr Laidlaw said.
“So worn down by the violence, so subservient and submissive had Bandar become that he was incapable of any effective resistance,” he added.
“He was killed without apparently ever having fought back because the defendant was completely unharmed, without any mark at all, when he was examined at the police station.
“Bandar appears to have let the defendant kill him.”
In his closing speech, Mr Laidlaw said: “The case serves as an example of how misleading some outward appearances can be.
“Witnesses have described how polite and well-mannered the defendant was.”
Others had spoken of how the prince and his aide were “good friends” and jurors were also shown apparently “perfectly ordinary holiday snaps” of the two men, he said.
“Beneath the surface this was a deeply abusive relationship which the defendant exploited,” he added.
Photos of Mr Abdulaziz stored on a mobile phone “plainly proved” that there was also a “sexual element” to the abuse, Mr Laidlaw said.
The trial continues.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Proposals are being drawn up to give NHS patients control of their medical records online.
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Preview followed by live coverage of Tuesday’s game between Arsenal and Shaktar Donetsk in the Champions League.
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Wales boss Warren Gatland calls on uncapped duo George North and Scott Andrews while a host of familiar faces return for their autumn Tests.
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Chile’s President Sebastian Pinera tells the BBC his government will boost protection for miners who draw attention to safety fears.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.