Category: news

The families of 14 servicemen killed when a Nimrod plane blew up over Afghanistan in 2006 have all now received compensation, the MoD says.

The amount of money paid was not disclosed, but was paid over the past few weeks and months.

The payout came two years after the families launched a legal action.

The MoD was heavily criticised at an inquest in 2008, and last year an independent review accused the MoD of sacrificing safety to cut costs.

In May 2008, a coroner ruled the Nimrod fleet, based at RAF Kinloss in Moray, had never been airworthy.

The government at the time has refused to agree with the coroner’s recommendation that the entire Nimrod fleet be grounded.

According to the MoD, new procedures meant the Nimrod aircraft was safe. Air-to-air refuelling were stopped, as were the use of very hot air systems in flight.

“Enhanced” aircraft maintenance and inspection procedures were also introduced at the time by the MoD.

The Nimrod spy plane exploded on 2 September 2006, shortly after undergoing air-to-air refuelling.

The blast was caused by fuel leaking into a dry bay and igniting on contact with a hot air pipe.

The 14 men killed on the Nimrod were:

Flt Lt Steven Johnson, 38, from Collingham, Nottinghamshire, Flt Lt Leigh Anthony Mitchelmore, 28, from Bournemouth, Dorset, Flt Lt Gareth Rodney Nicholas, 40, from Redruth, Cornwall, Flt Lt Allan James Squires, 39, from Clatterbridge, Merseyside and Flt Lt Steven Swarbrick, 28, from Liverpool.

Flt Sgt Gary Wayne Andrews, 48, from Tankerton, Kent, Flt Sgt Stephen Beattie, 42, from Dundee, Flt Sgt Gerard Martin Bell, 48, from Newport, Shropshire, and Flt Sgt Adrian Davies, 49, from Amersham, Buckinghamshire, Sgt Benjamin James Knight, 25, from Bridgwater, Sgt John Joseph Langton, 29,from Liverpool and Sgt Gary Paul Quilliam, 42, from Manchester.

L/Cpl Oliver Simon Dicketts, of the Parachute Regiment, from Wadhurst and Royal Marine Joseph David Windall, 22, from Hazlemere.

An independent review, which reported its findings in October 2009, concluded that the crash was preventable.

The highly critical report, by Charles Haddon-Cave QC, said the Afghanistan crash occurred because of a “systemic breach” of the military covenant, under which Britain has a duty of care to its armed forces.

He also branded the safety review of the Nimrod MR2 carried out by the MoD, BAE Systems and QinetiQ as a “lamentable job”.

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US scientists say they have developed a technique to accurately predict which IVF embryos have the best chance of success.

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A UK government minister at the centre of a police probe over election expenses says there were “mistakes” in his returns.

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The biggest ever Commonwealth Games are set to officially start amid heavy security in Delhi.

Around 100,000 security forces have been deployed in the Indian capital, and shops and businesses are to stay closed for the day.

Prince Charles is to declare the event open during a spectacular opening ceremony in the Nehru Stadium.

The Games have been bogged down by criticism over Indian’s preparations for the Games.

Around 80,000 police on duty have been reinforced by 17,000 paramilitary troops to counter the danger of an attack by extremists.

Fighter aircraft and helicopter gunships will be on standby.

Delhi’s police commissioner, YS Dadwal, promised security would be “foolproof”. Every police officer in Delhi was “on the job 24/7”, Mr Dadwal added. “Most are working and sleeping at the police station.”

The BBC’s Rahul Tandon in Delhi says there are reports that beggars and some slum dwellers have been forced to leave the city for the duration of the event, but officials have denied this.

With almost 7,000 athletes and support staff from 71 countries scheduled to participate, the 19th Commonwealth Games will be the largest sporting event in India’s history.

It has also become the most expensive Commonwealth Games so far, with estimates ranging up to more than $10bn (£6.3bn).

In the run-up the competition made headlines because of construction delays, corruption scandals, the collapse of a footbridge and a suspected militant attack on two foreign tourists two weeks ago.

Some competitors pulled out of the games after the accommodation in the athletes’ village was described as filthy, uninhabitable and unsafe.

Games officials and thousands of people were working around the clock to ensure that the village was habitable and that the competition could start on time.

Last week there were reports that a row had erupted over the roles of Prince Charles and Indian President Pratibha Patil in the opening ceremony.

However, a spokesperson for Prince Charles confirmed that the Prince would read out Queen Elizabeth II’s baton message and declare the Games open.

Mrs Patil will the speak and say: “Let the Games begin.”

Mrs Patil and the Queen launched the Queen’s Baton Relay last October in a ceremony outside Buckingham Palace.

The baton – which has travelled to Commonwealth countries around the world – will arrive in the Nehru Stadium for the opening ceremony.

Singer Hariharan will perform the Games official theme song “Swagatam” at the ceremony.

Oscar winner AR Rahman, who wrote the music for the movie “Slumdog Millionaire” will also perform live.

Other details of the three-hour ceremony in the renovated stadium have been kept secret, but Indian broadcaster CNN-IBN reported that it would showcase Indian cultural traditions and include a yoga performance.

The sports programme will start with swimming events on Monday.

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Prime Minister David Cameron has announced £164m extra funding for cancer screening and treatments.

He said bowel cancer screening could save 3,000 lives a year.

Mr Cameron said he wanted to shorten the gap between the UK’s rate of cancer survival and the European average by at least 5,000 lives.

Cancer Research UK welcomed the use of new screening – flexible sigmoidoscopy – as it considers the technology a “breakthrough”.

About 5,000 lives would be saved if the UK’s cancer treatment matched the European average, and up to 10,000 if it matched the European top level in cancer survival rates.

Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show Mr Cameron said: “I absolutely want to close that gap and the announcement today is part of that.”

He said recognising early warning signs was a key part of achieving that goal.

The Department of Health said the announcement included:

£60m investment over the next four years to incorporate the latest bowel screening technology into the existing national programme£50m in additional cancer drugs this year. Consultation will begin soon on proposals for the Cancer Drugs Fund from April 2011boosting the number of specialists, by committing the funding needed to deliver 1,200 additional specialists involved in cancer services by 2012 (over and above the 2009 baseline).introducing better treatment, by expanding radiotherapy capacity. In particular, £43m more over the Spending Review period so that all high priority patients with a need for proton beam therapy get access to the treatment, benefiting 400 patients per year by the end of the Spending Review period.raising cancer awareness, through a £10.75m signs and symptoms campaign, which will focus on breast, lung and bowel cancers. The coalition government estimates that a national campaign could mean up to 500 people diagnosed earlier with bowel cancer.

Mr Cameron’s promise comes as the government plans a major shake-up of the NHS in England.

Planned changes include giving GPs more responsibility to determine health spending; hospitals to be set free from central control and an independent board to safeguard the NHS from political interference.

Mr Cameron added: “It’s very important as we take the country through some difficult decisions to say, look, there are some things that are so important to families… and the NHS is one of those things.”

“It’s not just about money, it’s about how well GPs do their job and we need to improve that as well,” Mr Cameron said.

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A man rescued from a fire at a block of flats in Hampshire is taken to hospital with burns.

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Tickets for Glastonbury Festival 2011 go on sale with thousands of fans flooding the website.

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Play at the rain-hit Ryder Cup will start at 1330 BST at Celtic Manor with the 12 singles matches to be played on Monday.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

The biggest ever Commonwealth Games are set to officially start amid heavy security in Delhi.

Around 100,000 security forces have been deployed in the Indian capital, and shops and businesses are to stay closed for the day.

Prince Charles is to declare the event open during a spectacular opening ceremony in the Nehru Stadium.

The Games have been bogged down by criticism over Indian’s preparations for the Games.

Around 80,000 police on duty have been reinforced by 17,000 paramilitary troops to counter the danger of an attack by extremists.

Fighter aircraft and helicopter gunships will be on standby.

Delhi’s police commissioner, YS Dadwal, promised security would be “foolproof”. Every police officer in Delhi was “on the job 24/7”, Mr Dadwal added. “Most are working and sleeping at the police station.”

The BBC’s Rahul Tandon in Delhi says there are reports that beggars and some slum dwellers have been forced to leave the city for the duration of the event, but officials have denied this.

With almost 7,000 athletes and support staff from 71 countries scheduled to participate, the 19th Commonwealth Games will be the largest sporting event in India’s history.

It has also become the most expensive Commonwealth Games so far, with estimates ranging up to more than $10bn (£6.3bn).

In the run-up the competition made headlines because of construction delays, corruption scandals, the collapse of a footbridge and a suspected militant attack on two foreign tourists two weeks ago.

Some competitors pulled out of the games after the accommodation in the athletes’ village was described as filthy, uninhabitable and unsafe.

Games officials and thousands of people were working around the clock to ensure that the village was habitable and that the competition could start on time.

Last week there were reports that a row had erupted over the roles of Prince Charles and Indian President Pratibha Patil in the opening ceremony.

However, a spokesperson for Prince Charles confirmed that the Prince would read out Queen Elizabeth II’s baton message and declare the Games open.

Mrs Patil will the speak and say: “Let the Games begin.”

Mrs Patil and the Queen launched the Queen’s Baton Relay last October in a ceremony outside Buckingham Palace.

The baton – which has travelled to Commonwealth countries around the world – will arrive in the Nehru Stadium for the opening ceremony.

Singer Hariharan will perform the Games official theme song “Swagatam” at the ceremony.

Oscar winner AR Rahman, who wrote the music for the movie “Slumdog Millionaire” will also perform live.

Other details of the three-hour ceremony in the renovated stadium have been kept secret, but Indian broadcaster CNN-IBN reported that it would showcase Indian cultural traditions and include a yoga performance.

The sports programme will start with swimming events on Monday.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Four British tourists have been killed in a plane crash near one of Peru’s top tourist sites, police have said.

The Cessna aircraft crashed in a field in an area around the Nazca Lines on Saturday after engine trouble.

Police said the British passengers – three men and one woman – and the Peruvian pilot and co-pilot all died.

The Nazca Lines, which are about 240 miles (385km) south-east of Lima, are one of Peru’s leading attractions and only fully visible from the air.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Fiji’s former Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry is arrested for allegedly breaching emergency regulations by holding public meetings.

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By Adrian Goldberg

Next week the European Court of Justice will hear a landmark case brought by a Portsmouth-based pub landlord, which could change the landscape of how sports broadcasting rights are sold across Europe.

Five years ago, Karen Murphy would try to draw punters to her Portsmouth pub, The Red, White and Blue, by showing Premier League football matches on the pub TV.

However, she found the monthly subscription to Sky Sports increasingly unaffordable – pubs can pay more than £1,000 a month.

Instead, she found a cheaper means of screening English football – a subscription to a Greek satellite broadcaster, NOVA. This imported satellite card was around one 10th of the cost Karen was paying to BSkyB.

She says she’s not the only one saving money in this way:

“I think you’ll find that most publicans will try and find another way of showing football. In fact quite a lot of them do.

“I think it’s only the larger chains that can afford to pay the Sky prices. A lot of pubs have taken Sky out – they simply can’t afford it.”

Copyright concern

However, using these foreign subscription cards puts publicans like Ms Murphy in breach of UK copyright law, because the means by which they screen football is not via the authorised broadcaster – Sky Sports.

As a result, Ms Murphy was taken to court and ended up having to pay nearly £8,000 in fines and costs after being caught by enforcers working on behalf of Football Association Premier League Limited (FAPL) – the private company which represents the broadcasting interests of the 20 English Premier League clubs and the FA.

Five years on from her first appearance in a magistrates court, she has taken her appeal all the way to the grand chamber of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) – a court reserved only for the most complex and important cases of European law.

“I think it’s unjust. I think it’s a greedy private company trying to dictate to the small people what they can and cannot do, purely for profit,” she told 5 live Investigates.

“The law needs changing. If I don’t fight who is going to fight?”

Sitting in her pub, she puts her case into perspective:

“If I wanted to go and buy a car, I could go to any garage I like. Me, as a publican, if I want to show football, I can only go to the Sky garage, and have to pay 10 times the price of anybody else [in Europe]. I don’t believe that’s fair.”

Freedom to choose

The case Ms Murphy is taking to the ECJ is based on freedom of trade.

She claims by restricting her choice of satellite TV providers to a single broadcaster – BSkyB – the Premier League contravenes European Union principles of free movement of goods and services between member states of the EU.

Furthermore, such practice also prevents free and open competition in the UK broadcast market.

If Ms Murphy wins, the future value of the Premier League’s broadcasting rights could be undermined.

“The Premier League is probably the most aggressive defender of its copyright in the world of sport,” says analyst Frank Dunne, acting editor of TVSportsMarkets.com.

“The Premier League’s action is part of a wider battle to protect its copyright, which is being fought on three fronts.

“First, is the battle against UK pubs showing matches from foreign satellite services. Second, there’s the battle to stop pirate coverage of league matches being streamed online using peer-to-peer technology. Third is the battle against unauthorised use of match clips on YouTube.”

The Premier League says this fight to protect its interests is about maintaining standards:

“Without this protection it is the consumer, or fans as we prefer, that ultimately suffer as the investment in quality content will inevitably be diminished. It is also unfair on those licensees that respect the law.”

While some 80,000 unauthorised internet streams of football matches have been shut down over the past two years, the FAPL has not always been successful in its pursuit of those it deems to have infringed its copyright and earlier this year failed in its attempt to sue YouTube in a US court.

Hope of clarity

However, the Premier League says the forthcoming ECJ hearing will provide an opportunity to clear up issues that have long been used to confuse publicans and licensees.

The FAPL also has the endorsement of BSkyB, which told the BBC:

“This is primarily a case about how rights are licensed to broadcasters across Europe. While Sky is not a party to this case, we welcome the Premier League’s determination to seek a definitive ruling on this issue.”

But the impact of a decision against the FAPL cannot be underestimated, according to Mr Dunne.

He says: “This case has the potential to become the Bosman of broadcasting,” – the Bosman ruling being another landmark decision made by the ECJ in 1995, which had a profound effect on the transfer of professional football players within the EU.

A decision against the Premier League would lead to a similarly radical shake-up in the way the broadcasting industry works.

“The doomsday scenario for rights-holders [such as the Premier League] is that their ability to sell their content on an exclusive basis by individual European territory, charging different rights fees according to the size of the individual market, will be undermined,” says Mr Dunne.

“Nobody seems really sure how rights sales would work if that system were ruled to be in breach of European law on the free movement of goods and services.

“The Premier League is confident that it is going into the case with strong arguments. But it was also confident of its arguments when doing battle with YouTube in the New York courts, and it lost that one.”

Uncertain future

One criticism of the current market model is that the FAPL insists that broadcasters include clauses in their subscription contracts with consumers that forbid the use of broadcasters’ decoder cards outside the designated territory. The effect of such restrictions is that it creates territorial monopolies.

However, should Karen Murphy win, it is possible that these territorial monopolies could be consolidated further.

Because if football rights – or any media rights – have to be sold on a Europe-wide basis, then only a handful of companies will be able to afford to bid.

What this will mean for the average consumer is not clear but up to now the money generated from the sale of broadcast rights of Premier League matches has revolutionised English football, turning it into the most lucrative league in the world.

Anything which undermines this revenue stream is seen as potentially harmful to the future success of English football, and concerns over the use of foreign satellite decoders is not limited to copyright infringement.

Anyone using the imported boxes can side-step the Premier League’s Saturday afternoon broadcasting blackout.

Officially, no UK-based broadcaster can show premiership football at the traditional kick-off time of 1500. This is because the Premier League wants to encourage attendance at live games.

However, European broadcasters do not have to abide by this restriction and the foreign decoders allow landlords to show games that are prohibited to Sky subscribers.

So, does Karen Murphy think her case is potentially damaging to the game?

“I’m not damaging football. Football is damaging itself by dictating when matches are shown. Supporters don’t want a match on a Tuesday night – which suits the broadcaster – they want a match on a Saturday afternoon. The whole thing has got way out of control. It’s pure greed.”

Ahead of the ECJ hearing, which begins on Tuesday, the Premier League is remaining tight-lipped.

In a statement it said: “It is not appropriate for us to comment in any detail on this matter given the close proximity of the ECJ hearing, however after this process has been concluded we will, of course, place our full position on record.”

But how confident is Karen Murphy? Does she think she will win her case?

“Absolutely. I think I should have freedom of choice. It’s not like I went to buy something illegal. I just went to buy it from a different company. I just made a choice.”

You can hear the full report on 5 live Investigates on Sunday, 3 October at 2100 BST on BBC Radio 5 live.

You can also listen again on the BBC iPlayer or by downloading the 5 live Investigates podcast.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

The US government is considering warning its citizens to stay away from crowded places in Europe because of the threat of an al-Qaeda commando-style attack, the BBC has learned.

US and UK officials have confirmed that updated guidance may be issued because of the current terror threat.

A UK official said the travel advisory would not be country-specific.

It would also not go as far as advising against travel to Europe, the official said.

The advisory will be issued in response to intelligence on an al-Qaeda plan to assemble teams of gunmen and send them into crowded places to kill western civilians.

Officials said the plan was detected in its early stages and that several individuals were still under surveillance.

The suspects include British citizens of Pakistani and German citizens of Afghan origin.

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The Ecuadorean government says it will rewrite parts of an austerity law which sparked a police rebellion earlier this week.

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First-time mothers say their needs are not being met after giving birth and they feel let down, according to a survey from the NCT.

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