Category: news

Five people have been arrested in Leicester over a series of high-value robberies on gem dealers across the UK.

Police said the crimes in London, the Midlands and Scotland had netted the gang responsible millions of pounds during the past year.

Four men and a woman, in their 30s and thought to be of South American origin, were arrested by Metropolitan Police officers in Leicester city centre.

The “violent” raids targeted overseas visitors in the UK on business.

Police said the victims had travelled between London and the Midlands. In some cases they had been threatened with a knife.

A large number of the stolen items were taken out of the country and have been traced to the US.

The five people arrested are being held at an undisclosed police station in the Midlands on suspicion of conspiracy to rob.

Detective Sergeant Paul Rodgers, of the Metropolitan Police Service London Crime Squad, said those responsible for the robberies were “an extremely close knit, organised group who had been operating as a surveillance team and spotters in order to select their victims and commit the offence.

“These arrests were as a result of a complex and challenging operation.”

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

Detectives investigating the murder of a woman found dead in Liverpool are appealing for help to trace her killer, five years on from her death.

The body of Anne Marie Foy was found dumped in a wooded area off Crown Street, near Royal Liverpool Hospital, on 15 September 2005.

The 46-year-old, who had been working as a prostitute at the time, had been beaten and strangled.

Despite a number of arrests no-one has been convicted of her murder.

Det Supt Ian Kemble, leading the investigation, said: “The last five years have been difficult for Anne Marie’s family, who are still trying to come to terms with their loss of their mother and grandmother.

“This family cannot even contemplate finding any closure until the person responsible is caught and put before the courts and justice is done.

“This is still very much an active investigation and we will leave no stone unturned in our investigation to the find the person responsible for Anne Marie’s murder.

“I would urge anyone who has information which could be valuable to the investigation team to come forward.

“Someone out there could have information which could prove vital to our inquiry. It may seem irrelevant to them but could be the piece of information we need to bring the offender to justice.”

In 2008, a 39-year-old man, from Netherley, was questioned by Merseyside Police and later released on bail.

A 44-year-old man appeared in court charged with her murder in 2007 but it later emerged that his confession was false.

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

A single blood test for all 60-year-old men could pick out the vast majority of those likely to die from prostate cancer, say scientists

Some doctors oppose regular screening, saying it leads to too many men having unnecessary treatment.

However, testing just once at 60 could reveal men who need no further checks, claims the study published in the British Medical Journal.

Other experts welcomed the findings – but called for more research.

Cancer of the prostate – a walnut-sized gland located next to the bladder – is the most common cancer in UK men, with more than 35,000 new cases a year.

Few obvious symptoms

It usually emerges after the age of 60, and there are frequently few obvious symptoms until it is well-advanced, making treatment more difficult.

Doctors can offer a blood test looking for raised levels of “prostate specific antigen (PSA)”, which may be a tell-tale sign of the body’s response to the tumour.

However, PSA levels can be raised naturally, or could represent a slow-growing tumour which offers no threat to the patient in their lifetime.

This can mean that men who would never become ill from prostate cancer undergo distressing further investigations, or even potentially damaging radiotherapy or surgery.

One piece of research published in the journal appears to confirm this, finding that routine prostate cancer screening did not greatly reduce deaths from the disease, while boosting the risk of “over-treatment”.

However, the second study, led by Professor Hans Lilja from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Medical Center in New York, offers an alternative approach.

They carried out a single test on all 60-year-old men, and split them into two groups depending on PSA levels.

They found that nine out of 10 prostate cancer deaths occurred in the men with the highest levels, while those with average or low levels had negligible rates of disease or death.

Screened regularly

This would mean that more than half of men could be told at that point that, even if they had a prostate tumour, it was unlikely to ever threaten their life or make them ill.

The other group could then continue to be screened regularly.

Professor Gerard Andriole, from the Washington University School of Medicine, said that while the findings needed to be tested again in other groups of men, particularly those from different ethnic groups, in the future much older men, and those at lower risk of disease could be spared further testing.

He said: “Approaches such as these will hopefully make the next 20 years of PSA based screening better than the first 20.”

Dr Sarah Cant, from the Prostate Cancer Charity, said that the idea of a single test at 60 was an “interesting proposition”, but agreed that more work would be needed to confirm the results of this early study.

“We believe that investment needs to be made in research for a new generation of screening and diagnostic tests – critically, ones capable of distinguishing between aggressive and slow-growing forms of the disease, the so-called ‘tigers’ and ‘pussycats’.”

She added that men needed to be made fully aware of the pros and cons of PSA testing before being asked for their consent.

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

MPs voice concerns at the “startling” pace of the UK’s strategic defence review, saying there is a risk of serious mistakes being made.

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

The European Commission is set to publish draft rules on trading in complex financial products, widely blamed for causing economic instability.

The aim is to monitor the market in derivatives – products that are used to make bets on investments without actually buying them.

Officials also want to assess the extent of short-selling, when traders bet on share prices falling.

The commission is expected to suggest boosting national regulators’ powers.

Derivatives and short-selling are viewed by some as contributing to the eurozone debt crisis, which led to major market instability and drove the euro to a four-year low.

In May this year, Germany made a surprise decision to ban some types of short-selling of financial products.

It is hoped that common standards across the EU will restore confidence in the financial markets.

Short-selling is a technique that sees investors borrow an asset, and then sell it on to the market.

Traders using this technique bet that the price of the asset will have fallen by the time they have to buy it back in order to return what they borrowed.

European single market commissioner Michel Barnier wants to enforce EU-wide regulations that will make investors disclose more details of their so-called “short positions” in shares – caused by short-selling – to a central database.

The suggested new rules are also expected to include a requirement that these trades go through a central clearing house so everyone can be certain the investors have enough cash to pay up if they lose the bet.

Mr Barnier has, however, underlined the fact that short-selling itself can be useful and legitimate, but that it can become a problem when people deliberately manipulate a market.

“In some situations it can be used in an abusive fashion to drive down the price of financial instruments can contribute to disorderly markets and, especially in extreme market conditions, can amplify price falls and have an adverse effect on financial stability,” the commission said in a public consultation document earlier this year.

The full details of the suggested regulations will be revealed by Michel Barnier on Wednesday morning.

The proposals will then have to be approved by the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers before they can become law.

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

Complaints about second-hand cars rose by 18% in the year’s first six months compared with the similar period of 2009, the Office of Fair Trading says.

It said the advice service, Consumer Direct, took just over 38,000 complaints about used vehicles bought from dealers.

Its study found that many car buyers discovered faults in their vehicles only once they had driven them away.

The OFT is warning buyers to check their rights before settling a deal.

The motoring organisation, the AA, called the findings “alarming”.

Some 3.6 million used cars are bought each year in the UK, costing a total of £24bn.

The study found that many motorists ended up fixing problems with their new purchase themselves, at an estimated average cost of £425, when in fact they were the dealer’s obligation to correct.

Consumer Direct receives more calls about motor vehicles than anything else, above mobile phones and TVs.

Its operations manager, Michele Shambrook, said: “Dealers have a responsibility to sell cars that are of satisfactory quality.

“This will vary depending on issues including the vehicle’s age and mileage, but as the vast majority of all second-hand car faults come to light in the first three months, they will often be the dealer’s responsibility to fix.”

AA president Edmund King said: “With two-thirds of used-car buyers spending less than a fortnight to choose a car, while many will spend months planning a holiday, rip-off merchants are handed easy pickings on a plate.”

He said although car buying was typically the second-biggest purchase most people made in their lives, it happened relatively infrequently, so buyers forgot the pitfalls and often let their heart rule their head.

The OFT and Consumer Direct have compiled a checklist for potential buyers, including questions about the car’s mechanical history and mileage checks, the number of former owners, documentation about the full service history and any modifications.

They also urged buyers to get the answers in writing rather than relying on verbal claims or promises by the seller.

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

William Hague is to say UK foreign policy must “always have a conscience” as he calls for more focus on protecting human rights.

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

Bank of England governor Mervyn King will address the TUC later – only the second holder of the post to do so in the union umbrella group’s 142 years.

He is also expected to answer questions from congress delegates in Manchester, who have voiced concerns this week about government spending cuts.

RMT transport union leader Bob Crow is boycotting the speech, saying Mr King is “not welcome”.

But the governor has said he will not be an “apologist for this City”.

The TUC congress has heard strong criticism of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition’s economic policies, with delegates voting on Monday for joint industrial action if “attacks” on jobs, pensions and public services go ahead.

On Wednesday, the congress will also vote on plans to set up a “shadow commission” to monitor the salaries of the highest-paid company workers, similar to that established by the government to look into public sector wages.

Mr King has previously called for “decisive action” to cut the government’s £155bn budget deficit.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has cited the governor’s advice as having been key to his Liberal Democrat party changing its approach to spending cuts, during the period in May when it was negotiating the coalition agreement with the Conservatives.

Mr King has denied that he passed any new information to Mr Clegg at the time.

However, some trade unionists blame Mr King for helping to usher in a cuts programme they regard as unnecessary and counter-productive, but which ministers say is vital for safeguarding the UK’s economic future.

Mr King is expected to seek to calm union concerns when he speaks on Wednesday.

In a pre-congress interview with the TUC’s magazine, he said: “The unions have made concessions during previous recessions, so why should they suffer now?

“The role of the Bank of England changed with independence. It was an apologist for the City. I now see it serving the nation as a whole.”

But, speaking to the BBC at the weekend, Mr Crow said: “My view is that he shouldn’t be there.

“I would like to see a single unemployed person write a two-page document about how it’s hard to survive on £67 a week, not the governor of the Bank of England tell us why we have got to pull our belt in.”

The only other occasion on which a Bank of England governor has spoken to a TUC congress was in 1998, when Eddie George did so.

No member of the government will address the gathering this year. Prime Minister David Cameron turned down an invitation because it would have clashed with his paternity leave.

Business Secretary Vince Cable had been due to attend but his invitation was withdraw in July.

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

The leader of the largest Protestant church in Northern Ireland has refused to shake the Pope’s hand.

The Presbyterian Moderator, Dr Norman Hamilton, plans to go to a service in Westminster on Friday, attended by the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

But Dr Hamilton said he turned down the opportunity to be presented to the Pope after the service because of “troubling issues” which needed to be addressed.

He insisted his decision was not a snub to Catholics or Pope Benedict XVI.

He said he had changed his plans in order to accept an invitation to attend Friday’s ceremony because he wanted to show “proper respect to the Roman Catholic people of Ireland and their leader”.

However, the moderator said he had declined the opportunity to be presented to the Pope or to shake his hand after the service because there were a number of issues which needed “substantive discussion back in Ireland”.

“There appear to be troubling differences between us on how we deal with the past,” he said.

“Colleagues of mine are picking up pastoral issues within the Catholic Church, where Catholic families are coming to them asking for pastoral help, sometimes in the most difficult of circumstances, because they do not want Catholic clergy to deal with them in light of the abuse scandals.”

He added he hoped people would understand that he was in “difficult circumstances, where there were all sorts of conflicting pressures”.

Dr Hamilton was elected as the moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland in March.

The 63-year-old became a significant public figure as a result of his mediation work in the Holy Cross dispute in north Belfast in 2001.

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

Libya has apologised to Italy after one of its patrol boats fired machine-gun shots at a Sicilian fishing trawler.

The trawler returned to Sicily on Sunday pock-marked with bullet holes. None of its 10 crew were injured.

The patrol boat was one of six supplied by Italy to Libya to help prevent migrants crossing the Mediterranean.

Italian ministers called the incident “serious”, but said it was a mistake and would not affect relations between the two countries.

Several Italian military personnel were on board the patrol boat providing technical assistance to the Libyans, according to Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni.

“What took place the other night should not have happened and Libya has apologised,” Mr Maroni said.

“I imagine they mistook the fishing boat for a ship carrying illegal immigrants, but we will check what happened with an investigation.”

Gaspare Marrone, the captain, told the Corriere della Sera newspaper that it was “clear” that the crew were fishermen, dismissing any idea of a misunderstanding.

“They shot to hit us and they could have killed us,” he said. “We all lay down hoping we wouldn’t be hit.”

Mr Marrone said the patrol boat had tried to stop the trawler and then pursued it, firing at intervals of 15-20 minutes.

Earlier, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said the Libyans had been told to fire into the air, but the bullets had still somehow hit the trawler.

He said the Ariete had been fishing illegally.

Italy recently signed a deal with Libya in order to help curb flows of illegal immigrants travelling by boat from North Africa to the Sicilian islands.

The number of migrants has dropped sharply since the accord came into effect, but activists say the agreement does not protect migrants’ rights.

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

A 69-year-old grandmother from Devon wins a BBC search to find the country’s best amature scientist.

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

About 2,000 people have been evacuated from the Eiffel Tower in Paris and its surrounding park after a bomb scare.

The alarm was raised after an anonymous call to the company which owns the famous landmark, officials said.

A police cordon has been thrown around the tower and about 1,000 people have been moved to the banks of the nearby River Seine, French media reported.

The 324m (1,063ft) iron lattice tower, built in 1889, is one of the world’s most popular tourist attractions.

The evacuation of the tower and the Champ de Mars park took place calmly shortly before 2100 local time (1900 GMT), police said.

Officers with sniffer dogs are carrying out a thorough search of the area.

A police officer earlier said about 25,000 people had been evacuated from the area.

The French government increased security at certain sites between 2 August and 15 September, in part because of threats from al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, French TV channel TF1 reported.

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

The BBC’s The One Show presenter, Jason Manford, criticises the corporation after it edits out a comment he made regarding the government.

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

Gold rises to a new record as a range of factors – including demand for gold jewellery – pushes prices higher.

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

The former News of the World reporter at the centre of phone hacking allegations has been questioned by police, his solicitor has said.

Sean Hoare was interviewed by officers under caution. He was not arrested.

Mr Hoare alleged in a recent interview with a US newspaper that his former editor at the News of the World, Andy Coulson, asked him to hack phones.

Mr Coulson, who denied Mr Hoare’s claims, is now Prime Minister David Cameron’s communications chief.

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