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Hundreds of scientists have been holding a rally outside the Treasury to protest against cuts in their funding.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Alastair Campbell said appointing Alan Johnson as shadow chancellor was a wise move Labour leader Ed Miliband needs a “proper economic narrative” to credibly challenge the coalition government over the coming cuts, Tony Blair’s former spin doctor has said.
Alastair Campbell said the Labour Party needed a “strategy for the future” and should not just say it opposed cuts.
Speaking at the Cheltenham Literature Festival, he also said he believed Ed Miliband could win the next election.
Appointing Alan Johnson as shadow chancellor was a “wise move”, he added.
Whitehall departments – with the exception of Health and International Development, whose budgets are protected – are facing cuts of up to 25% over four years in the £83bn cuts programme, due to be detailed in the comprehensive spending review on 20 October.
Mr Campbell said although he supported elder brother David Miliband for the Labour leadership, Ed Miliband had already made a good start, but needed to think about his strategy.
“He’s only just been elected, but I think when the cuts do start to kick in – providing we have got a proper economic narrative – [it] isn’t just about saying ‘we’re against the cuts’.
“It is actually about how you build growth and how you develop a strategy for the future.
“We heard a lot about lessons in the leadership election. Yes, learn the lessons of the things that went wrong but for heaven’s sake learn the lessons of the things that went right as well.”
Mr Campbell said a lot would depend on what happened to the coalition and the “general sense of direction” Ed Miliband gave the Labour Party.
But he said the Labour Leader had already shown he had the “steel” and qualities to win.
“Can Ed win the next election? Yes he can.
“People didn’t see that coming, Alan Johnson goes in there, a wise move as shadow chancellor,” he said.
The government’s former director of communications said he would not be standing at the sidelines saying Labour “should be doing this, they should be doing that”.
But he said it was important for the party to “never underestimate [its] opponents”.
He added: “I think what the coalition has done for David Cameron is given him a strategic purpose, which he didn’t have before
“He’s now got one – let’s make the coalition work. It plays well to his psychology, it plays well to Clegg`s. It plays quite well to both of their strategies.
“I think that once the cuts really start to begin to bite I am not sure he’ll find it so straight forward.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
By Joe Lynam
Unemployment in the Irish Republic remains high Unemployment in the Irish Republic has peaked at its current level, according to the main employers’ group.
The chief executive of the Irish Business and Employers Confederation (IBEC), Danny McCoy, said fundamentals were in place for a successful economy.
However, Mr McCoy warned that there was a danger of the country enduring a “lost decade” if households continue to save at current levels.
The Republic, which currently has 13.7% unemployment, has had a deep recession.
The number of people on the state’s Live Register in September stood at 442,417.
Referring to the number of those out of employment, Mr McCoy – a former economist and ex-Oxford and Harvard university lecturer – said: “We knew when firms were about to go on a job-shedding spree last year and the year before but now we see that that has dried up.
“Ireland is an easy place to do business in terms of companies being able to rescale at short notice. While it’s a bad social problem to see unemployment go up, it’s an indicator of the flexibility of the economy. Has it peaked? Yes, I think so.”
But while the main opposition party in the Republic, Fine Gael, does not dispute that unemployment may have peaked, it attributes the phenomenon to mass emigration rather than a vastly improved economy.
“The worry is that there will be a double-dip recession due to major cuts in the forthcoming budget”
Fine Gael party
“The number of Irish-born people emigrating rose by 50% to 30,000 this year,” according to Richard Bruton, the party’s Enterprise and Jobs spokesman.
“The export sector has seen its cost base improve but countering that there is set to be a further shake-out in the banking sector and there will be further job losses in the public sector.
“The worry is that there will be a double-dip recession due to major cuts in the forthcoming budget.”
But the IBEC chief said that despite the economy shrinking by a fifth over the past two years, the Irish Republic still had the second highest GDP per capita in the EU – after Luxembourg.
He also said that it had given itself a major boost in productivity through necessary but painful cuts in salaries, averaging 15% in the public sector and often much more in the private sector.
“There is a view that the markets tell Ireland what the numbers should be, rather than Ireland actually running its own affairs”
IBEC’s Danny McCoy
Mr McCoy does concede, though, that sentiment, which had been turning upwards, reversed over the late summer as the cost of borrowing on the bond markets soared and commentators predicted a sovereign default.
“Confidence was hugely hit in August and September by what has happened in the bond spreads,” he said.
“There is a view that the markets tell Ireland what the numbers should be, rather than Ireland actually running its own affairs.
“It’s incredible that we have fatalism in the commentary in some of these people [in the markets] who say things for which they have no evidence.”
Last month the Republic’s government outlined its latest, and so far highest, estimate at €50bn for the final cost of bailing out the Republic’s all but collapsed banking system – pushing this year’s budget deficit to an eye-watering 32% of GDP.
The Dublin government hopes that its policy of openness and frankness will calm international investors who had pushed the yields on sovereign debt to a record level of almost seven per cent.
‘A lost decade’
Mr McCoy said that Irish companies and foreign multi-nationals based there (which account for 90% of Ireland’s exports) needed clarity from the government and had been ‘spooked’ by reports that the EU wanted to raise corporation tax which currently stands at 12.5% – one of Europe’s lowest rates.
The IBEC boss also said that the continued economic and political uncertainty meant that Irish consumers were “clinching their purses and other body parts in anticipation of cuts about which they know very little”.
He said the savings rate in Irish households is currently around 11% of monthly income – dramatically up from a normal rate of around 4%. If people continued to save at that level we might see jobless growth and ‘we can’t rule out a lost decade.’
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The Newport office is expected to close by spring 2012 First Minister Carwyn Jones is to write to David Cameron over the decision to close the passport office in Newport, south Wales.
Mr Jones said the assembly government had been given no warning about the closure which could see 300 staff lose their jobs.
Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan has said no final decision has been made and she would lobby the workforce’s case.
But Mr Jones said the government had “completely lost the plot on this one”.
The first minister said he believed there was no economic argument to close the Wales passport office which also serves people in the west of England.
He told BBC Wales: “It’s unbelievable to think that out of seven passport offices there should be nothing in Wales but passport offices in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
“They seem to think its acceptable that Wales and the west of England in fact shouldn’t have a service and that people should have to travel to either London or Peterborough.”
He criticised the lack of consultation, saying the announcement had come “completely out of the blue”.
“I want to know first of all when the Wales office knew about this? I’d like to know what the Wales Office plan to do about it? And certainly the workers in the passport office will have my full support in trying to save their jobs,” Mr Jones said.
“Members are willing to fight. They are angry about this cut. ”
Paul McGoay Newport PCS spokesman
“The Newport passport office has been there since 1967, it’s provided a service for people across Wales and indeed outside of Wales. That service will now disappear and the way that this has been handled frankly is unbelievable.”
The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) said the loss of 300 jobs at the office by spring 2012 would be “devastating”.
It is holding a meeting on Monday to organise its campaign.
Newport PCS spokesman Paul McGoay said: “Members are willing to fight. They are angry about this cut.
“They believe that this is an attack on the public sector in south Wales and an attack on the people of south Wales in particular.
‘High handed”
The Identity and Passport Service (IPS) said its system currently has too much capacity which could only be resolved by closing a regional passport centre.
It said analysis had found that closing Newport would result in the greatest reduction of spare capacity at the lowest cost to the taxpayer.
Welsh Lib Dem leader Kirsty Williams AM said: “To suggest that every passport office should remain open except for the only one serving south Wales and south west England is at best high handed and will leave millions of people with an inferior service to the rest of the UK, as well as threatening hundreds of jobs.
“Of course, all public agencies must seek to achieve best value for money in very difficult times but this must be done sensitively with the aim of providing a good service across the UK.”
Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan said the PCS had been “irresponsible” in the way it had released details of threatened closure before passport office managers had been able to fully inform staff.
She said no final decision has been made on the future of the office and she would lobby the workforce’s case with the home secretary.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Rescuers have drilled through to the underground chamber where 33 Chilean miners have been trapped since August.
The breakthrough at the San Jose mine came shortly after 0800 local time (1200 GMT), sparking celebrations.
It means efforts to remove the miners through the tunnel should begin within days.
The men were trapped when part of the mine collapsed on 5 August – their 65-day ordeal is the longest suffered by a group of miners caught underground.
They have been living in a shelter 700m (2,300ft) underground. However, the Plan B drill – the second of three which have been working simultaneously – has penetrated 624m to a workshop which can be reached by the miners.
Officials say they still need to determine whether the miners can be winched up through the exposed rock, or if they will have to wait for the shaft to be encased with steel piping.
Huge cranes have been brought in to lower the metal casing if it is needed.
Chile’s Mining Minister Laurence Golborne has warned that it will be three to eight days before the rescue mission can begin.
Officials say everything needed for the rescue is now in place.
Relatives of the miners, many of whom have been camping near the mine since the collapse, milled around in excitement at the news. Sirens wailed in celebration.
Alicia Campos, the mother of trapped miner Daniel Herrera, said she was “very happy”.
“I have a huge sense of relief because I feel I’ll see my son soon,” she told the BBC.
It has been a long wait for the families, says the BBC’s Tim Willcox at the scene.
For weeks they have been anxiously awaiting any snippet of news, and grabbing short opportunities to speak to their loved ones by phone.
Many families waited up all night in expectation of the breakthrough, our correspondent says.
When the rescue operation begins, a medic will be sent down the shaft initially, in a special capsule, to assess the miners. Then it is expected to take an hour to winch each man to safety.
The men are expected to be split into three groups. Some who are fit and have the most technical know-how will be chosen to go first – in case something goes wrong.
Then the weakest are expected to be brought to the surface.
A final group, including some of the strongest miners, will wait till last.
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Linda Norgrove, from the Isle of Lewis, was kidnapped by armed men in September A UK aid worker held hostage after being kidnapped in Afghanistan has been killed, the Foreign Office has said.
Linda Norgrove, 36, who was employed by US aid group DAI, was kidnapped with three local staff last month.
Ms Norgrove, from the Isle of Lewis, was killed by her captors on Friday during a rescue mission by US forces.
The Briton and her colleagues were in a two-car convoy in the eastern province of Kunar when the vehicles were stopped by armed men on 26 September.
In a statement, Foreign Secretary William Hague said the aid worker was “killed at the hands of her captors in the course of a rescue attempt”.
He said: “Working with our Allies we received information about where Linda was being held and we decided that, given the danger she was facing, her best chance of safe release was to act on that information.
“Responsibility for this tragic outcome rests squarely with the hostage takers.
“From the moment they took her, her life was under grave threat. Given who held her, and the danger she was in, we judged that Linda’s best chance lay in attempting to rescue her.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Sudanese police used batons against supporters of independence for the south Sudanese northerners demonstrating in favour of national unity have clashed with supporters of southern independence in the capital, Khartoum.
Sudanese police helped chase away the southerners, who numbered about 40, beating them with batons.
Meanwhile, Southern Sudan’s president has asked the UN to deploy peacekeepers along the north-south border.
South Sudan is scheduled to vote on whether to secede from the north in a referendum in January.
Saturday’s violence in Khartoum broke out after a group of southerners turned up to a government-organised rally attended by several thousand people.
Dressed in orange T-shirts and caps, they chanted: “No to Unity. Yes to secession.” Police then joined northern demonstrators in chasing the southerners away.
The BBC’s James Copnall in Khartoum says the incident was a rare public display of the tension threatening to tear Sudan apart.
It came as a UN Security Council delegation was wrapping up a four-day visit to Sudan.
Southern President Salva Kiir made his request for peacekeepers earlier this week when the UN envoys visited the southern capital, Juba, diplomats said.
The UN has some 10,000 peacekeepers in Sudan, without counting its presence in the western region of Darfur.
Some UN staff are already stationed along the border, observing a 2005 ceasefire that ended two decades of war between the north and the oil-rich south.
Preparations for January’s referendum are behind schedule, and there has been growing concern that a delay to the vote could trigger violence.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Hannah Miley becomes the first Scottish woman to earn gold in the Delhi pool as she hangs on to win the 400m individual medley at the Commonwealth Games.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Rachel Nickell’s son was two-years-old when he saw her stabbed to death Rachel Nickell’s son will not receive any compensation from the police despite failings that could have prevented her murder, it has emerged.
Scotland Yard said after “careful and detailed consideration” it would not be making a payment to Alex Hanscombe, 21.
Mr Hanscombe was aged two when he saw Robert Napper stab his mother 49 times on Wimbledon Common, south-west London.
The Metropolitan Police has publicly acknowledged mistakes that left Napper free to murder Miss Nickell in 1992.
A report released by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) in June found the Met committed “bad errors” and “missed opportunities” to catch Miss Nickell’s killer before her death.
It revealed that Napper, 42, was identified as a threat to women in the mid-1980s.
In 1989 his mother contacted police to tell them her son had confessed to a sex attack.
The police could not trace the crime and did not interview him or collect any DNA.
Napper carried out at least four more rapes before killing Miss Nickell in a brutal sex attack in July 1992.
It was only after he killed and mutilated Samantha Bissett and her four-year-old daughter, Jasmine, in Plumstead, south London, a year later that he was arrested.
He was convicted of their murders and sent to Broadmoor in 1994.
Ten years later a DNA link between Napper and Rachel Nickel’s body was identified.
Robert Napper was detained at Broadmoor in 1994 In the meantime, Colin Stagg was arrested and later cleared of her murder in 1994, after spending 13 months on remand.
In 2008 he received £706,000 in compensation from the Home Office.
The policewoman who acted as the “honey trap” in the operation to snare Mr Stagg has also been compensated for stress.
In 2008 Napper admitted killing Miss Nickell, pleading guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
Following a review, Scotland Yard said: “After careful and detailed consideration, the decision has been made not to offer any compensation to Mr Hanscombe.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
James Atkinson, 55, and Neil Gilmore, 55, were found dead in the flat on Tuesday Three men have been charged in connection with the murder of two men at a flat in Lancashire.
James Atkinson, 55, and Neil Gilmore, 55, were found dead in a flat in Waddington Avenue, Burnley, on Tuesday.
Kenneth Howson, 25, of Williams Road, Burnley, and Daniel Waddington, 22, of Pine Street, Burnley, have been charged with their murder.
Lee Howson, 18, of also of Williams Road, Burnley, has been charged with perverting the course of justice.
All three have been remanded in custody to appear before Burnley magistrates on Saturday.
A 23-year-old woman and a man, 30, have been released without charge.
Post-mortem examinations confirmed both victims, who lived in the flat, had died of head injuries.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Pakistan is to reopen a crucial overland supply route for Nato forces in Afghanistan with immediate effect, the country’s foreign ministry says.
The main north-western crossing at Torkham was closed 10 days ago after a cross-border air strike by Nato forces which left two Pakistani soldiers dead.
Since then, the Pakistani Taliban have attacked a number of convoys with Nato supplies bound for Afghanistan.
The latest, on Saturday, saw gunmen torch nearly 30 tankers carrying fuel.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Gamu Nhengu was eliminated from the show on Sunday Simon Cowell has thrown his weight behind the campaign to save X Factor singer Gamu Nhengu from being sent back to Zimbabwe.
The music mogul’s lawyers have been drafted in to help Gamu in her battle to stay at her Clackmannanshire home.
The prospect of being sent back to her homeland has been hanging over the 18-year-old after her mother’s visa application was turned down.
Mr Cowell said: “We are helping Gamu and her family as much as possible.”
He added: “We have lawyers working with her lawyers, not because we have to – but because I really feel for their situation, and that’s outside of the show.”
Multi-millionaire Cowell, 51, maintained bosses at the ITV1 show were not aware of Gamu’s visa situation while she was on the programme.
“We were unaware there would be any problem with her visa until this week,” he said.
The teenager’s mother Nokuthula Ngazana was permitted to stay in the UK while she studied at university, with Gamu allowed to remain in the country as her dependant.
But Ms Ngazana’s application to remain in the country was turned down, with the UK Border Agency saying it did not “meet all of the conditions for approval”.
The visa extension was turned down on the grounds there was an administrative error in the application.
The family’s solicitors said the error was due to Mrs Ngazana giving the wrong bank details, so the fee for the application could not be taken.
Simon Cowell said he had been unaware of problems with the family’s visa The application was judged “out of time” as a result, but the lawyers said it was lodged in time.
Frances Farrell, the lawyer representing Gamu and her family, who live in Tillicoultry, has said she will appeal to an immigration tribunal against plans to deport them.
Mr Cowell’s lawyers are expected to advise on the appeal to a Glasgow tribunal and it is understood an X Factor producer has been assigned to look after the family.
Gamu reportedly fears for her safety if she is forced to return to her native Zimbabwe.
She was eliminated from the X Factor last weekend, despite being a huge hit with fans.
More than 250,000 fans have signed up to a Facebook page called Gamu Should Have Got Through, in protest at judge Cheryl Cole’s decision to leave her out of the final 12.
Ms Cole defended her decision saying: “I understand completely why everybody felt so strongly towards Gamu. I thought she was great too like all eight girls but what the public saw was an edited version of what the audition process actually involves.
“It is always a tough decision and for me personally, the part I enjoy the least. I would have loved to take all of the girls.”
She said of Gamu’s deportation battle: “I was not aware of Gamu’s situation outside of the competition and I am incredibly sad for both her and her family but I have to stress that it did not have any influence over my choice.”
Those who did make it through will face the public vote for the first time on Saturday night, with show insiders promising “a twist” to the usual routine.
John Locke, the pastor of the evangelical church that Gamu and her family attend, has started an online petition against the decision by the UK Border Agency and has so far collected more than 4,000 signatures.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Mark Cavendish says he has not been offered a new contract by his team HTC-Columbia beyond next season and expresses dismay at his treatment.
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Mr Arnada was first tried in 2007 but cleared of all charges The former editor of Indonesian Playboy, Erwin Arnada, has been arrested on the island of Bali.
Police had been looking for Mr Arnada, who ignored orders to surrender after being sentenced to two years in jail for indecency in August.
He had first been tried in 2007 and cleared of all charges.
Islamist groups forced Indonesian Playboy to close down after only a few issues in 2006.
The Islamist Defenders Front (FPI), a hardline Muslim group in Indonesia, had said Mr Arnada was a “moral terrorist”, and the group criticised the authorities for failing to track him down.
South Jakarta chief prosecutor Mohammed Yusuf said Mr Arnada had ignored three orders to turn himself in.
“We picked him up from Bali today to fly him to Jakarta”, Mr Yusuf said on Saturday.
Mr Arnada’s acquittal in 2007 was seen as a victory of freedom of the press in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation where Islamist extremists launched violent protests when the magazine appeared in 2006.
But the FPI and other Islamist groups lodged an appeal with the Supreme Court, which found him guilty of public indecency after publishing a handful of issues of Indonesian Playboy, which contained no nudity.
“We are being forced to act by the FPI as a plaintiff in this case”, Mr Yusuf said on Saturday.
The Indonesian parliament passed a controversial anti-pornography law in 2008, which was backed by Islamist groups.
But the law also prompted protests across Indonesia, particularly on the predominantly Hindu island of Bali – a favourite destination for tourists.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
A Belfast man has been remanded in custody charged with attempting to beat and then smother his partner to death.
Raymond Brownlee from Templemore Avenue is accused of the attempted murder of Elaine Hunter on 6 or 7 October.
A detective told the court that when he visited the victim in hospital, she had bruises on 70% of her body.
The officer who has served with the police for nine years added: “I have never seen anyone more bruised in my career, in fact in my life.”
When questioned by a solicitor, the detective said that Mr Brownlee’s claims his partner had beaten herself with a bottle of vodka would be “physically impossible” given the position of some of the bruises.
The officer also revealed that Mr Brownlee, 38, has a total of 129 previous convictions and that in the past number of months, there had been other allegations that he had attacked Ms Hunter but they were later withdrawn.
“We would contend that he tried to kill her and the only offence more serious than that is actually killing her,” the detective said.
The district judge remanded the accused in custody until 5 November.
She said there was a “very real risk” of further offending and witness interference.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.