Category: news

At least three Palestinians have been killed by shell fire near the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip, reports say.

Medical staff and witnesses said Israel had fired shells across the border near the town of Beit Hanoun in Gaza.

One report said the two of those killed were a 91-year-old man and his 33-year-old grandson.

Militants in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip earlier fired a rocket into Israel but no casualties or damage were reported.

Adham Abu Salima, a spokesman for medical services in Gaza, told AFP news agency that the 91-year-old victim had been a caretaker at a farm.

His grandson died shortly afterwards from his wounds, he said.

The identity of the third victim was not yet clear.

Israeli army radio described the people killed as “terrorists” and said that at least one of them was armed.

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Captain Andrew Strauss hits a century as England beat Pakistan by four wickets to lead the one-day international series 2-0.

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TUC chief Brendan Barber has said the public will not accept large-scale spending cuts, as trade unions gather in Manchester.

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A street in Belfast has been closed while police investigate reports that a World War Two bomb has been found in the roof space of a house.

Army technical officers have been sent to the scene of the alert at Belmont Park in the east of the city.

At least ten properties in the street have been evacuated.

Police said traffic diversions are in place at Belmont Road and Belmont Church Road.

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Shedding light on how a malfunctioning protein helps trigger type 2 diabetes could one day offer the chance to halt the damage, say scientists.

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Liverpool have keeper Pepe Reina’s heroics to thank for salvaging them a point against Birmingham.

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The Iranian authorities are ready to release one of the three US hikers detained last year, state media report.

Tehran chief prosecutor Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi said Sarah Shourd, 32, would be freed when $500,000 (£325,000) bail was paid, and could leave the country.

Mr Jafari-Dolatabadi had blocked a plan backed by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to release her as a good-will gesture.

Ms Shourd and two men, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, were detained near Iran’s border with Iraq on 31 July 2009.

Their families say they crossed the poorly-demarcated border by mistake while hiking in the mountainous northern Iraqi region of Khormal.

Officials in Tehran said they had “suspicious aims” and that they intended to put them on trial for espionage. But they are still being held without charge more than a year later at Evin prison in Tehran.

US officials have said the three – all graduates of the University of California, Berkeley – are completely innocent.

After seeing her in May, Ms Shourd’s mother said she was being denied treatment for serious health problems, including a lump in her breast and precancerous cervical cells.

The three friends were all said to be undernourished and depressed after more than a year in virtual solitary confinement.

At a news conference in the Iranian capital on Sunday, Mr Jafari-Dolatabadi announced that he was prepared to release Ms Shourd.

“Based on reports and the approval of the relevant judge about the sickness of Ms Shourd, her detention was converted to $500,000, and if the bail is deposited she can be released,” he told reporters.

“She is not barred from leaving Iran,” he added. “The other two detained American hikers will remain in jail.”

The chief prosecutor said Ms Shourd’s lawyer had been informed.

The BBC’s Middle East correspondent, Jon Leyne, says a number of people facing trial in Iran have taken the option of leaving the country and forfeiting their bail, rather than risk facing a long prison term.

Mr Jafari-Dolatabadi said an indictment against the three Americans had been issued and that their cases were ready to be submitted to a court.

There were “enough reasons to accuse the three of espionage”, he said. Under Iranian law, it is an offence that can be punishable by death.

The announcement came a day after Mr Jafari-Dolatabadi said he had objected to a plan announced by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to release Ms Shourd at the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan because legal procedures had “not been completed”.

Reporters had been invited to a hotel in Tehran to witness her release on Saturday before it was announced that it had been postponed.

Our correspondent says that with all the recent twists and turns in this case, and the unpredictable mood of the Iranian authorities, Ms Shourd’s family will be wary of getting excited about this latest offer.

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Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow will perform live together later for the first time in 15 years.

The pair, who announced earlier this year they were working together again, will perform their new single Shame at a Help For Heroes concert in London.

“It’s great that people like Shame so much and we can’t wait to perform it live for the first time,” Barlow and Williams said.

Also in the line-up are Tom Jones, Alexandra Burke and Pixie Lott.

The concert, which takes place at Twickenham stadium and will be shown on BBC One, will also feature comic talent including Bruce Forsyth, Peter Kay, Michael McIntyre and Jack Dee.

Some 60,000 people are expected at the event – including 150 personnel injured in combat who will attend the show free of charge.

Proceeds will go to the Help For Heroes charity, which raises funds for wounded troops and their families.

Williams, who recently announced his return to Take That, said he was “honoured” to be asked to take part, and paid tribute to UK service personnel engaged in Afghanistan.

“Their dedication to our country is phenomenal and we are all so proud of them,” he said.

Katherine Jenkins, James Blunt, The Saturdays are among the other music acts.

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A Conservative peer donates £25m to the British Museum in what is thought to be the biggest gift to the arts for two decades.

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RMT union leader Bob Crow has said there should be a co-ordinated “resistance” to public sector cuts, ahead of the TUC conference.

Mr Crow told the BBC that while bankers were still getting “massive bonuses” ministers’ “first line of attack” was public sector workers.

The RMT is asking the TUC to back calls for co-ordinated industrial action “to defend jobs, pensions and conditions”.

Ministers say they must take action to tackle the £155bn budget deficit.

Without “decisive action”, Chancellor George Osborne argues that Britain’s economic stability and reputation would be put at risk.

He has asked all departments, excluding the NHS and international aid, to find four-year cuts of between 25% and 40%, to begin in April 2011.

But his plans are expected to come under fire at the gathering of trade union members in Manchester this week.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber has already accused the government of “making struggling families bear the cost of the recession, while the rich have been let off”.

And Mr Crow, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union, told the BBC the government had its priorities wrong.

He said the economic crisis had been caused by bankers, yet it was public sector workers and people on benefits who were the first to be “attacked”.

Mr Crow said: “If there is a concerted effort by this new government to attack workers in all different parts of society, then my belief is that if one group of workers are taking action on one day and another group of workers are taking action on another day that we should co-ordinate that resistance to defend working men and working women.”

Asked if action this autumn would be too early, he said: “If there’s no attacks take place until next March, next April or next May – that will be the time the resistance will take place, I think it will be earlier than then.”

He said people had yet to feel the effects of cuts: “What do you want, do you want bankers to have bonuses or do you want police on the street?”

Labour’s leadership candidates will attend a hustings at the TUC conference – hoping to attract union members’ support before the winner is named on 25 September.

The current acting leader Harriet Harman told BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show her party backed the right to strike, but “no one wants to see strikes” – including public sector workers.

But she said she expected local communities to campaign alongside trade unions when public services were threatened.

She added: “We feel very concerned indeed, yes, about threats to jobs and we don’t accept the argument that somehow this is entirely necessary to cut the deficit at this speed. We think it’s actually a threat to the economy.

“And the arguments that the ‘Big Society’ can take the place of public services are we think are disingenuous. So to that extent yes, we do feel militant about it.”

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The New York imam leading efforts to build an Islamic centre near the World Trade Center site says plans by a small US church to burn Korans would have sparked “a disaster”.

Feisal Abdul Rauf told ABC News that the event – now called off – would have “strengthened radicals”.

Mr Rauf also said he believed fear of Islam in the US was possibly greater now than just after the 9/11 attacks.

Rallies for and against the proposed centre marred the 9/11 commemorations.

Protests have erupted across the Muslim world since Florida Pastor Terry Jones announced plans to burn Korans outside his church to mark the 9/11 attacks.

Despite the fact that the book burning was called off, two people died and four were injured in violent protests in Afghanistan on Sunday.

Mr Jones said he cancelled the event because those behind the Islamic centre near Ground Zero had agreed to relocate it – a claim denied by Mr Rauf.

“How can you equate the burning of any person’s scripture with an attempt to build inter-faith dialogue?” Mr Rauf told ABC.

“This is a house with multi-faith partners, intended to work together towards building peace.”

He said burning the Koran would have sparked “a disaster” in the Muslim world.

“It would have strengthened the radicals. It would have enhanced the possibility of terrorist acts against America and American interests,” he said.

The group led by Mr Rauf hopes to turn an abandoned factory building into a community centre and prayer space.

Supporters say it will include facilities for all religions and be a place for reconciliation between faiths.

But critics say the centre is an insult to those killed in the 2001 attacks.

Mr Rauf said the intense debate over the New York centre had stoked anti-Muslim feeling across the US.

Islamic centres in California and Texas have been vandalised and the site of a planned mosque in Tennessee has been set on fire.

“How else would you describe the fact that mosques around the country are now being attacked?” Feisal Abdul Rauf told ABC.

“We are Americans, too,” he said. “We are doctors. We are investment bankers. We are taxi drivers. We are store keepers. We are lawyers. We are… part of the fabric of America.”

As angry protests continued in the wake of the proposed book burning, security forces in the Baraki Barak district of Afghanistan’s eastern Logar province killed two people when a demonstration turned violent on Sunday.

The protest began peacefully but some demonstrators tried to storm the district governor’s office. Stones were thrown and security forces opened fire.

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A 23-year-old man has been shot dead in south London in what the police believe was a “targeted” attack.

The man suffered fatal injuries in the shooting at Pondfield House, Elder Road, West Norwood at about 2320 BST on Saturday, the Metropolitan Police said.

Paramedics treated the man but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

“This appears to be a targeted attack. I believe the shot or shots were fired from outside the flat in Pondfield House,” said Det Ch Insp Damian Allain.

He added: “I need to hear from anyone who witnessed the shooting or has information that may assist the investigation.”

A post-mortem examination was due to be held on Sunday afternoon.

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Deutsche Bank has said it will raise 9.8bn euros (£8.1bn, $12.4bn) in new equity, as it seeks fresh capital to take over retail bank Postbank.

Germany’s biggest bank announced the rights issue and said a Postbank purchase would enable it to expand its “strong position in our home market”.

The money would also help boost its capital reserves, something demanded of banks under new regulations.

Deutsche Bank currently owns a third of the equity in Postbank.

“Through this capital increase, Deutsche Bank intends to secure the equity capital required for a planned consolidation of Postbank,” said Deutsche Bank chief executive Josef Ackermann in a statement.

“As a result, we can expand our strong position in our home market, take a leading position in the European retail banking business and significantly enhance Deutsche Bank’s revenue mix,” he added.

“Furthermore, with this capital increase we are strengthening the bank’s equity capital in light of expected regulatory changes.”

Other banks may now follow Deutsche Bank’s lead in trying to raise new funds.

The move is Germany’s largest banking rights issue but is below the £13.5bn recently raised by Lloyds, HSBC raised by £12.5bn and £12bn raised by RBS.

Banking worries

On Friday shares in Deutsche Bank fell on reports that it was about to raise new equity.

Market worries about the financial health of European banks and of certain European governments have heightened again over the past week.

Meanwhile doubts are persisting about the reliability of the stress tests to European banks carried out by regulators in July.

The tests were intended to discover how much losses the biggest banks would suffer if economic and financial conditions deteriorate again, so that regulators could tell the banks how much more capital they needed to raise.

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By Evan Davis

So we have an enormous government deficit.

You might be one of those who blames it on the recession, or on the banks, or on Gordon Brown perhaps.

But step back from the mistakes of the last decade and arguably the problem we face now is best thought of as the result of unresolved long term pressures that have been building up in the welfare state for decades.

It is simple. Year by year, economic growth means that we tend to get richer.

But the richer we get, the bigger the proportion of our income that we want to devote to health services and education.

Tax system

The important word in that last sentence is “proportion”.

As our incomes grow, we don’t just want our consumption of health and education to grow at the same rate, but to grow extra quickly.

In other words, when our income doubles we want more than twice as much NHS.

That would probably be true even we financed government services from our own pockets.

But if we do pay for them through our tax system, the implication is that over the decades the tax system needs to take a bigger share of share of our incomes.

To add to the pressure of spending on the NHS and education, is the long term growth of the benefits bill.

By accident or design, it has grown from 12% of national income in the early 1980s, to 14% when John Major’s government left office to almost 16% now.

Post-war consensus

The issue of ever-growing demands for state spending as the population gets richer has long been around.