Category: news

Shadow Education Secretary Ed Balls has accused the coalition government of “abandoning” the schools and pupils most in need of support.

He criticised the opening of free schools, while hundreds of school building projects had been scrapped.

In a Labour conference speech, Mr Balls said the academy scheme had also switched from helping deprived areas to benefiting the already advantaged.

The government is set to announce its pupil premium for deprived pupils.

Mr Balls accused the Education Secretary Michael Gove of switching support from pupils in challenging areas to giving more to successful schools in affluent areas.

And he attacked the Liberal Democrats as a “human shield” for the coalition’s education policy.

In response, a spokesman for Mr Gove highlighted the gap in attainment between rich and poor pupils under the previous government.

Mr Balls contrasted the scrapping of 700 Building Schools for the Future projects with the government’s encouragement for opening free schools.

“What really upsets me is that as Michael Gove is dashing the hopes of children in state schools around our country, he and David Cameron are also travelling round promising new school buildings to a few parents but only if they are willing to opt out of the state system and any relationship with the elected local authority and set up one of their go-it-alone DIY ‘free market’ schools,” Mr Balls told the conference.

Mr Balls also highlighted how the focus of academies had been changed.

“Our academies programme gave more help and support to underperforming schools in the most disadvantaged communities. But Michael Gove’s academies programme gives extra resources to outstanding schools in more advantaged communities.”

Mr Balls also reminded the conference of the Labour government’s drive to raise the standards of the lowest-performing schools.

The “national challenge” programme set a target to ensure that all secondary schools reached at least 30% of pupils getting five good GCSEs, including English and maths.

This summer’s results showed that only one in 20 schools were now below this threshold, said Mr Balls.

A spokesman for Mr Gove rejected the accusation that the coalition government was turning its back on children in disadvantaged areas.

He said the record under Mr Balls was “a huge gap in attainment between the richest and poorest students, discipline out of control and standards falling against the best in the world”.

“The coalition government is giving teachers the powers they need to keep discipline, reversing the devaluation of the curriculum and exam system and introducing a pupil premium which will mean extra money for the poorest pupils, a policy which Ed Balls opposed.

“We are working closely with successful providers to identify new projects where academies will replace underperforming schools, to add to the substantial range of projects already in progress.”

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Apple has begun legal proceedings against Nokia in the UK, accusing the mobile giant of infringing nine patents related to smartphone technology.

It is an extension of a lawsuit filed in the US in December 2009.

The long-running row began in October 2009 when Nokia filed a lawsuit against Apple claiming the iPhone and the iPad infringed ten of its patents.

Nokia said it was “unsurprised” by the latest development.

“It changes nothing in the fundamentals of the matter, which are rooted in Apple’s refusal to respect Nokia’s intellectual property and attempt to free ride on the back of Nokia’s innovation,” Nokia said in a statement.

Agreements

The patents Nokia accuses Apple of copying involve wireless data, speech coding, security and encryption.

At the time it launched its lawsuit it said it had agreements with around 40 firms allowing them to use the technology but that Apple had not signed up.

It is unclear what the exact nature of Apple’s disputed patents is and the firm was not immediately commenting on the development.

Patrick Gearon, head of intellectual property at law firm Charles Russell, said the new wave of lawsuits could indicate a hardening line from Apple.

“These patents refer to smartphone processses which are extraordinarily valuable now. Apple could be ramping things up to force some kind of resolution,” he said.

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UK consumers repaid more unsecured debt than they took out in new loans in August, figures from the Bank of England show.

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Lotus Racing has extended the contract of it’s chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne until 2015

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A new global asseessment concludes that 22% of plants are threatened with extinction, which scientists say is serious news for humanity.

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Sally Menke, the Oscar-nominated editor who worked with Quentin Tarantino on all his films, dies in Los Angeles aged 56.

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A 47-year-old man shot in the face in Bedfordshire is in hospital with life-threatening injuries, police say.

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At least 20 people have been buried by a landslide in northwest Colombia, government officials say.

Most of the victims were bus passengers who were walking across a section of road blocked by a previous landslide when a mountainside collapsed on top of them.

Local houses where some took shelter were also swept away.

Rescuers say there is little hope of finding survivors, as people are buried under many tons of rock and mud.

The disaster triggered by heavy rain happened near Giraldo, 80km (50 miles) north of the city of Medellin.

“It was horrible because we heard a rumbling and looked out to see people running to the houses and then they were also swallowed by the earth,” local resident Milena Ramirez told the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo.

Red Cross sniffer dogs have identified locations where the victims are buried, but officials say it will take several days to dig them out.

The rescue effort has also been hampered by the risk of further landslides.

President Juan Manuel Santos, who visited the scene, said people had ignored warnings to stay away from the site of the previous landslide.

“Sadly, the people who were moving from one bus to another did not pay attention to the authorities,” he said. “We are doing everything we can to find them.”

Mr Santos said Colombians should prepare for “a very tough winter”.

Weeks of heavy rain across the country have caused floods and landslides that have killed more than 70 people.

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Up to 300 houses have been buried by a landslide in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, local officials have said.

Heavy rain overnight saturated a 200m strip of mountainside above the town of Santa Maria Tlahuitoltepec, causing it to slip at about 0400 (0900 GMT).

It is not clear how many people have been affected, but the state governor said 500 to 600 could have been buried.

Rescue teams have been delayed because of the bad weather, which has made several roads in the area impassable.

“There has been lots of rain, rivers have overflowed and we’re having a hard time reaching the area because there are landslides on the roads,” Oaxaca state governor Ulises Ruiz told the Televisa network.

Emergency personnel are being flown from Mexico City to the town, about 80km (50 miles) east of Oaxaca city.

Mr Ruiz said the municipal authorities had told him that the landslide had buried 100 to 300 houses, and speculated that 500 to 600 people could have been asleep inside at the time.

“They’re talking about up to 1,000,” he added.

Situated in the Sierra Juarez mountain range, Santa Maria Tlahuitoltepec is famous for its colonial buildings and nearby archaeological sites.

Tropical storms in the western Caribbean have caused high rainfall in the region during the past week.

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Why we should re-learn how to be melancholy

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Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney will miss up to three weeks of action because of an ankle injury.

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The defence secretary warns the PM that draconian cuts to the armed forces while the UK is at war will result in ‘grave consequences’.

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Nineteen people suspected of stealing millions from online bank accounts have been arrested by police.

Detectives from the Metropolitan Police Central e-Crime Unit raided a string of addresses across London on Monday.

The suspects are alleged to be part of a gang that has stolen at least £6m in the past three months.

Police say that the international plotters used malicious code to capture bank log-in details that were held on personal computers.

The 15 men and four women arrested in Monday’s dawn operation are aged between 23 and 47 and are being held at various police stations in London.

Detectives are questioning them on suspicion of fraud, money laundering and offences under the Computer Misuse Act. Two of those held were also arrested on suspicion of possession of a firearm.

International plot

Detectives say that thousands of computers are suspected to have been targeted by a gang who were using a trojan programme dubbed “ZeuS”.

A trojan is a piece of “malware” that can appear as an ordinary application which is innocently or unintentionally installed by a user. Once in place, it secretly gathers information on the machine – and passes it back to its creator.

Detectives said that the gang had harvested log-in details operated by a range of major banks. Once the gang had the personal details, they transferred cash into accounts set up solely to gather the money before it was laundered onwards.

Detective Chief Inspector Terry Wilson of the Metropolitan Police said it was likely that the amount known to have been stolen would “increase considerably” as the investigation continues.

“We believe we have disrupted a highly organised criminal network, which has used sophisticated methods to siphon large amounts of cash from many innocent people’s accounts, causing immense personal anxiety and significant financial harm – which of course banks have had to repay at considerable cost to the economy,” he said.

“Online banking customers must make sure their security systems are up to date and be alert to any unusual or additional security features requested which is at variance with their normal log-on experience.

“Greater public awareness and education will make it harder for personal details to be compromised and for this type of fraud to be carried out.”

DCI Wilson said that the operation had been helped by the “virtual task force” of police officers, computer experts and banking representatives who had shared intelligence and the latest research into online banking fraud.

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New proposals to limit how much money local authorities can spend on free newspapers will be announced later by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles.

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Scottish rockers Biffy Clyro are to headline this year’s Hogmanay line-up in Edinburgh.

They will bring in the new year at the Concert in the Gardens, the showpiece event of the capital’s celebrations.

Pete Irvine, director of Edinburgh’s Hogmanay, said: “Biffy Clyro are the UK festival band of the year. They’ve made us all feel good. And they’re Scottish. What better way to see in 2011?”

Tickets will go on sale on Friday and further acts will be announced later.

Biffy Clyro came together at school in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, in 1995.

Their latest album Only Revolutions has reached 300,000 sales in the UK and was nominated for the highly prestigious Mercury Prize.

Councillor Steve Cardownie, Edinburgh’s festival and events champion, said: “Edinburgh’s Hogmanay is envied across the world and this year, with Biffy Clyro set to perform, there will be no better place to be to bring in the new year.”

Tickets are already on sale for Edinburgh’s Hogmanay Street Party, featuring live music stages, giant screens and the famous midnight fireworks.

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