Category: news

Wind farms, especially big ones, generate turbulence that can significantly alter air temperatures near the ground, say researchers.

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Sudan announces a tight timetable for January’s referendum on independence for the south of the country, amid fears any delay could lead to violence.

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Donald Allison was jailed for 12 months

A man who tried to smuggle rhino horn out of Manchester Airport has been jailed for 12 months.

Donald Allison, of Preston, Lancashire, hid the two horns in a bronze sculpture as he tried to board a flight to China.

The horns, believed to be worth about £120,000, was from a rhino called Simba which died at Colchester Zoo in 2009.

Allison, 52, who was hoping to sell the items on the lucrative Chinese medicine market, was sentenced at Manchester Crown Court on Tuesday.

UK Border Agency (UKBA) officials seized the horns at the airport after they were smuggled out of the Essex zoo’s crematorium.

Airport-based officials discovered them concealed in Allison’s luggage and investigators later used DNA samples to trace the horns back to Simba.

The 41-year-old rhino died from natural causes in 2009 and its horns were removed after its body was sent for incineration, the UKBA said.

Allison pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to attempting to smuggle an endangered species.

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Director Zack Snyder, best known for making 300, Watchmen and Dawn Of The Dead, is to direct the new Superman movie.

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Newcastle write to the Football Association asking for action to be taken against Nigel De Jong for breaking Hatem Ben Arfa’s leg.

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The Commonwealth Games stadium in Delhi faces a crucial 24 hours as workers battle to ensure it is ready for the athletics which starts on Wednesday.

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Windows of the Ulster Bank were blown in by the blast

Two police officers were injured after a car bomb exploded in Londonderry on Monday night.

The Real IRA has admitted responsibility for the device which was left close to the Ulster Bank on the Culmore Road.

The police said the bomb was more than 200lb, bigger than the car bomb attack on the city in August.

The officers received neck and ear injuries when they were knocked to the ground.

The details were revealed by the police commander for the area, Chief Superintendent Stephen Martin, at a news conference on Tuesday.

He said that police believe the Ulster Bank and the local hotel were not the intended targets and that the bomb may have been left because of a police presence in the area.

He also confirmed that up to 200 people were in the hotel when the warning was received.

A warning was given before the device exploded, causing extensive damage

“We had tourists from America and Japan and other countries moved out of a hotel in this city in the middle of the night because of a bomb,” he said.

“Last week we had President Clinton here, talking to people about inward investment, talking about the City of Culture, the prospect of 3,000 jobs.

“Last night we had the response from these so-called dissident groups, we had their views on the economy – their views are to destroy the jobs in Derry.”

The bank and several shops were damaged in the attack.

The area had been cleared when the bomb exploded. However, the officers, who was standing close to the cordon, was blown off his feet by the blast.

Masonry and glass from smashed windows were strewn across the Culmore Road.

Throughout the night, army bomb experts examined the wreckage of the Vauxhall Corsa car that contained the bomb.

Chief Superintendent Stephen Martin said very few people support the dissidents

The bank was badly damaged, and the area around the explosion remains cordoned off.

The Real IRA contacted the office of a newspaper on Tuesday morning to say it was responsible for the attack.

It is not the first time it has targeted the Culmore Road branch of the Ulster Bank.

Last year, it said it was responsible for sending bullets to relatives of police officers working in the branch.

There have been a number of attacks in recent months which have been blamed on dissident republicans.

In August, a car containing 200lb of explosives went off outside Strand Road police station in the city, causing substantial damage.

Two men hijacked a taxi in the Bogside, loaded the bomb into the driver’s car and ordered him at gunpoint to leave it at the station.

Northern Ireland Secretary of State Owen Paterson said the government would “not allow these people to achieve their aim”.

He said the authorities would tackle those responsible and would “smoke them out” and “bear down on them”.

The Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said he condemned “the futile activities of these conflict junkies”.

He said: “The objectives of these people are to destroy the peace process; to break the unity of the Executive; to turn back the clock on policing and to embarrass Sinn Fein.

“On all four counts they have been failing miserably.”

DUP MP Gregory Campbell said the bomb would cause “massive inconvenience” to schools, work and tourists.

“There is unanimous support across the political divide for condemnation of this,” he said.

Mayor of Derry Colum Eastwood was at the scene when the device exploded.

“I saw the bomb go off. We were not far away,” he said.

“It is just shocking that someone would put a bomb anywhere, but especially at a commercial centre.”

Businessman Garvan O’Doherty, the owner of Da Vinci’s Hotel, said the focus should remain on peace.

“The vast majority are focused on the partnership approach to peace. This will not detract those of us who want a stable society,” he said.

Mr O’Doherty said the way forward was for the peace process to continue.

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The government plans to introduce a tax break for married couples before the 2015 election, the BBC understands.

It comes after criticism of the chancellor’s plan to axe child benefit for higher rate taxpayers from 2013.

There were concerns it would penalise families where one parent stayed home to look after children – but their partner paid the 40% tax rate.

Prime Minister David Cameron said earlier it was fair to ask the better-off to help tackle the deficit.

But he told the BBC: “If you look for instance at the issue of the stay-at-home mother, in the coalition agreement [with the Liberal Democrats] we do talk about having some sort of transferable tax allowance to help couples in that way.

“So obviously there are things we’ll try and do to make sure that all of what we do, if you look across the piece dealing with the deficit, is fair.”

BBC political editor Nick Robinson said government sources had told him there would be a tax break for married couples introduced in this Parliament.

Although Conservative policy was to limit the tax break to basic-rate tax payers, he said that had not been repeated in the coalition agreement between the Tories and the Lib Dems – adding that Chancellor George Osborne might seek to partially compensate stay-at-home parents aggrieved by the child benefit cut.

On Monday Chancellor George Osborne said that from 2013 child benefit would be removed from families with at least one parent earning more than about £44,000 a year.

But families with two earners paid just under the threshold each, would still be eligible. The government says it is too complex and expensive to work out overall household incomes to administer the benefit.

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At least four Arab al-Qaeda militants have been killed in a drone attack in the Pakistani region of North Waziristan, local officials say.

The officials told the BBC that a suspected US drone fired two missiles at a house owned by a local tribesman.

Unconfirmed reports suggested that some of those killed may have held German passports.

There have been 26 such strikes the area in the past month, killing several high-profile militants.

Al-Qaeda’s operations chief, is believed to have been one of those killed in recent drone strikes.

The house hit in the latest attack was located in a village 3km (1.86miles) from the main town of Mir Ali.

Officials say the Arabs had come to visit tribal leader Sher Mullah.

Locals told the BBC’s Syed Shoaib Hasan, in Karachi, that Sher Mullah had close links to Hafiz Gul Bahadur, the local Taliban chief.

The house was completely destroyed in the attack. In addition to those killed, several people were also injured.

Local tribesmen say the Arabs remain unidentified.

Over 150 people have died in drone attacks so far this year, including both militants and civilians.

Our correspondent says that the attacks have infuriated public opinion in Pakistan, which last week was further aggravated by border violations by Nato helicopters from Afghanistan.

Pakistan’s government has subsequently partially clamped down on the supply of goods and fuel from Pakistan to Nato troops based in Afghanistan.

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Singer Amy Winehouse has made a low-key return to the stage in a surprise performance at her local pub in London.

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Fagan was sacked from the band after his conviction

The former drummer of award-winning band N-Dubz has been given six months probation for sexually assaulting two women in Glasgow.

Aaron Fagan was found guilty of groping the women at Strathclyde University students’ union on 1 October last year.

At Glasgow Sheriff Court, the 25-year-old was also placed on the sex offenders register for six months.

The court was told that Fagan had been sacked from the band after his conviction in August.

The drummer’s defence advocate Paul McBride told the court his client was now struggling to find work.

Mr McBride said: “As a result of the conviction he’s no longer with the band that he had been with for a long period of time.

“He has also had great difficulty obtaining any work as a drummer as a result of the conviction.

“He was earning up to £3,000 a week but that has now come to an abrupt end and he’s now applying for state benefits.”

The court earlier heard that the band were performing at the John Street union after the Mobo awards which were held in Glasgow.

One of his victims, aged 20, claimed that Fagan approached her after the concert and asked if she wanted to go to an after-party.

She said Fagan put his arms over their shoulders and started leading them up the stairway at the students union.

It was here that Fagan touched both of the women’s bottoms and grabbed at one of the woman’s breasts.

The girls told the court that a short time later they told Fagan that they were not going to the after-party and left.

They then told a bouncer what had happened to them and the police were called.

Fagan was arrested at the union just hours after he and bandmates Dappy, Fazer and Tulisa picked up awards for best album and best UK act at the Mobo awards.

The drummer also gave evidence at the trial and told the court he was like “honey to a swarm of bees” when it comes to female fans.

He claimed that he had been touring all over Europe for years and would not have suddenly done something like this in Glasgow which is “hardly a haven for models”.

After being found guilty, Fagan claimed that he had been racially discriminated against but Mr McBride told the court his client had spoken out of turn in the heat of the moment.

Mr McBride added: “He fully withdraws those statements.”

Sentencing the musician, Sheriff Joanna Johnston said: “Your behaviour that night towards these girls was wholly unacceptable. You clearly shocked and upset those young women.

“However, I have taken into account the fact that you did not persist when they asked you to stop and your actions fall to the lower end of this sort of offending.”

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Former Commonwealth Games champion Jonathan Edwards has said he has “real concerns” over the state of the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.

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The life of comic actor Sir Norman Wisdom

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Soldiers in chemical protection gear have been cleaning streets in the town of Devecser

Western Hungary has declared an emergency after a sludge escape from an alumina plant killed three people and injured 120.

Red chemical sludge which flooded the area around the village of Kolontar from a burst dam stood 2m (6.5ft) deep in the nearby town of Devecser.

The sludge is said to contain caustic material and to be toxic if ingested.

Some 600,000-700,000 cu m (21m-24m cu ft) of sludge escaped from the plant, 160km (100m) from Budapest.

The state of emergency was declared in three counties – Veszprem, Gyor-Moson-Sopron and Vas.

Troops in protective gear have been helping to clean up the spill while plaster is reportedly being poured into the Marcal river to bind the sludge and stop further flooding.

Tamas Toldi, mayor of Devecser, told MTI news agency that between 80 and 90 people had been taken to hospital with chemical burns.

Burns caused by the sludge could take days to reveal themselves and what might seem like superficial injuries could later cause damage to deeper tissue, Peter Jakabos, a doctor on duty at a hospital in Gyor where several of the injured were taken, said on state TV.

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Iain Duncan Smith said he wanted to see 10,000 new businesses created by next year

A universal credit system will restore “fairness and simplicity” to the welfare system, Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has said.

He told the Conservative conference he would replace the “complex, outdated and wildly expensive system” of multiple benefits with a single credit.

The amount received will taper off gradually once people return to work and their salaries increase.