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Cesc Fabregas comes off the bench to fire 10-man Arsenal into the FA Cup fifth round as the Gunners narrowly see off League One Huddersfield.
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Mr Swinney called for dialogue between unions and the local authority Finance Secretary John Swinney has criticised Aberdeen City Council’s plans to introduce compulsory redundancies.
The council is planning to make 900 job cuts after staff on more than £21,000 rejected a voluntary 5% pay cut.
But Mr Swinney said the step was not required and called for dialogue between unions and the local authority.
Hundreds of workers at the council have been invited by their unions to attend a mass meeting this week.
The joint unions said Thursday’s meeting would give workers the chance to work out a response to the council’s “appalling decision”.
The SNP/Lib Dem-led council said there was “no alternative” to the cuts as it had to make budget savings of £120m over the next five years.
But Mr Swinney told BBC Scotland’s Politics Show: “I don’t think that the steps that have been considered in Aberdeen City Council are required.
“We have given local government a very strong signal – a much better settlement than local government is getting south of the border.
“What I think is important is that there is dialogue with the trade unions and the local authority to try to find a constructive way through this process.”
He added: “I am certainly taking forward very constructive discussions with local government in Scotland and the STUC to try to create a framework in which we can provide the means of avoiding compulsory redundancies by delivering flexibility in the workforce, and that strikes me as the best way to go forward.”
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The UK and Gates Foundation are joining in a push to eradicate polio The World Economic Forum has ended with business and political leaders worrying whether the economic boom in Asia, Brazil, the US and Germany can last.
Lacking a big theme, this year’s meeting of the rich and powerful focused on global threats, from political turmoil to scarce resources.
European leaders used the stage in Davos to drive home their message that they will do anything to save the euro.
And the UK and Gates Foundation joined forces in a push to eradicate polio.
Prime Minister David Cameron said the UK government would double its funding for the fight against the debilitating disease to $60m (£38m) despite the “tough economic times”.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, meanwhile, will add $100m in funding. “There is an incredible opportunity to wipe out the last 1% of polio, saving lives now and preventing the threat of outbreaks in the future.”
In 2009 and 2010, the annual meetings of more than 2,000 of the world’s most powerful business leaders and politicians had been gloomy affairs, as the credit crunch was followed by a global economic crisis.
This year, company bosses showed plenty of optimism, but always tempered by warnings that the good times might not last.
Chanda Kochhar, chief executive of Indian bank ICICI, said that while it was important to look for optimism and opportunities, this had to be grounded in reality.
“We are optimistic, but we are afraid to be optimistic,” said Paul Bulcke, boss of food giant Nestle.
Ellen Kullman, chief executive of DuPont, agreed, but acknowledged that 2010 had been “a fantastic year for growth, and 2011 will still be good.”
Whoever one spoke to, whether it was Michael Dell, founder of the computer giant carrying his name, Kris Gopalakrishnan of IT services firm Infosys or Wei Jiafu of China Ocean Shipping Group: everybody reported really strong growth and predicted investments and expansion.
One banker, at a private meeting, spoke of “boom times”.
A survey of bosses from around the world, compiled by accounting firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers and published at the eve of the Forum, suggested that confidence levels were back to pre-crisis levels.
Despite this, many of the discussions and sessions held during the five days of the forum focused on what could go wrong.
Government debt, especially in Europe, soaring inflation, especially for food, and scarce resources from food to energy, and cyber threats were all on the long list of worries that dominated the Davos agenda.
Davos was set for a vigorous debate about the health of the eurozone, or rather the lack thereof.
However, this was somewhat squashed when French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel launched a clearly co-ordinated pincer attack on speculators, bankers and investors to tell them in clear terms that they would do anything that was necessary to defend the euro and prop up weaker members of the currency union.
With the back-up of the region’s central bankers, who made forceful statements in private sessions for leaders of the banking industry, they appeared to calm the nerves of most.
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, meanwhile, also sat through a succession of meetings to make the case that the eurozone crisis had been contained and that Greece was on the way to recovery.
“The Sarkozy and Merkel statements put the markets at ease, put me at ease,” said Jacob Wallenberg, chairman of Investor AB, the giant Swedish holding company.
Still, there was some scepticism. “The eurozone is still a high risk area in 2011… another sovereign debt crisis is possible, and [government] deficit reduction will have a negative impact on economic growth,” warned Wei Jiafu.
As so often during the annual meetings in Davos, an outside crisis forced its way on to the agenda, the turmoil spreading through North Africa, from Tunisia to Egypt.
A hastily organised session featured two of the technocrats now in ministerial positions in Tunisia’s interim government, and throughout the hallways participants swapped the latest news from the unrest in Cairo’s streets.
However, with few Arab leaders in attendance this year, the discussions lacked the heft that the Davos event used to provide during previous crisis.
If this year’s Davos served one purpose, then it was confirmation of the fact that India and China are now fully grown players on the world stage, both politically and economically.
Discussions at Davos at times appeared to measure the health of the global economy by the strength of growth in both countries.
Both countries had sent strong delegations to the forum, with neither politicians nor business leaders reluctant to assert their strength and authority.
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Rescuers, from a helicopter like this one, say he was lucky to be alive A climber who fell 1,000ft (305m) down a mountain and survived was found by his rescuers standing up reading a map.
The 35-year-old lost his footing at the summit of Sgurr Choinnich Mor near Ben Nevis in the Highlands and plummeted down the near-vertical eastern slope.
Lt Tim Barker, from the helicopter rescue crew, said: “It seemed impossible… he must have literally glanced off the outcrops as he fell.”
He added that the climber was shaking from “extreme emotional shock”.
Lt Barker, the Royal Navy’s Sea King helicopter crew’s observer, said: “We began to hover-taxi down the slope and spotted a man at the bottom, standing up.
“We honestly thought it couldn’t have been him, as he was on his feet, reading a map. Above him was a series of three high craggy outcrops.
“It’s hard to believe that someone could have fallen that distance on that terrain and been able to stand up”
Lt Tim Barker Royal Navy rescuer
“It seemed impossible. So we retraced our path back up the mountain and, sure enough, there were bits of his kit in a vertical line all the way up where he had obviously lost them during the fall.
“It was quite incredible. He must have literally glanced off the outcrops as he fell, almost flying.”
The helicopter, from HMS Gannet in Prestwick, Ayrshire, was already airborne on a training exercise when it was scrambled to the scene just after 1430 GMT.
A paramedic was winched down to check the climber over. He appeared unscathed aside from some superficial cuts and bruises and a minor chest injury.
Lt Barker added: “He is lucky to be alive. It’s hard to believe that someone could have fallen that distance on that terrain and been able to stand up at the end of it, let alone chat to us in the helicopter on the way to the hospital.
“Really an amazing result – I have to say, when we got the call and realised the details of where he’d fallen, we did expect to arrive on scene to find the worst-case scenario.”
The climber, from Glasgow, was one of a group of 24 who had reached the summit when the accident happened.
He is being treated at Southern General Hospital in the city.
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Police said the bomb hoax was an effort to draw officers into the area. Rioters have attacked police officers in Lurgan with petrol bombs, fireworks and paint bombs.
It happened as officers investigated a security alert on the Antrim Road in the town on Saturday night. It turned out to be a hoax.
The police said one baton round was discharged, which it is believed struck a rioter in the lower leg.
The railway line between Moira and Portadown was closed for a time, due to debris thrown onto it by the rioters.
Police said the bomb hoax was an effort to draw officers into the area.
SDLP Upper Bann MLA Dolores Kelly said those involved in the trouble are a minority.
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Ed Balls said Britain needed a plan which put jobs and growth first Shadow chancellor Ed Balls has accused George Osborne of being in denial about the risks to jobs and growth from his plan to cut the deficit.
Writing in the Independent on Sunday, Mr Balls said the chancellor’s plan to eliminate the deficit by 2015 was “irresponsible and dangerous”.
It comes after figures revealed a surprise contraction of the UK economy.
Mr Osborne has told the BBC there would be “financial turmoil” if he abandoned his cuts and tax rises.
Their ongoing battle over economic policies intensified on Tuesday, when the latest GDP figures showed a shock 0.5% contraction in the economy in the final three months of 2010.
Forecasts had been for growth of between 0.2% and 0.6% but ministers blamed the negative figures on the snow and exceptionally cold weather in December.
In his article in the Independent on the Sunday, Mr Balls contrasted the growth figures in the US with the “shocking” figures in the UK.
“The US Treasury, by combining sustained and sensible stimulus for an economy still in recovery with a measured and steady pace of deficit reduction, has seen confidence grow and consumer spending rising,” he said.
He said the US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner had told the World Economic Forum in Davos this week that rapid and drastic spending cuts were “not the sensible way” to cut national deficits.
“There is an economically more credible alternative to what this Conservative-led government is doing.”
Ed Balls Shadow chancellorTurmoil if cuts scrapped: Osborne
He also pointed to the warning issued by the famous investment fund manager George Soros in Davos that the UK’s austerity measures could push the country back into recession.
Mr Balls said “simply slamming on the brakes” with tax hikes and spending cuts was not a “credible economic policy”.
“That is why here in Britain we need to re-think,” he wrote. “There is an economically more credible alternative to what this Conservative-led government is doing.
“We need a plan that puts jobs and growth first.”
Mr Balls accused the chancellor of being being complacent and “in denial” about the risks to jobs and growth of the squeeze on family budgets and public services.
“There is no historical precedent to support his projections and he has no Plan B if the scale and pace of his deficit-cutting prove to go too far and too fast.”
Labour’s plan – which Mr Balls had initially criticised as too aggressive – is to halve the deficit within four years.
In an interview on the BBC Politics Show, Mr Osborne insisted he had to take tough decisions to sort out the “enormously tricky situation” he had inherited and provide a platform for sustainable growth.
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The BBC’s Alex Belfield, who is on holiday in Sharm el-Sheik, says he returned from dinner on Saturday to find his hotel barricaded and the mood of the Red Sea resort dramatically changed.
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Thousands of protesters are back in the main square of the Egyptian capital Cairo for the sixth day running to demand the overthrow of President Mubarak.
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A blaze at a military arms depot in the Venezuelan city of Maracay injures at least three people, officials say.
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Rangers face Motherwell in the Co-operative Insurance Cup semi-final at Hampden while Dundee United host Hibernian in the SPL.
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Osborne: “This is an enormously tricky situation.” Chancellor George Osborne has warned there would be “financial turmoil” if he abandoned cuts and tax rises.
Mr Osborne told the BBC no politician liked cutting spending and increasing taxes, but he was trying to clear up the “mess” Labour left.
The chancellor said: “I feel every day a huge responsibility to get these decisions right for Britain.”
He suggested union laws could be changed – as a last resort – if there were a wave of strikes.
In an interview on the BBC Politics Show, Mr Osborne spoke of the responsibility to make the right decisions.
“This is an enormously tricky situation that we’ve been bequeathed as a new government,” he said.
And he added that he was fulfilling his responsibility to the best of his ability.
Earlier in the week union leaders met in London to discuss co-ordinated protests in the face of what they see as “deep and rapid” cuts in spending, but stopped short of announcing strike ballots.
On Friday Mr Osborne said he was as determined to fight “the forces of stagnation”, including the unions, as he was to tackle the budget deficit.
He reiterated his position that there could be changes in union laws.
“We are prepared to consider changes to the law around strikes – as a last resort – but I hope we never get there, because I hope we can have a mature, grown-up conversation.
“I completely understand that trade unions want to represent the interests of their members, but the interests of their members is that jobs are created and prosperity returns to our country. “
Watch The Politics Show on BBC1 at 1200 GMT on Sunday.
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A march has traditionally taken place in Derry each year to mark the anniversary of Bloody Sunday Thousands of people are due to join what is intended to be the last Bloody Sunday march in Londonderry.
Organisers said they believe the annual event should come to an end following the publication of the Saville Report.
A statement, signed by the majority of the victims’ families, said the protest was no longer necessary after the inquiry exonerated those who died in the 1972 Bloody Sunday shootings.
But some relatives of the victims have called the proposal premature.
Demonstrators will walk from Creggan to Guildhall Square at 1430 GMT.
Fourteen people lost their lives on 30 January 1972 when British paratroopers opened fire on a civil rights march in Derry’s Bogside area.
Kate Nash, whose brother William was killed on Bloody Sunday, said she felt the decision to end the march was “very premature”.
She added: “It was dropped on us like a ton of bricks, completely unexpectedly. Who decided the march should end and why?
“The people of Derry were not afforded the opportunity of having an opinion about this and I feel they should have had.”
Tony Doherty, whose father Paddy was also killed on Bloody Sunday, said he supported the ending of the march.
He added: “The vast majority of the families felt that what we had brought about, what we had achieved on 15 June, with the Saville Report as an exoneration, with the words of David Cameron, with apology and accepting political responsibility for the atrocity of Bloody Sunday, that it was now time for us all to consider moving on.”
A number of options are now being considered to mark future anniversaries, including an annual gathering of remembrance at the Bloody Sunday monument, a remembrance Mass, a human rights weekend and an annual Bloody Sunday lecture.
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Health Secretary Andrew Lansley plays down the risks of his changes to the NHS
Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has admitted there is “risk” involved in his English NHS shake-up but says there is a greater risk from doing nothing.
He said spending was set to rise, but the Labour years had shown that spending more money “isn’t the answer”.
“We don’t get the results we should compared with other European countries; if we did we would save thousands of lives,” he told the Andrew Marr Show.
Health unions have denounced the plans due to be debated by MPs on Monday.
The Health and Social Care Bill, published earlier this month, will allow GPs to get control of most of the NHS budget from 2013 – working in consortiums and taking on responsibility for “buying in” the bulk of hospital and community services for their patients.
In the process, all 151 primary care trusts and strategic health authorities will be disbanded.
In the lead up to the bill’s publication, fears were voiced that hospitals could go bust as the plans include opening up the NHS to “any willing provider”.
Critics have also questioned whether GPs have the experience and skills to handle such huge budgets – they will have control of about 80% of the NHS budget.
The timing has also been questioned, as the health service is being asked to save money in coming years.
Speaking to the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, Mr Lansley said: “I didn’t say there wasn’t risk. Of course there’s risk because there’s change.
“But actually if we don’t change, the greater risk is that these problems that we have at the moment that we have to deal with won’t be solved.”
The reforms would result in a redundancy bill of £1bn, he said, but savings would reach £5bn over the course of the parliament.
He said about half of existing Primary Care Trust staff would be employed by the new GP consortiums.
Asked about the speed of the planned changes and the opposition to them, Mr Lansley said the shake-up – not detailed in the coalition agreement – had been developed within a few weeks of them entering government.
He said most patients would not know much about the current system which, he said, requires 50,000 administrators: “How many patients have actually been treated directly by a Primary Care Trust?”
He said that GPs already made most decisions about the care of patients in the community while hospitals “provide most of the secondary care and tertiary care to patients – I’m not interfering with them. I’m giving them greater freedom on both sides of that equation”.
Mr Lansley said he was going to get rid of Labour “rigging” of competition within the health service which had favoured private sector firms.
“They stopped NHS foundation trusts bidding for that capacity. I actually do believe in competition.”
So far, 141 GP consortia, serving more than half of the population of England, have signed up as “pathfinders” to pilot the new arrangements ahead of their planned implementation in 2013.
During exchanges at prime minister’s questions earlier this month, David Cameron was accused of being “arrogant” for going ahead with the moves despite warnings from unions and health experts.
Labour leader Ed Miliband said medical staff had warned of “potentially disastrous” consequences for the health service.
But the prime minister said the government was “reforming the NHS so that we have got the best in Europe”. MPs are set to debate the proposals in detail for the first time from about 1530 GMT on Monday.
The changes were first set out in a white paper published last summer. They apply solely to England – Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have different systems..
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Leanne Gunnell was six-and-a-half months pregnant when she fell ill A new mother from Gloucestershire who was put in a coma after she contracted swine flu is now breathing on her own.
Receptionist Leanne Gunnell, 21, became ill when she was six-and-a-half months pregnant.
Doctors put her into a coma to save her unborn child. Baby Faith was delivered by caesarean at 28 weeks weighing 3lb (1.4kg).
Ms Gunnell’s mother Sharon, said Faith was expected to be allowed to leave hospital in a few weeks.
Ms Gunnell is being treated at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital.
She had gone to her doctors with a cold, was told she had a virus and given antibiotics. She was not tested for swine flu.
Four days later her parents took her to see an out-of-hours GP and was given the same diagnosis.
Baby Faith was delivered by caesarean at 28 weeks weighing 3lb (1.4kg) The next day she was taken to hospital coughing up blood and it was feared she had pneumonia.
Doctors found her lungs were badly damaged and there was little chance of her and the baby surviving.
They said the best chance was to put her into a coma and deliver the baby at 28 weeks.
Days after the birth on 30 November Mr and Mrs Gunnell were told their daughter had tested positive for swine flu and initial tests suggested she had suffered brain damage.
Both parents said the treatment their daughter and granddaughter had been receiving at the hospital was first class.
Dr Mike Roberts, acting medical director for NHS Gloucestershire, said: “It is important to stress that a patient’s symptoms can change and develop from day to day and so we would want to review in detail what happened on this occasion.”
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Daphne Selfe wears Vivienne Westwood, photographed by Rankin Fashion photographer Rankin has captured a series of models aged from 18 to 80 in pictures for an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.
The campaign, organised by All Walks Beyond The Catwalk, will explore how beauty is “not restricted by race, shape, age or size”.
The photographs will appear alongside a series of paintings of notable women from history.
The exhibition will be displayed for one night only on 11 February.
Rankin, who co-founded style magazine Dazed & Confused, has photographed stars including Kylie and Kate Moss.
“As a photographer, I am constantly confronted by perceived ideals of beauty,” he said.
“The models, actors, musicians, and ‘real’ people who I see down my lens are all influenced by an oppressive world of unattainable physical goals.
“I always work hard to break through the artifice and capture something unique, original and beautiful in each of my subjects.
“Interest and creativity is not about perfection but quite the opposite; beauty comes from our idiosyncrasies.”
All Walks Beyond the Catwalk was formed by former BBC Clothes Show presenter Caryn Franklin, fashion consultant Debra Bourne and model Erin O’Connor.
In a join statement, they said: “This is a chance for visitors to hear and experience a different voice from the heart of the fashion industry and, like the multitude of silhouettes and garments our industry both designs and promotes, beauty is also individual. It’s not restricted by race, shape, age or size.”
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