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Pope aide calls UK ‘Third World’

Cardinal Walter KasperThe Vatican said the cardinal was pulling out of the visit solely on health grounds

One of the Pope’s senior advisers has pulled out of the papal visit to Britain, after reportedly saying the UK is a “Third World country” marked by “a new and aggressive atheism”.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, 77, made the remarks in a German magazine interview.

The Vatican said the cardinal had not intended “any kind of slight”, and was referring to the UK’s multicultural society.

It added that he had simply pulled out of the Pope’s visit due to illness.

“They are saying it is ill health, but I wonder if that is the fact, I wonder if he has been dropped because he is an embarrassment”

Clifford Langley The Tablet

The German-born cardinal was quoted as saying to the country’s Focus magazine that “when you land at Heathrow you think at times you have landed in a Third World country”.

He also was reported to have criticised British Airways, saying that when you wear a cross on the airline “you are discriminated against”.

Vatican sources said Cardinal Kasper was suffering from gout and had been advised by his doctors not to travel to the UK.

The Pope is spending four days in Scotland and England, starting on Thursday.

The BBC’s correspondent in Rome, David Willey, said the cardinal’s reported comments were “a slightly clumsy thing to have done on the eve of the visit”.

However, he added that he did not think it would have much effect on the Pope’s trip to the UK.

Clifford Langley, from the Catholic newspaper The Tablet, said the cardinal was “obviously talking nonsense”.

“I don’t think he believes Britain in in the grip of secular atheism, and he shouldn’t have said so,” said Mr Langley.

“They are saying it is ill health [that the cardinal has dropped out of the visit], but I wonder if that is the fact, I wonder if he has been dropped because he is an embarrassment.”

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

HTC pushes its Android momentum

HTC Desire HD and ZHTC hopes its new phones will help it counter both Apple and Android rivals

Mobile phone maker HTC has launched two Android mobile phones designed to secure its place as one of Apple’s top competitors.

The Taiwanese firm hopes to challenge the iPhone 4 with the large-screen Desire HD and the Desire Z with its fold-out keyboard.

Both HTC phones are based on Google’s Android operating system.

They come a day after Finnish rival Nokia presented three phones to revive its flagging smartphone division.

Mobile phone makers and network operators are betting heavily that consumers are keen on a connected and multimedia experience on the move.

Speaking at the HTC launch, Patrick Choumet, global director of terminals at network operator Vodafone, said smartphone sales were soaring, already taking more than 30% of the market; in three years Vodafone expects that smartphones will make up 70% ot total mobile phone sales.

With most smartphones now easy to use, customers are making heavy use of new services. During the past year, Mr Choumet said, Vodafone had experienced a doubling of data traffic for both location services like maps, and access to social networks like Twitter and Facebook.

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The new HTC phones play to both trends. They are based on the latest version of Google’s Android operating system – version 2.2, nicknamed FroYo – although HTC makes great play of its user interface Sense, which sits on top of the standard Android platform.

The new HTC Sense is not a revolution; current HTC phone owners will discover a raft of small tweaks to the software, all designed to ensure a smoother user experience.

Nokia’s new top smartphone, the N8, sports a 12 megapixel camera. HTC’s HD phone is countering with an 8 megapixel camera that is boosted by fairly sophisticated onboard picture editing software.

It’s here that the HD’s large 4.3 inch (10.9 cm) screen – framed by a solid aluminium body – comes into its own.

While large, the HD does not feel unwieldy – unlike Dell’s mini-tablet Streak with its 5-inch screen.

The Desire HD is larger than the Apple iPhone 4 – 8mm taller, 10mm wider and 2.5mm thicker – but then the iPhone has a comparatively small screen of just 3.5 inches.

HTC Desire HDThe Desire HD has a huge screen, but at the cost of size and weight

Weight may be an issue for some buyers, with the HTC HD’s quite heavy at 164 grams, compared to Apple’s 137.

The Desire Z is even heavier at 180g, even though it is not much larger than the original HTC Desire. The weight is the price users have to pay for the phone’s solidly-built flip-out keyboard. Like the Nokia N97, the phone suffers from keyboard stretch – as the keyboard is both slim and wide.

HTC’s real challenge to Apple, however, is its “cloud service” for mobile phones, dubbed HTCSense.com.

Similar to Apple’s MobileMe offering, the service allows users to control their phone from their computer, not just by backing up everything on the phone to the “internet cloud” where it can be accessed from any location with any web device.

Desire owners that have forgotten their phone at home, or even lost it, now can locate it, lock it remotely, tell the phone to forward all calls to another number, leave a text message for the finder of the phone, or erase all data on the phone if it is well and truly lost.

While Apple’s MobileMe comes with a price tag, HTC promises to offer its service free to owners of Desire HD and Z phones – although some applications like turn-by-turn navigation for cars will come at a premium.

Technically, however, HTC’s new product lineup is probably not about rivalling the iPhone.

Rather, it is a challenge to the makers of other mobile phones based on the Android operating system.

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

Mid-East talks ‘down to business’

Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas shake hands in front of Hillary Clinton (14 September 2010)No news emerged of any compromise on settlements after Tuesday’s trilateral negotiations

Israeli and Palestinian leaders are to hold further talks in Jerusalem, a day after discussing the core issues behind the conflict at meetings in Egypt.

US Middle East envoy George Mitchell, who helped broker Tuesday’s delicate negotiations, said he believed they were “moving in the right direction”.

But the talks failed to produce any visible progress on the divisive issue of Jewish settlements on occupied land.

Israel has so far refused to extend a partial ban on new construction.

The Palestinian Authority has threatened to walk out of the talks if building work resumes when the restrictions expire on 30 September.

Negotiations began in Washington only two weeks ago, after a 20-month gap.

No news emerged of any compromise on settlements after the trilateral negotiations between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Red Sea resort of Sharm-el-Sheikh.

However, Mr Mitchell described the discussions as “very serious, detailed and extensive”, and said the two sides had reiterated their intent to approach them in good faith.

“President Abbas and Prime Minister Netanyahu continue to agree that these negotiations, whose goal is to resolve all core issues, can be completed in one year,” he told a news conference.

George Mitchell

George Mitchell said leaders had reiterated their intent to approach the negotiations in good faith

“We continue our efforts to make progress and we believe that we are moving in the right direction, overall.”

He also repeated Mrs Clinton’s call for Israel to extend its freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank.

“We know this is a politically sensitive issue in Israel. But we’ve also called on President Abbas to take steps that help encourage and facilitate this process.”

Nearly half a million Jews live in more than 100 settlements built since Israel’s 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. They are held to be illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.

President Abbas’s spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeina, described Tuesday’s talks as “serious and deep, but the obstacle of settlements still exists”.

Mr Netanyahu’s spokesman said both sides had to make hard decisions.

“The way to an agreement is to look at all the core issues together, not to run away from any one of them,” Mark Regev told the Associated Press.

“If the expectation is that only Israel has to show flexibility then that is not a prescription for a successful process.”

On Sunday, Mr Netanyahu said he could not extend the ban, but would not allow thousands of planned homes to be built.

US officials said two concessions which Mr Abbas could make were recognising Israel as the Jewish homeland, something the Palestinians have so far resisted, and agreeing quickly to the borders of a future Palestinian state.

Mr Mitchell said the trilateral peace talks would continue on Wednesday afternoon in Jerusalem, followed by lower-level discussions between Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams in the coming days.

The status of Jerusalem is itself one of the most divisive issues. Israel claims the city as its eternal, undivided capital, while the Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of any future Palestinian state.

Another problem facing negotiators is that only one part of the Palestinian territories is represented because the Islamist movement Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, opposes the talks.

A senior Hamas leader in Gaza, Mahmoud Zahhar, told the BBC the movement would not attempt to stop the talks because they would “reach an end, as previous ones” by themselves.

Last week, four Jewish settlers were killed when their car came under fire near the West Bank city of Hebron. Hamas said it was behind the attack.

Hours after Tuesday’s talks, a Palestinian man was killed in an exchange of fire with Israeli forces in northern Gaza.

The Israeli military said a group of militants had fired a rocket-propelled grenade at its troops.

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

Egyptian artefacts found in Spain

Stepped Pyramids at Saqqara, EgyptThe pieces were pillaged from the vast ancient burial ground of Saqqara

Pieces of an ancient Egyptian necropolis which were pillaged from Egypt in 1999 have been discovered in an antiques shop in Spain.

A Middle Eastern expert spotted the eight fragments of limestone after recognising the inscriptions, Barcelona police said.

The pieces are inscribed with hieroglyphics dating from the 3rd Century BC.

They will now be returned to the Egyptian government.

The artefacts were looted from the Saqqara burial ground in the ancient Egyptian capital of Memphis, south of Cairo, in 1999.

A statement said they were found by an expert from the University of Barcelona who noticed that the pieces “bore inscriptions that made him suspect they came from” Saqqara.

They had been on sale priced between 2,000 and 10,000 euros ($2,600; £1,700 and $13,000; £8,400).

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

New rules call on Legionnaires’

Heads of the valleys roadThe outbreak area is the corridor 12km (7.5 miles) either side of the Heads of the Valleys road

A solicitor representing people after a Legionnaires’ disease outbreak is calling for tighter regulations.

A 49-year-old woman, Bev Morgan, from Rhymney, in Caerphilly county, has died in the outbreak in south Wales.

Two other people in south Wales have also died from the disease this month, but are not linked to the outbreak.

Philip Banks, of solicitors Irwin Mitchell, said there should be better regulation of cooling towers and other equipment blamed for the disease.

Some of the victims of the outbreak in south Wales say it should not take an outbreak to highlight failures.

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Mr Banks called for improved regulation of cooling towers, which have been at the centre of investigations into the cause of the outbreak, which is centred along the Heads of the Valleys road.

“A system could be put in place, for example an MoT system where companies have to have a certification system in place [where] they are maintained, inspected, disinfected and cleaned,” he said.

“That would be a step forward to stop this happening again.’

Victims have also spoken out about safety checks.

Location mapMap showing the areas, mostly in the valleys, where the investigation is concentrating

Joan Evans, 67, is recovering at home in Pontlottyn near Rhymney, Caerphilly county, having survived a disease that kills between 10 – 15% of its victims.

She said she had no idea how she got it and argued that it had taken an outbreak to reveal that someone somewhere probably had not been maintaining their equipment properly.

“It doesn’t come out until something like this happens,” she said.

“It should be checked on a regular basis. It’s too late then, isn’t it?”

Environmental health officers and the Health and Safety Executive are responsible for policing a system which relies on owners of premises to fulfil their responsibilities.

They must register cooling towers and ensure any equipment where the legionella bacteria can grow is properly maintained to prevent that.

“It’s very helpful to get the true and accurate information from the people who have been ill before they are aware we are investigating the cluster in a certain area”

Dr Gwen Lowe Public Health Wales

But the search for the source has revealed that not all employers are doing this.

Meanwhile, Public Health Wales has defended its decision to delay alerting the public to the outbreak.

Doctors were told about the outbreak on 3 September but the authorities did not inform people until four days later.

Some GPs have raised concerns over the length of time taken.

However, Dr Gwen Lowe, a consultant in communicable disease control for Public Health Wales, told BBC Wales’ Week In Week Out the delay was necessary so the health protection team could accurately assess the situation.

She said: “The reason why we delayed the public announcement of the outbreak was to allow our clinical colleagues and our GP colleagues to have that information to enable them to act, to make sure we had all the relevant information that we needed.

“You can imagine that once you declare an area you’re interested in, people’s recall of where they have been actually becomes a bit muddied by the information that is in the public domain.

“It’s very helpful to get the true and accurate information from the people who have been ill before they are aware we are investigating the cluster in a certain area.”

Three people have now died but only the death of a 49-year-old woman is linked to the outbreak.

A 70-year-old man and a woman, 64, from Pontypridd, also died of the disease last week.

That makes a total of 19 people with Legionnaires’ identified as being linked to the outbreak.

No new cases have been reported since 10 September.

The outbreak area is the corridor 12km (7.5 miles) either side of the Heads of the Valleys road between Abergavenny in Monmouthshire and Llandarcy in Neath Port Talbot.

Week In Week Out is on BBC One Wales at 1930 BST on Wednesday 15 September.

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

Next warns on low-growth future

Next storeThe chain is not expecting a “meltdown” in consumer demand

Next has become the latest retailer to say higher cotton prices may lead to customers paying more for clothes.

Devastating floods in Pakistan – one of the world’s largest cotton producers – and fears over this year’s crop in China have sent cotton prices surging to 15-year highs in recent weeks.

However, Next said it did not expect the impact on sales to be dramatic.

The comments came as it announced its pre-tax profit in the six months to the end of July had risen by 15% to £213m.

“Over the long term Next expects its own revenues will be a fraction of the kind of increases that it and other retailers enjoyed in the boom years up to 2007”

Robert Peston BBC Business EditorRead Robert’s blog

Sales were up by 5% to £1.59bn in the same period.

High street sales were towards the lower end of Next’s previous guidance, but the Next Directory home shopping business produced a better-than-expected performance, with a 7.8% rise in first half sales.

The retailer said that while it expected it did not anticipate a double-dip recession in the UK nor a meltdown in consumer spending.

But it added it expected “very little by way of growth in total consumer spending for the foreseeable future” because of the impact of public spending cuts and fall in the credit that consumers can borrowing to finance their lifestyles.

BBC business editor Robert Peston said that Next’s “sober assessment” would be taken notice of by the government, “partly because it is a respected business and partly because Next’s chief executive [Simon Wolfson] is a Tory peer and close to the prime minister and chancellor”.

Next said cotton prices were 45% higher than this time last year, and that this. along with the planned VAT rise, meant price rises were “inevitable” in the spring of next year – predicting increases of between 5% and 8%.

On Tuesday, department store Debenhams warned that the entire UK clothes retail industry faced higher prices, thanks to the rising cost of cotton and the weak pound.

Primark has also said that rising costs may eat into its profit margins over the coming year.

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

Surfing offered as therapy on NHS

SurferSurfing helps to build self-esteem for sufferers of depression, say health chiefs

A pilot project is under way offering surfing as therapy on the NHS for young people in Cornwall.

Over the next six weeks professional surfers will run one-to-one lessons for 20 young people with diagnosed mental health needs.

The aim is to give them therapy through building confidence and help them learn a new skill.

The project, which is costing a total of £5,000, is worth the money, said Cornwall Primary Care Trust (PCT).

“The coast is one of our greatest assets”

Joe McEvoy Cornwall PCT

Joe McEvoy, who commissioned the service for the PCT, said: “I think it will offer excellent value.

“It’s a long-established body of evidence which shows that when you organise therapeutic activities around particular tasks, people benefit not just from social interaction but also build confidence.

“That’s been one of the tenets of occupational therapy which has been an established therapeutic discipline in all sections of health care for many decades.”

The participants are all aged between 12 and 25 and have been referred into the scheme by local charities and mental health professionals.

Another scheme, offering surfing therapy to armed forces personnel suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, started in Cornwall in 2009.

Mr McEvoy said: “The coast is one of our greatest assets and it makes sense to use it to improve the health and wellbeing of our patients.

“There are many positive health benefits that flow from physical activity and people who are suffering from poor mental health can also gain from improved self-esteem and doing things which are enjoyable.”

The surfing lessons are being delivered by Polzeath-based adventure company Era Adventures, which came up with the idea of offering 12 half-day sessions at beaches including Watergate Bay.

A spokesman said: “This is a really exciting opportunity and a great way of using surfing in the community.”

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

Ed Miliband ‘feeling confident’

Ed MilibandEd Miliband is pledging to lead Labour back to power within five years

Ed Miliband says he is “increasingly confident” of victory in the race for the Labour leadership.

His aides say they are hopeful of a clean sweep win across each of the sections of the party’s electorate – MPs and MEPs, unions and party members.

It was expected that MPs would line up strongly behind his brother David, seen as front-runner in the contest so far.

The five leadership hopefuls are making their final pitches, with the result due to be announced on 25 September.

Ed Miliband told BBC Radio 4’s Today he was confident Labour would be able to form a majority government and would not be reliant on doing any deals with the Liberal Democrats.

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He is hoping to bolster support among MPs by pledging to lead the party back into power within five years.

And he strongly defended his decision after the election to rule out working with Nick Clegg who he accused of making an “historic mistake” by going into alliance with the Conservatives.

The result of the leadership election – being contested by Ed Balls, Diane Abbott and Andy Burnham as well was the Miliband brothers – is due to be announced in 10 days’ time on the eve of Labour’s annual conference in Manchester.

There is an electoral college for the contest made up of three sections – MPs and MEPs; Party members; Trade union and other affiliated bodies – each worth 33% of the final result.

Voters rank candidates on their ballot papers with the last candidate eliminated in each round and their second preferences reallocated until one candidate has more than 50% of total support.

This voting system can make results difficult to predict as it can come down to second or even third preferences if no candidate wins more than 50% in the first round.

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

Tourists hurt in Greek boat crash

Map

At least 25 people were hurt when a catamaran carrying tourists crashed into a jetty on the Greek island of Kos, say reports.

Most of the tourists on board the Turkish-flagged Aegean Cat were British – five were seriously injured.

The catamaran was travelling to Kos from the Turkish town of Didim, with more than 200 passengers on board.

Officials said it may have suffered a mechanical failure before crashing into the jetty twice, damaging its hull.

“At 11.12am [local time], the ship was trying to get into the port of Kos when it crashed. We don’t know how it happened,” said a spokeswoman for the Greek Ministry of Mercantile Marine.

She said the Kos port authority was investigating.

The island’s deputy mayor, David Gerasklis, said the boat may have suffered a mechanical failure.

It had attempted to dock once, then “returned with greater force and crashed into the dock for a second time”, he told the Associated Press news agency.

“Some of the passengers apparently got up to see what happened, and they were injured in the second crash,” he said.

The most seriously injured reportedly suffered broken limbs while others had bruising or cuts from broken glass. None of the injuries was life-threatening.

Mr Gerasklis said the injured had been taken to hospital while the remaining passengers had disembarked safely.

A coastguard spokesman told the AFP news agency there were no reports of adverse weather at the time.

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

Minister denies £4bn welfare cut

Iain Duncan SmithIain Duncan Smith is in negotiations with the Treasury ahead of the spending review

Iain Duncan Smith has said he “simply doesn’t recognise” the figure of £4bn the Chancellor indicated will be cut from Britain’s benefits bill.

Last week George Osborne said “several billion pounds” in welfare cuts will be announced in next month’s spending review.

But work and pension secretary Mr Duncan Smith told MPs he was still in negotiations with the Treasury.

He said could not confirm any figures ahead of the review on 20 October.

And he still hoped to convince Mr Osborne to back his idea to scrap the existing complex system of benefits in favour of a single, universal payment which would be aimed at making work pay.

This would have a set-up cost, which Labour has estimated could be as much as £7bn, but Mr Duncan Smith said it would save money in the long run, as the long-term unemployed came off benefits and started paying tax.

Mr Duncan Smith said he was in discussions with the Treasury and was “trying to prove that concept to them”.

He has said billions could also be saved by eliminating fraud and error in the tax credit system, which is run by the Treasury, which he believed should be scrapped and any savings handed to his department to help pay for his proposed reforms.

“We are discussing that right now,” he told the committee.

Spending review branding

A special BBC News season examining the approaching cuts to public sector spending

The Spending Review: Making It Clear

He also rejected claims that the “universal benefit” idea would need a costly new IT system, saying: “I believe that it is a middling IT change that is required.”

His permanent secretary, Leigh Lewis, told the MPs: “We have a strong IT record and we do believe it is absolutely doable.”

Mr Duncan Smith refused to speculate on the details and cost of his planned shake-up of the benefits system, which he said would be set out in a White Paper in the autumn, when he had learned what his department’s budget would be in October’s Comprehensive Spending Review.

He rejected reports that the DWP would be forced by the Treasury to cut a further £4bn from its budget, in addition to the £11bn announced in the budget.

He told the Work and Pensions Committee: “Any other figure that references the Spending Review I obviously clearly can’t confirm because I’ll be quite honest with the committee, we haven’t reached any conclusions about this at all. Not at all.

“As regards figures like £4bn, I simply don’t recognise that figure at all.”

He played down press reports of stand-up rows with Mr Osborne over the DWP’s budget, telling MPs they should not believe everything they read in newspapers.

Mr Osborne indicated to the BBC’s political editor Nick Robinson earlier this month that the Treasury could announce a further £4bn of welfare savings in next month’s spending review on top of £11bn outlined in May’s Budget.

Mr Duncan Smith said that Mr Osborne had never stated this figure in public and it was not one that he, Duncan Smith, “recognised”.

“He himself did not quote that figure,” Mr Duncan Smith told the committee.

In an urgent statement in the Commons last week, Mr Osborne said welfare spending had increased 45% in the past 10 years and the government could not continue to spend one in three pounds of its total budget on welfare.

Restating the coalition’s goal of fundamental reform of welfare, he said rewarding work would be “absolutely central” to the plans but those genuinely unable to work would be protected.

Although there would be “difficult” choices in the spending review, he said decisions taken would be fair to “different sections of society and different generations”.

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

Letter opposes Pope state visit

Pope Benedict XVIThe Pope will arrive in the UK for his four-day trip on Thursday

More than 50 public figures have added their names to a letter in the Guardian newspaper saying the Pope should not be given the “honour” of a UK state visit.

Authors Terry Pratchett and Philip Pullman and actor Stephen Fry are among those critical of the Vatican record on birth control, gay rights and abortion.

Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Scotland and England begins on Thursday.

The co-signatories are not against a tour, but “reject the masquerading” of the Vatican as a state.

Other signatories to the letter in the Guardian include: Professor Richard Dawkins, Ken Follett, AC Grayling, Stewart Lee, Claire Rayner, Lord Foulkes, Lord Hughes, Professor Steve Jones, Sir Jonathan Miller, Diane Munday, Lord Taverne, Peter Tatchell and Baroness Turner.

They say the Pope “as a citizen of Europe and the leader of a religion with many adherents in the UK, is of course free to enter and tour our country”.

Pope’s visit16 September: Arrives in Edinburgh; Open-air mass in Glasgow; Flies to London17 September: Meets Archbishop of Canterbury; Address at Westminster Hall; Service at Westminster Abbey18 September: Mass at Westminster Cathedral; Open-air vigil in Hyde Park19 September: Beatification Mass at Cofton Park Birmingham; Meets bishops of England, Scotland and Wales; Leaves for Rome.At a glance: Full details of visit Cameron’s ‘warm welcome’

But they say the Vatican has “been responsible for: Opposing the distribution of condoms and so increasing large families in poor countries and the spread of Aids; promoting segregated education; denying abortion to even the most vulnerable women; opposing equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people; failing to address the many cases of abuse of children within its own organisation”.

The letter goes on to say it has also resisted signing many major human rights treaties and has formed its own treaties with states which “negatively affect the human rights of citizens of those states”.

According to the writers, calling the Pope a head of state is “convenient fiction to amplify the international influence of the Vatican”.

The letter comes after Downing Street released a video message on Tuesday in which Prime Minister David Cameron said the Pope would be offered a “very warm welcome” on his UK visit.

In the film, posted on the No 10 website, he said the visit would be “a very special four days, not just for our six million Catholics, but for many people of faith right across Britain and millions more watching around the world”.

Mr Cameron added: “It’s a unique opportunity to celebrate the enormous contribution that all our faith communities make to our society and to celebrate their role in helping to build a bigger and stronger society.”

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

UK unemployment sees slight fall

Job centre shopfrontThere are worries that government spending cuts will lead to higher unemployment

The number of people unemployed in the UK fell by 8,000 to 2.47 million in the three months to July, figures show.

This meant overall UK unemployment rate remained at 7.8%, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

However, the figures also showed the claimant count – those out of work and seeking unemployment benefit – rose by 2,300 in August to 1.47 million.

Many economists fear unemployment will rise later in the year when government cuts begin to kick-in.

There is concern that the UK’s labour market will not be strong enough to support the public sector job losses looming under next month’s spending review.

The number of people employed increased by 286,000, the ONS said – the biggest quarterly rise since 1971.

However, this was largely driven by a rise in part-time workers, with the ONS saying more students may be taking on part-time jobs alongside their studies.

Employment Minister Chris Grayling said the rising claimant count showed that new jobs were not being filled by people on benefits – and underlined the need for urgent reform of the benefits system.

The ONS said that average earnings increased by 1.5% in the year to July, compared with a rate of1.3% the previous month.

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