New York City authorities have removed a plastic bag filled with explosives which were found in a historic Manhattan cemetery.
The military-grade C4 explosives did not have a detonator attached and posed no immediate danger, officials said.
Streets in New York’s East Village neighbourhood remained blocked off.
The explosives were found in Marble Cemetery, which is usually closed to the public but was open on Monday, the New York Times reported.
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BBC deputy director general Mark Byford is to leave the corporation in March 2011 and the post closed, the BBC is expected to announce.
Mr Byford is in charge of the BBC’s journalism and his responsibilities include editorial policy and planning for the London Olympic games
He joined the BBC in 1979, aged 20, as a “temporary holiday relief assistant” in the television newsroom in Leeds.
The BBC has not officially confirmed the decision yet.
Mr Byford, whose salary is £471,000, has a total remuneration package worth £485,000, according to the BBC’s 2008/2009 accounts.
Mr Byford took on his current role in January 2004, but just three weeks later had to step up to acting director general after Greg Dyke resigned following the publication of the Hutton Report.
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The ship houses a 832-seater theatre, a spa, games deck and a shopping arcade
The Queen will officially name Cunard’s new Queen Elizabeth cruise ship in Southampton later.
The ship will leave on her maiden voyage to the Canary Islands on Tuesday – a trip that was fully booked less than 30 minutes after going on sale.
The Italian-built, 92,000-tonne, 964ft (294m) long vessel arrived in the city on Friday.
She joins two other “queens” in the Cunard fleet – the Queen Mary 2 (QM2) and the Queen Victoria.
Related stories
Full of art deco flourishes, the latest Queen Elizabeth recalls the era of the 1930s ocean liners.
The ship features mosaics, chandeliers and cantilevered balconies and in the grand lobby is a recently-completed portrait of the Queen by artist Isobel Peachey.
Also in the grand lobby is a panel, created by the Queen’s nephew Viscount Linley, depicting the port bow of the original Queen Elizabeth.
Hundreds of onlookers turned out to catch a glimpse of the vessel as she sailed up the Solent on Friday. The vessel is now moored at the city’s Ocean Terminal.
The new ship is the third Cunard ship to be named Queen Elizabeth.
The first was launched on the Clyde in Scotland in 1938 by the then Queen Elizabeth – who later became the Queen Mother – with the present Queen, aged 12, looking on.
The Queen launched the second Queen Elizabeth, the QE2, on the Clyde in 1967. She also named the QM2 at Southampton in 2004.
Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) made its last transatlantic crossing in 2008.
The new ship is almost identical to its sister, Queen Victoria, but is more than a third smaller than Cunard’s largest liner, the QM2.
The 13-night maiden voyage cruise sets off from Southampton at 1700 BST on Tuesday. At the helm will be Cpt Chris Wells.
Passengers will be able to enjoy West End-style shows in an 832-seater theatre, visit the spa, games deck and a shopping arcade featuring brand names such as Fortnum & Mason and Harris Tweed.
Of the 1,046 rooms, 71% have balconies. There are four grand suites and two master suites, as well as 25 penthouses.
The Queen will name the ship in its home port on Monday
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Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu offers to renew a partial freeze on settlement building if the Palestinians recognise Israel as “a Jewish state”.
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Nearly 40 witnesses will testify against a US professor’s son who is accused of slashing his mother’s throat at an Indian resort, prosecutors say.
Joncarlo Patton, 15, denies murdering his mother, Cindy Innarelli, in the northern Indian state of Rajasthan and destroying evidence.
The teenager was arrested at an airport a day after she was found dead near the city of Jodhpur on 12 August.
Trial was set for 22 October at a hearing which he attended in Jodhpur.
Prosecutor N K Sankhla submitted a list of 37 witnesses, and said eight of them would be produced on the opening day.
The teenager is accused of attacking his 51-year-old mother with a knife and then dumping her body on a sand dune near the resort of Osian.
Following his arrest, the boy said he was traumatised by his parents’ divorce and had wanted them to reconcile, according to a police officer who questioned him.
The accused’s father, a business professor at the University of Pittsburgh, in the US state of Pennsylvania, has arrived in India for the trial.
Defence lawyer Manish Vyas asked for his client, who he said was a promising student, to be allowed to continue his education under the supervision of his father.
The juvenile court did not reach a decision about that request in Monday’s pre-trial hearing.
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Iranian officials say they have arrested two foreign nationals who interviewed the family of a woman who faces a death sentence for adultery.
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US doctors begin the first official trial of using human embryonic stem cells in patients after getting the green light from regulators to use them for spinal injuries.
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The former matron of Oprah Winfrey’s school in South Africa is cleared on charges of abusing girls there.
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A leader of the Rwandan FDLR rebel group, Callixte Mbarushimana, is arrested in France on war crimes charges, the International Criminal Court says.
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Australian soprano Dame Joan Sutherland, one of the greatest opera stars of the 20th Century, dies at her home in Switzerland aged 83.
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Survivors of the 7 July London bombings will be among those giving evidence
The inquests for the 52 people killed by four suicide bombers in the 7 July 2005 London attacks are due to start.
The hearings were delayed because of criminal investigations and questions over what the inquests should cover.
Lady Justice Hallett, the coroner, will preside over five months of hearings without a jury into the attacks on three Underground trains and a bus.
She will look at whether MI5 could have stopped the bombers – but many victims’ families still want a public inquiry.
In addition to the 52 people killed, some 700 other people were injured, many of them severely and permanently, when the four al-Qaeda-backed suicide bombers, all British men, detonated their devices.
The hearings at the Royal Courts of Justice in London are expected to last until at least March next year and will look into the precise details of the 2005 attacks.
Witnesses will include survivors of the attacks on underground trains near Aldgate, Edgware Road and Russell Square Tube stations, and on a double-decker bus in Tavistock Square, near King’s Cross.
Members of the emergency services who tried to save lives will also give evidence.
The inquests are expected to open with the hearings being shown footage and pictures of aftermath of the attacks that have never been seen before.
7 July: Key facts
Four bombs:
Three on underground trainsOne on bus
Victims:
26 at Russell Square13 on bus at Tavistock Place7 at Aldgate6 at Edgware Road
Suicide bombers:
Hasib HussainMohammad Sidique KhanGermaine LindsayShehzad Tanweer
The images are being used to set out accurately what happened – but are expected to have been heavily edited to not show any of the victims.
In a ruling earlier this year, Lady Justice Hallett said she would also look into the backgrounds of the bombers – and what the security services knew about them.
Two years after the attacks, it emerged that MI5 had come across the ringleader and one of the other bombers during their investigations into another extremist cell.
Some families believe the security services and police had enough information to work out that Mohammad Sidique Khan, the ringleader, was a threat. Security officials insist they only had fragments of information and could not have predicted what happened.
There have been two official reports into the bombings by the Intelligence and Security Committee in Parliament, both of which said that MI5 should not be blamed.
But Graham Foulkes, father of 22-year-old David who was killed by the Edgware Road bomb, said he and other families were angry that the security service was still attempting to keep information out of the public domain.
Lady Justice Hallett: Appeal Court judge turned coroner
“By every kind of moral standard that you’re brought up with, that’s wrong,” he said.
“You’re told, if you make a mistake, you hold up your hands. My view is that their incompetence allowed Mohammad Sidique Khan to get through.”
Many of the relatives of victims are represented in the inquests and will be able to question witnesses.
Ros Morley, whose husband Colin died following the attack at Edgware Road, said: “Innocent citizens in the UK and worldwide need to know that they are protected now and in the future.
“I hope it is possible to gain something positive out of a deeply tragic event in which 52 innocent people lost their lives.”
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One of the world’s most celebrated Opera Singers, Dame Joan Sutherland has died.
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The three won the award for work on how job vacancies are affected by regulation
Americans Peter Diamond and Dale Mortensen, and British-Cypriot Christopher Pissarides, have won the 2010 Nobel economics prize.
They were honoured for work on how unemployment, job vacancies and wages are affected by regulation and policy.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences praised their work on why unemployment stays high in times of many vacancies.
The 10m Swedish kronor ($1.5m) economics prize was set up by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1968.
Mr Diamond, 70, is an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an authority on social security, pensions and taxation.
US President Barack Obama has nominated him to become a member of the US Federal Reserve.
Mr Mortensen, 71, is an economics professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and Mr Pissarides, 62, is a professor at the London School of Economics.
Professor Pissarides said he received the news with “a mixture of surprise and happiness, general satisfaction”.
“This is prize is so great you don’t believe that you will get it even after you’ve got it,” he said.
Among other subjects, their research looked into why unemployment remains high even at times when there are large number of job vacancies.
Their general conclusion is that searching for jobs can take up so much time and resources that economies can have both a high jobless levels and high vacancy rates simultaneously.
The citation from the Swedish academy said: “The Laureates’ models help us understand the ways in which unemployment, job vacancies, and wages are affected by regulation and economic policy.
“This may refer to benefit levels in unemployment insurance or rules in regard to hiring and firing. One conclusion is that more generous unemployment benefits give rise to higher unemployment and longer search times.”
Last year’s economics prize was won by Americans Oliver Williamson and Elinor Ostrom – the first woman to receive the award – for research on economic governance.
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Work to line a section of the escape shaft with metal tubing is nearing completion
Work to line the top of an escape shaft with metal tubing is expected to finish in the next few hours at the mine where 33 men are trapped in northern Chile.
A winch and pulley will be installed and the shaft tested before the rescue begins, it is hoped, on Wednesday.
Amid the final preparations for the rescue the Chilean health minister said some of the miners were gallantly insisting they should be last to leave.
The men have been entombed since the mine partially collapsed on 5 August.
Among their relatives at the surface, initial despair at the accident gave way to anxiety over their predicament, to be replaced by joy and excitement as the hoped-for rescue approaches.
After 41 days of drilling and three separate rescue plans, engineers finally broke through to the miners on Saturday morning, sparking celebrations across Chile.
Engineers expect to finish lining the top 100m (330ft) of the escape shaft with metal tubing by about 0900 Monday (1200 GMT), said Mining Minister Laurence Golborne.
This will prevent rocks in the looser soil near the top of the shaft being dislodged and jamming the rescue capsule, named Phoenix.
They will then install the winch and pulley, before going on to test the function of the capsule.
Above the ground, the helicopter flights which will deliver the men to hospital as they emerge are being rehearsed a final few times.
The first four men to leave the mine have been selected by authorities, reports Chilean newspaper La Tercera. They have not been named but are thought to include some of the most psychologically stable and experienced of the miners – in case something goes wrong during the first few rescues.
Health Minister Jaime Manalich said some of the miners had shown a gallant spirit when he had spoken to them about the need to establish the order in which the men would leave.
“What was their reaction, the reaction of several of them? ‘Yes minister, that’s all good but I want to go last.’ And then another one shows up, ‘No, comrade, I had said that I would go last.’ ‘No, no, no. It’s me,’ would say another one.
“So I want to illustrate, through this anecdote from yesterday, that, in reality, they’re maintaining a completely admirable spirit of solidarity, of comradeship,” said the minister.
“There’s no doubt that they will tell us later the details of this story from the entire time they were below, in the mine – that they’ve faced difficulties – but it’s impressive how they themselves have managed things to maintain an enviable spirit which we all admire,” he said.
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Effectively interest-free student loans may no longer be available
The government is considering asking all but the poorest graduates in England to pay a “real” rate of interest on their student loans.
Currently, the loans are charged at what amounts to a zero rate.
However, the earnings threshold at which graduates have to start repaying the money may be raised from the current figure of £15,000.
The move comes ahead of a higher education funding review likely to recommend removing the tuition fee cap.
The review, by former BP chief Lord Browne, is due to publish its recommendations on Tuesday.
But as all the Liberal Democrat MPs in the coalition have signed a pledge to oppose a rise in fees, ministers have been trying to reach a compromise that will be progressive enough to secure their backing.
The two sides have not yet reached a deal.
Ministers have been considering a system of tiered interest rates, tied to graduates’ earnings.
This may have meant higher rates for higher-earning graduates.
But the BBC understands ministers are now moving towards charging most graduates a flat, real rate of interest on their loans, with only graduates on low salaries enjoying a zero rate of interest.
The threshold for paying it back would be raised from the current level of £15,000.
Analysis
The row over university funding is now not a financial problem for universities but a political problem for the coalition.
All sides in government accept tuition fees are going to have to go up and graduates will have to pay an awful lot more for their degrees.
The problem is coming up with a suitably large “progressive” fig leaf to cover Lib Dem embarrassment for promising at the last election to oppose higher fees.
So far, despite weeks of haggling and different proposals, it has proved impossible to reach a deal between the two sides.
However the favoured idea now is to charge all but the poorest graduates a real rate of interest on their student loans.
As one government source put put it: “Our aim is to help the least well off… not to clobber the better off.”
Will that be sufficient to get the Lib Dems on board? Probably not. So stand by for more arguing and leaks over university funding.
There would also be pressure on universities to provide more bursaries.
One government source said: “Our aim is to help the least well off, not to clobber the better off.”
Liberal Democrat MP Stephen Williams told the BBC’s Today programme that he was waiting for the outcome of talks between Lib Dem Business Secretary Vince Cable and Universities Minister David Willetts, a Conservative, before commenting on whether the proposal would appease party members.
He said the Liberal Democrats had “not necessarily” moved away from their pre-election pledge, and there was concern in the party about a market-based system developing, where different universities were able to charge different fees.
He said that risked skewing choices made by young people.
“I’m really worried and I know a lot of my colleagues are worried that we may end up with a regime that makes people take choices they’re not necessarily academically suited for.”
Lord Browne’s review is expected to recommend scrapping the upper limit on tuition fees in England.
But government support would only be guaranteed up to £7,000 per year – which is likely to make this the upper fee for most degree courses.
This would mean more than doubling the current tuition fee of £3,290.
Backbench Lib Dem MP Greg Mulholland warned over the weekend that he and others would oppose any attempt to raise fees.
“Many of us, certainly in the Liberal Democrats and I suspect probably across the House to some extent… will oppose any attempt to raise fees in the way that has been leaked from the Browne report.”
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