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British actor Colin Firth receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, dedicating the honour to his wife.
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Thieves in Argentina steal $90,000 in cash meant for use during a Middle East trip by President Cristina Fernandez.
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A woman in Brazil narrowly avoids being swept away
Rescuers are trying to find survivors in cut-off areas of south-eastern Brazil hit by deadly floods that have left more than 400 people dead.
Relatives have been joining in the search but often only find the bodies of loved ones.
Heavy rain has brought massive mudslides down on the towns of Nova Friburgo, Teresopolis and Petropolis. Thousands have been made homeless.
President Dilma Rousseff visited and expressed solidarity with communities.
Darkness has fallen in the mountainous Serrana region, north of Rio de Janeiro, bringing a pause in the work of more than 800 rescue workers.
Many have spent Thursday scrabbling with their bare hands through debris.
In the Campo Grande area of Teresopolis, which was earlier cut off, rescuers found family members pulling bodies from the mud.
One Campo Grande resident, Carols Eurico, told the Associated Press: “I have friends still lost in all of this mud. It’s all gone. It’s all over now. We’re putting ourselves in the hands of God.”
If you reach the city centre of Teresopolis, you might not think the scale of destruction was too great, but on the outskirts and other neighbourhoods – such as Campo Grande and Posse – there is a sense of just how much was affected.
In these places, there is mud everywhere – some of it more than 3m high. Cars are destroyed and turned upside down, from small sports cars to big trucks. The river that runs through the city is known to be calm, but it is now completely flooded. Most of the houses destroyed were poor quality, made out of timber. Emergency services are everywhere.
Many of the people who lost their homes have taken shelter in the local gymnasium. Every now and then a new list comes out of people that have been confirmed dead.
Surprisingly at the gym, most people managed to remain calm and were chatting, although many have lost a friend or family member. But everyone in Teresopolis can feel just how terrible this disaster has been.
Another resident, Nilson Martins, held a lucky pet rabbit that had survived.
“We’re just digging around, there is no way of knowing where to look,” he told AP.
Another resident of Teresopolis told AFP: “One woman tried to save her children, but her two-month-old baby was carried away by a torrent like a doll.”
The Brazilian armed forces have brought in a field hospital and hundreds of people have taken refuge in the gymnasium in Teresopolis.
But the number of injured was threatening to overwhelm the medical services.
Jorge Mario, the mayor of the Teresopolis, said: “There are three or four neighbourhoods that were totally destroyed in rural areas. There are hardly any houses standing there and all the roads and bridges are destroyed.”
In one dramatic filmed rescue, 53-year-old Ilair Pereira de Souza was pulled by rope from a destroyed house surrounded by raging water.
“I thought I was going to die,” she said.
Ms Pereira de Souza had jumped with her dog Beethoven but was forced to let him go to survive.
“If I had tried to save him, I would have died. The poor thing. He stayed for a moment looking me in the eyes, and then he was swept away.”
President Rousseff visited the area on Thursday and vowed a shipment of seven tonnes of medicines.
“It’s very overwhelming. The scenes are very shocking,” she said.
On Wednesday she had signed a decree authorising 780m reais ($480m; £296m) in emergency funding for the affected areas.
Ms Rousseff described the destruction as an act of God but she also expressed anger at illegal construction.
“We saw areas in which mountains untouched by men dissolved. But we also saw areas in which illegal occupation caused damage to the health and lives of people.”
Saying that building houses in risky areas was “the rule rather than the exception”, in Brazil she added: “When there are no housing policies in place, where will a person with an income of up to two minimum wages live? He will live where he is not allowed to.”
Ms Rousseff said the state would care for the victims but said stopping future tragedies would be a priority.
“We are here to guarantee that this moment of reconstruction will also be a moment of prevention.”
Rio de Janeiro Governor Sergio Cabral blamed local governments for allowing poor building and illegal occupations.
“Unfortunately, what we saw in Petropolis, Teresopolis and Nova Friburgo, since the 1980s, was a problem similar to what happened in the city of Rio – letting the poorer people occupy risk areas.”
He said some rich mansions had been damaged but most of the victims were “humble people”.
Mr Cabral ended the press conference by asking people in risk areas to leave their houses and seek public shelter or in other families’ homes.
“The weather forecast is not reassuring, and new mudslides could occur,” he said.
About 200 people are so far known to died in Nova Friburgo, some 175 in Teresopolis and dozens more in Petropolis, media report.
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Mr Obama asked the nation to live up to Christina’s expectations Christina Taylor Green, the nine-year-old killed in Saturday’s shooting in Arizona, is being buried on Thursday in the first of six such funerals.
Christina, whom President Barack Obama hailed on Wednesday night, was a top student, dancer and athlete.
She had hoped to meet Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords at a constituency event on Saturday when she was killed and Ms Giffords gravely injured.
Doctors say Ms Giffords is making “encouraging” progress in hospital.
They said they had begun intense physical therapy, and that she was able to lift her legs on command.
Jared Loughner, 22, is jailed pending trial in the attack in the city of Tucson. Six people were killed in the shooting, including Christina Green and a federal judge. More than a dozen were wounded.
Mourners at the St Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Tucson, where the massacre took place, unfurled the largest flag recovered from Ground Zero, the site of the 9/11 terror attacks in New York City. The flag is a tribute to Christina, who was born that day in 2001.
Mourners in white, some dressed as angels, lined the road leading to the church in silence. Relatives and friends were seen entering the church amid heavy security.
Among those were dozens of Christina’s classmates and boys wearing baseball outfits – Christina was a fan of the sport and was the granddaughter of former professional baseball player and manager Dallas Green.
“I want our democracy to be as good as she imagined it”
President Barack Obama
The night before, President Barack Obama honoured Christina and other victims of the shootings, urging the US to heal divisions opened by “sharply polarised” political debate.
“Imagine,” Mr Obama said at a public ceremony in Tucson, “here was a young girl who was just becoming aware of our democracy; just beginning to understand the obligations of citizenship; just starting to glimpse the fact that someday she too might play a part in shaping her nation’s future.”
The 9/11 flag was hoisted by two fire engines A witness to Saturday’s attack said Christina had been smiling broadly as she waited in line to meet Ms Giffords.
Christina had just been elected to the student council at Mesa Verde Elementary School, and her father has said her interest in politics was inspired by Mr Obama.
“President Obama and his campaign is where she started getting interested in politics, and at least to have heard him mention her makes me feel better,” John Green said. “She began her life on a tragedy, on 9/11, and her life was ended with a tragedy, here in Arizona.”
Mr Obama called on the nation to honour her: “I want us to live up to her expectations. I want our democracy to be as good as she imagined it.”
Meanwhile, Ms Giffords’s doctors said on Thursday morning that she had opened her eyes and appeared to be trying to focus her vision, “encouraging” signs she was recovering.
Ms Giffords is moving both legs and both arms, has opened both eyes and is responding to friends and family, doctors said.
“She’s making the progress that we could hope for her,” Dr Michael Lemole said.
In another development, documents released by Pima Community College, where Mr Loughner attended school in the months before the attack, show a pattern of increasingly bizarre behaviour that troubled school officials and police.
The documents suggest Mr Loughner was prone to nonsensical outbursts and was confronted several times by police.
School officials described Mr Loughner’s “dark personality” and some feared for their safety around him.
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The plotters intended to blow up fuel tanks at JFK and pipes that run through a nearby neighbourhood A US court has sentenced a militant from Guyana to 15 years in jail for taking part in a plot to blow up fuel tanks at New York’s JFK airport.
Abdel Nur pleaded guilty last year to providing support for the plot planned by Russell Defreitas and Abdul Kadir, a former member of Guyana’s parliament.
Kadir and Russell Defreitas, who worked at JFK, reportedly intended to kill thousands of people in the 2007 scheme.
Kadir, 58, was sentenced to life in prison last month.
Nur, 60, attempted to locate an al-Qaeda explosives expert and introduce Kadir and Defreitas, a former airline cargo worker from Guyana who became a naturalised US citizen, to a leader of a militant group in Trinidad, court documents said.
“Nur believed that the attack would cause extensive damage to the airport and to the New York economy, as well as the loss of numerous lives,” the US justice department said after the sentencing on Thursday in New York City.
Kadir and Defreitas, who began preparations for the attack in 2006, planned to use explosives to blow up fuel tanks and underground pipes that run through a nearby neighbourhood, the court said.
The scheme was uncovered when an informant recorded a discussion about the planned attack between Kadir and 67-year-old Defreitas.
A US District Court judge said last month that the plot, which Kadir and Defreitas thought would shake the US economy, would have caused “unimaginable” devastation.
Kareem Ibrahim, a fourth alleged member of the scheme, was previously found too ill to stand trial. He faces the same charges as Defreitas and Kadir and is due in court in April.
Defreitas’s sentencing is scheduled for February.
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Maritime piracy costs the global economy between $7bn and $12bn a year, a report by UK think-tank Chatham House says.
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The cross-eyed animal that’s a German media star, giant ice chess and the BBC reporter versus some pigs.
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SpyCruise ship MS Eurodam (right) docks in Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos There’s no such thing as an ex-spy. There are only spies who pretend they have retired. Or so they tell you. But I have yet to meet a retired spy who walked the dog and pruned the roses all day.
Take Bart Bechtel for instance – an ex-CIA operations officer, a specialist in domestic and international terrorism matters and a US Navy veteran with 31 years of espionage and counter-intelligence experience – a spy to his fingertips.
It was Bart Bechtel who decided to organise a seminar for spooks – past, present and future – and their wives, girlfriends and interested parties.
But instead of hiring a dreary university lecture hall in a Washington suburb, he invited students to come on a seven-day Caribbean cruise (for which they would pay) and spend most days on lectures, briefings and rubbing shoulders with the principal speakers.
An advert for Spy Cruise And the big draws? Top of the bill were no less than Porter Goss, former head of the CIA from 2004-2006 and his successor Gen Mike Hayden who ran the super-secret National Security Agency (US equivalent of GCHQ – the UK’s secret intelligence agency) for six years before taking over the CIA from 2006-2009. He is the highest ranking and most senior former spy still alive in the US.
This pair were guest lecturers but they were also, in a sense, trapped onboard ship, therefore journalistically accessible in a way that had me scurrying to join the cruise and spend private time with these significant masters of the secret world.
Can you imagine their British equivalents joining a huge 2,000-strong cruise ship, mixing with ordinary passengers, spending hours of face-time with reporters, and speaking frankly about such walking-on-broken-glass subjects as targeted assassinations, water-boarding, the torture of enemy combatants, and extraordinary rendition? I wouldn’t hold my breath.
“This is not a pleasure trip for me,” Porter Goss told me. “This is a trip to spread the message about how important the intelligence function is.”
Former US President George W Bush nominated Porter Goss to be the head of the CIA from September 2004 And what about their personal security on board Holland America’s giant cruise ship, Eurodam?
“The agency knows when I travel, they’re alerted to that,” Gen Hayden explained. “I suspect they do what it is they think appropriate, but I don’t have to know about that.”
In other words, there were bodyguards but no-one knew who or where they were. But they were there unseen, minding at sea and on land for tourist excursions.
The spook seminars with about 120 students took place in three dedicated lecture rooms on the promenade deck, spaces squeezed between the huge ship’s shopping mall and an even larger casino area where the one-arm-bandits sang out day and night.
For Bart Bechtel, this was a golden opportunity to proselytise. “The intelligence community is under attack, badly understood, the civil libertarians are trying for scalps. There are all kinds of indignities.”
There was an uneasiness about President Barack Obama and liberal Democrats in general.
“Our commitment to war is a little uneven at this point. The fact of the matter is we are at war but it’s not evenly understood.”
Bart Bechtel and the other sponsors of the seminar – Henley-Puttnam, an online university that offers postal and internet degrees in several disciplines of espionage including counter-terrorism – were keen to drum home the message at every opportunity.
Tom Mangold and former spy Bart Bechtel So we had talks and confidential briefings on Iran, Hamas, Israel, Pakistan, rogue states, failed states, al-Qaeda and a host of other threats to national and international security.
And all this happened as 1,900 fellow tourists ate, drank, gambled and danced around us. Bizarre.
My role, as a defence and intelligence reporter and writer, was to show a couple of my BBC TV Panoramas to the audience and take questions.
It was also to make a documentary for Radio 4 and, to this end, both Porter Goss and Mike Hayden came willingly to my cabin and spoke freely (where were those bodyguards? how come I never spotted them?) but with occasional and justifiable caution about the spy business and especially the CIA’s hugely controversial role as a new paramilitary force since 9/11.
On shore excursions, both former spy chiefs merged imperceptibly with fellow tourists. I was part of a tourist group with Mike Hayden that wandered lazily around the old town of San Juan in Puerto Rico.
The general wore a large-brimmed baseball hat, pulled well down over his forehead, and became unrecognisable.
Gen Mike Hayden in work mode But back on board, both men spoke freely to those tourists who recognised them. Gen Mike Hayden explained why he felt a need to be open.
“We exist in a society that distrusts secrecy and power most of all. In order to be successful espionage services have to be only two things – secretive and powerful. So you’ve got that cultural tension and I feel a certain sense of responsibility to try to defuse that.”
Other guest speakers and lecturers at the seminar included a clutch of old Cold War warriors.
Some had formed a private spy agency to report in Southern Lebanon on the military activities of Hezbollah and its Syrian allies.
Others have made it their business to publicise every possible threat the West faces.
Even Gen Hayden is deeply pessimistic about the situation with Iran and remains “pretty certain” that unless there are fundamental changes very soon, the West will have no choice but to use what he gently describes as “the kinetic option”.
Among the paying passengers who formed their audience on the cruise were a novelist, a soccer coach who wanted to be a spy and a National Security Agency worker whose wife bought him the cruise as a present.
“We have to buckle down – many Americans – their heads are in the sand,” one told me.
All had a special interest in the security of the US. “I’m just sorry that more members of my country don’t get involved,” another lamented. “They simply don’t participate. They watch television.”
Obama supporters were in short supply – I found only one in 120 people. The seminar was no place for beards, sandals, liberals or Wikileakers.
But I admire Mr Bechtel’s initiative in sugaring the pill of a fairly politicised seminar with a general jolly around the sunny Caribbean on a luxurious liner.
Who says spies can’t have some fun too?
Tom Mangold was Panorama’s senior reporter until 2003. He is now a freelance journalist and author. His documentary Ship of Spies will be broadcast on Radio 4 at 1030 GMT on Saturday 15 January.
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Wikipedia is too complicated for many people to modify despite billing itself as “the free encyclopaedia that anyone can edit”, its founder tells BBC News.
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Breastfeeding is known to benefit babies Breastfeeding alone for six months might not be best for babies, experts in the UK have warned.
In the British Medical Journal, the team said breastfed babies may benefit from being given solid food earlier.
Current advice suggests weaning should occur at six months, but the UCL team say it could happen as early as four.
They suggest later weaning may increase food allergies and iron deficiency levels, but other experts backed the existing guidance.
Ten years ago, the World Health Organization published global advice advocating babies be exclusively breastfed for six months.
The research team, led by Dr Mary Fewtrell a paediatrician from the University of London Institute of Child Health, said it supported the recommendation for developing countries, where access to clean water and safe weaning foods is limited, and there is a high risk of infant death and illness.
But they added: “Many western countries, including 65% of European member states and the US, elected not to follow this recommendation fully, if at all.
But in 2003, a health minister said the UK would comply.
The WHO recommendation “rested largely” on a review of 16 studies, including seven from developing countries.
It concluded that babies just given breast milk for six months had fewer infections and experienced no growth problems.
“There are a lot of babies being weaned before six months anyway”
Dr Mary Fewtrell Researcher
But another review of 33 studies found “no compelling evidence” not to introduce solids at four to six months, the experts said.
Some research has also shown that six months of breastfeeding does not give babies all the nutrition they need.
A US 2007 study found there was an increased risk of anaemia compared with those introduced to solids at four to six months.
Swedish research also found that the incidence of early onset coeliac disease increased after a recommendation to delay introduction of gluten until age six months, but fell back after the recommendation reverted to four months.
Dr Alan Lucas, director of the Institute of Health, said: “The WHO recommendation is very sensible for developing countries.
“But in the UK, it’s important we take a balanced look at the evidence.”
Dr Fewtrell added: “When you look at the figures, there are a lot of babies being weaned before six months anyway – and that’s probably the most important thing in terms of hard evidence.”
But the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and the National Childbirth Trust defended current advice.
And Janet Fyle, professional policy adviser at the Royal College of Midwives, said: “I really must challenge the suggestion that the UK should reconsider its current advice on exclusive breastfeeding for six months.
“I believe that this is a retrograde step and plays into the hands of the baby-food industry which has failed to support the six-month exclusive breastfeeding policy in the UK.
“There is evidence that some babies do die in developed countries from inappropriate young child feeding, such as the introduction of solid foods earlier before their swallowing mechanism is mature enough or they have fully developed the capability to cope with solid foods.”
And a Department of Health spokeswoman said: “Breast milk provides all the nutrients a baby needs up to six months of age and we recommend exclusive breastfeeding for this time.
“Mothers who wish to introduce solids before six months should always talk to health professionals first.”
The Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition is to review infant feeding and is due to report later this year.
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Carry out: BYOC might not seem quite as attractive as BYOB, but could it be the future for IT provisioning? IT provisioning is an expensive business.
Companies can struggle to keep up with the constant rate of technological change. The devices employees have at home and in their pockets are often far more powerful than those provided for them.
So what if you let your staff use their own equipment?
Global law firm SNR Denton is in the process of rolling out a remote access system. Information services director Neil Pamment says their old system was too limited.
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“If you wanted to use more than email you needed a company laptop,” he says. “We wanted to have applications held in the office but accessed remotely without the need for one.”
The firm has retained a few pool laptops that are available to staff, but they are encouraged to buy their own devices and access their desktop remotely from home or on the move.
“The old environment was very support heavy, so we can use our support staff to do other critical work without getting sidetracked “
Work life balance was another driving factor according to Mr Pamment.
“You can use it from anywhere and people like working at home in an easy fashion. One quote [from a lawyer] was ‘super super impressed’.”
In 2010, food and drinks giant Kraft announced it would provide a subsidy to staff in the US to allow them choose their own computers.
“Employees love having the freedom to choose whatever they like”
Mick Hollison VP Marketing, Citrix
The conglomerate is just the latest business to adopt the policy. Microsoft and Intel both run “bring your own computer” (BYOC) schemes where the hardware is subsidised – as does Citrix, the company that provides SNR Denton’s virtualisation capability.
The scheme launched in 2008. Citrix gives staff a stipend, they then buy the computer of their choice. Mick Hollison, vice-president of marketing, says not only has it cut costs, but staff like the control.
“Employees love having the freedom to choose whatever they like,” he says.
“The reality is that there are a number of consumer devices that provide services that you just don’t see in a corporate laptop, and employees just enjoy their computing experience more.”
Flexible working: BYOC programmes may suit those working away from the office regularly Staff taking advantage of the scheme must buy a three-year service contract.
“From that point forth the device is their responsibility, and not that of the company’s,” adds Mr Hollison. “We don’t asset manage it in any way.
“If they want to fill it full of photos and videos of their children, they’re free to do so, because the connection back to Citrix is securely in the data centre.
“The device is effectively just a viewer.”
Critics of the strategy have flagged security as a concern, pointing out that people may do things with their own equipment they wouldn’t consider with a company laptop. Mr Hollins says they have not found this.
“One of the pre-requisites is to have a standard McAffee anti-virus installed on the device. Outside of that the connectivity back to Citrix is done by our own technology which is inherently secure.”
Alan McBride, IT infrastructure project manager at SNR Denton, points out that data is only held in the data centre.
“The design that we implemented was that no data or access to the device was enabled locally, so you can plug in your USB but it would not be registered when you have a Citrix connection. “
Chris Knowles is head of solutions at IT services provider Dimension Data, who also provide virtualisation and BYOC services. He says cost and employee morale are just some of the benefits of a BYOC strategy.
Copy cat: Tablets like the iPad can also access your desktop using virtualisation applications “I can see it becoming almost the norm for mobile workers, provided that the IT department can understand how to deal with the application provision and the security of it.
“Especially as we see the uptake of virtual desktop technology, given that the data never leaves your data centre – you can’t store it or save it remotely.”
Mr Knowles says that companies thinking of adopting the strategy need to consider the applications that employees need on their desktops.
“You need to provide clear guidelines on what that end equipment should be capable of doing, around the security of that device and acceptable usage and protection policies for corporate data.”
He says it may not be laptops that drive uptake.
“I think it’s tablets that will probably drive the phase the heaviest, because the simplicity of them, the power they have, the overall portability and sheer ease of use.
Citrix’s Mick Hollison agrees. “It’s interesting what’s taken place with the tablet market. In my estimation a lot of BYOC is going to become more like BYOT. “
Before sacking half the IT department, there are other considerations for businesses considering a BYOC policy.
Graham Hann is technology partner at European IT law firm Taylor Wessing. He says companies need to remember friends and family often have access to personal laptops.
“This opens up security risks, the data on there is potentially going to be viewed by more people.”
“How much control does the company have? Maybe not very much”
Erik Sherman BNet columnist
Mr Hann stresses the need for businesses to review security policies.
“A lot of it’s common sense – use of passwords, management of passwords, updating passwords, or two stage authentication.”
“I think regulated businesses, such as banks, are going to take a lot longer to adopt these kind of structures.”
Depending on the jurisdiction there are other issues – it could be considered an employee benefit, leading to tax implications.
In the EU consideration needs to be given to who qualifies for the scheme – excluding part-time workers could disproportionately affect women, leaving business open to claims of discrimination.
Not everyone is convinced that dividing your IT budget between your staff is a wise move. BNet columnist Erik Sherman says the driving factor behind the strategy may have more to do with wishful thinking than reality.
“How much control does the company have? Maybe not very much. There’s the risk that the employee has downloaded something, a virus at home, and then look, it’s on the network.
Graham Hann says firms must keep up with industry best practice. “Why do you assume the employees are going to spend the money on the service contract just because you told them to?”
He is also sceptical about how useful those service contracts are likely to be.
“Have you ever got anything repaired through a chain store? I have – it took like four weeks.
“Please don’t tell me it’s going to go any faster because I bought the computer for work?”
Despite this, whether the driving factor is cost-cutting, employee satisfaction or flexibility, companies like Dimension Data and Citrix have found that over the last year there’s been a marked increase in interest in BYOC.
Regarding their in-house programme, Citrix’s Mick Hollinson says nearly 20% of staff have taken advantage of the scheme.
“It’s shown on average savings of 15-20% versus a traditional desktop deployment.”
“I have a new employee of my own, a new director of marketing within the company. He came on board, and within the first week he joined the BYOC programme.
He went out and purchased himself a brand knew Mac, he was very happy to get the device, and the company was very happy to not have it on their books.”
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Mr Gove said banks could not get around the coalition’s levy on their balance sheets Michael Gove has said the behaviour of banks has been “outrageous” and they have to show “they get it” over bonuses and lending to small businesses.
The education secretary told the BBC’s Question Time he disagreed with Barclays boss Bob Diamond that the “time for remorse” from banks was over.
But he defended the coalition’s bank levy in the face of Labour attacks.
Labour’s Diane Abbott said ministers did not understand public anger and should call the “banks’ bluff”.
Ministers have come under pressure to act amid reports that the chief executives of two banks bailed out by the taxpayer in 2008 are in line for bonuses worth millions of pounds this year.
The government has said it cannot dictate what bonuses Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group pay their top executives but has pressed them to show responsibility in the current tough financial climate and sensitivity to public opinion over the issue.
Treasury officials are holding talks with the banks and Chancellor George Osborne is keen to secure a “settlement” with them over remuneration and boosting loans to businesses.
Asked on Question Time whether banks needed to be subject to either “legislation or castigation”, Mr Gove replied “both”.
“The sense of contrition seems to be invisible”
Michael Gove Education Secretary
In a strong attack on the City, Mr Gove said bank bosses had paid themselves “astronomical” sums and “appear to me to be living in a parallel universe to the rest of us”.
“The sense of contrition for what went wrong in the banking crisis seems to be invisible,” he added. “The banks have to show they get it.”
He said the coalition’s levy on bank balance sheets was a better way of making sure companies made a fair contribution to tackling the deficit than extending Labour’s bank bonus tax.
The government and the opposition have clashed over the merits of their respective plans, with each side claiming their measure will bring in more money than the alternative.
Ms Abbott, the shadow health minister, described some of the reported bonuses as “grotesque” and said they would encourage the kind of risk-taking which caused the 2008 banking crisis.
She said ministers should not be deterred from a dedicated bonus tax by threats of bankers moving abroad.
“I think it is time to call the bankers bluff. Voters in all the major jurisdictions, the US and Europe, want to see something done on bonuses,” she added.
Former Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy said he believed there was still a “vigorous debate” going on between the coalition partners about how to limit bonuses and increase levels of lending.
Senior Lib Dems, led by Business Secretary Vince Cable, are reported to want to take a tougher line than the prime minister and the chancellor – although Mr Osborne has said that “all options remain on the table” should banks not put together a more sustainable plan to boost lending.
“I hope our angle on that argument prevails. It has to,” Mr Kennedy told the same programme.
The reported size of bonuses being planned was a “disgrace”, he added, suggesting the banks were “waving two fingers to Parliament, democracy and all of us” through their conduct.
Both RBS and Lloyds Banking Group have insisted they have not decided on what bonuses to pay yet.
Appearing before MPs earlier this week, Mr Diamond suggested it was time for attacks on the banks to cease, saying they had a vital role to play in securing the economic recovery.
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A blizzard of retailers have been reporting on how they fared over the crucial Christmas period.
And, perhaps not surprisingly, many are pointing to the freezing December weather for problems they have endured.
But what have we learned about the state of the High Street and the confidence of the consumer?
Snow nonsense?
The BRC says December’s bad weather made the month an even tougher month for retailers Pity the young children of Britain who, according to retailer Halfords, had fewer bicycles bought for them this Christmas.
A rebellion against the two (and three) wheelers perhaps?
Not according to the retailer who insist it is just a blip – and that the only reason they have been saddled with more bikes on their shop floors is that people were put off buying them by the snow. Not much of a gift if there is a chance you cannot play with it on Christmas morning, one supposes.
But Halfords is not alone. The likes of Tesco, Next, HMV, Clinton Cards and Mothercare are among those saying sales over the crucial Christmas trading period were hit by December’s weather.
Indeed, says Richard Hunter of Hargreaves Lansdown stockbrokers, December’s snowfall “has become the cliché of the season, replacing (at least for the moment) the ‘challenging environment'”.
And while he will name no names, he believes there are some retailers using the weather as a “scapegoat” for a poor set of results.
After all there are still plenty of retailers who rely on visitors to the High Street and out-of-town shopping parks – JD Sports for example – who had a good spell.
Supermarkets rule?
Until Thursday morning a clear picture was emerging.
“This below-par performance from Tesco will raise an eyebrow or two in the market and the industry”
Analysts Shore Capital Stockbrokers
While many High Street names had struggled, the supermarkets were doing well.
Customers had been piling in, loading their trolleys with turkeys, sprouts and Christmas puddings.
And then, while they were there, they were stocking up on presents of clothes, books, DVDs, radios too – saving themselves a trip to the High Street.
First, Morrisons reported a growth in like-for-like sales.
Then, more emphatically, Sainsbury’s announced its “best ever” Christmas sales despite the “challenging weather conditions” as the UK’s third-largest supermarket chain said non-food sales had grown particularly strongly.
However the supermarket theory lost momentum after Tesco came in with a much more modest performance – and while those top-of-the-range mince pies had gone down well, growth in sales of non-food goods was “subdued”.
This was compared with a strong year in 2009, the world’s third largest retailer said, and there was the “weather disruption for customers travelling to larger stores” to consider too.
But it was enough to disappoint investors and send Tesco shares lower.
“This below-par performance from Tesco will raise an eyebrow or two in the market and the industry,” said analysts at Shore Capital Stockbrokers.
However for a sweet insight into the continued importance of the supermarket, look no further than Thorntons.
Its High Street shop saw sales fall by almost 6% over Christmas – which along with Valentines Day and Easter is traditionally its busiest period.
But demand for its chocolates overall was up by nearly 4% thanks to sales in other outlets – principally supermarkets.
Consumer says No?
The post-Christmas sales were also a chance to beat the VAT rise So if many High Street stores have suffered, and the likes of Tesco have not taken up the slack, where were all those gifts being bought?
Certianly the department stores did well, despite having to contend with the same weather.
John Lewis enjoyed sales growth of 7.6% over Christmas, while House of Fraser, which has 61 stores, also had a bumper season with growth above 8% – perhaps because of the one-stop-shop they offer.
But the British Retail Consortium (BRC) has said that overall, sales declined 0.3% on a like-for-like basis in December 2010.
And according to Verdict Research – it may not just have been the bad weather that hit consumer spending .
“Retailers were expecting a bit of a last hurrah at Christmas because of what has happened in the past few years,” says Matt Piner, an analyst at the firm.
“Previously customers have tended to throw caution to the wind and Christmas was the time of year where, if they were a bit low on confidence, they’d still spend.
“There has been less of an opportunity for people to make off the cuff purchases they normally make a lot of at Christmas”
Matt Viner Verdict Research
“This year it feels they have finally been more cautious and that worries about inflation and job security have felt more real.”
He added that while the weather had been disruptive, it had “given consumers an excuse to reign in spending”.
“There has been less of an opportunity to make the off the cuff purchases people normally make a lot of at Christmas.
“Consumers were a lot more discerning, getting what they need rather than the discretionary purchases,” Mr Viner said.
And with pay rises – if they are awarded – tending to lag well beyond inflation, and the VAT rise pushing up costs, economists say there are many other reasons why consumers are feeling squeezed.
Did we click?
On the face of it, Christmas 2010 was a triumph for online shopping.
John Lewis said that uncertainty about deliveries brought customers into stores Monday 7 December was designated Cyber Monday, with Brits spending some £350m in a single day online as they got stuck in to festive shopping.
And research group IMRG expects December sales will have been well above its earlier forecasts of 16% growth on 2009.
“Parts of the UK were completely shut off and people increased the amount of shopping they did from the comfort of their homes,” said IMRG’s managing director, David Smith.
He added that the early snowfall at the end of November caused a surge of online sales activity, with the gifts sector recording a month-on-month increase of 123%.
But online retailers have not had it all their own way.
True, many retailers saw e-commerce boom as in the first snow fell, making shopping at home with credit card in one hand and steaming mug of tea in the other far preferable to slipping and sliding down the ungritted High Street.
But then there was a reversal in this trend, as doubts arose about whether online deliveries would reach homes in time for Christmas.
Online retailers warned of delays as backlogs of parcels built up at depots that could not be reached by lorry.
Some stopped online sales completely – or brought forward their guaranteed Christmas delivery deadlines.
And there has been a suggestion that the uncertainty drove footfall to stores.
“When the weather turned for a second time closer to Christmas, shoppers wanted the reassurance of having their goods in their hands and our shops saw sales surge as a result,” says John Lewis managing director Andy Street, though his business did manage to generate about £545m worth of online sales.
Firms that allowed customers to buy online but collect items themselves – essentially getting the benefit of cheaper prices without being at the whim of delivery companies – also saw results.
House of Fraser creditted the lauch of such a service as part of the reason for its sales holding up in the cold snap.
And while Argos saw overall salls fall, it said that the internet represented 38% of its sales, worth more than £700m in the last four months of 2010 and up from 35% in 2009. About three quarters of these were online reservations – where customers then came to stores to pay for and pick up products.
Tesco Direct saw its online sales climb by 18% while they were up by 25% at Marks & Spencer – a store which had a good Christmas, adding to the very mixed picture.
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Andy Murray will play Karol Beck in the Australian Open first round and has avoided being drawn in the same quarter as Rafael Nadal or Roger Federer.
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The month-long protests have reached the centre of the capital, Tunis Tunisia’s president has said he will not seek a new term in office in 2014, following widespread protests which have left at least 23 people dead.
Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali also said he was also ordering police to stop using live fire against protesters.
Mr Ben Ali, who has ruled the country since 1987, was speaking hours after police fired live shots at protesters in the capital, killing one man.
Human rights groups say more than 60 people have died in weeks of unrest.
Speaking in his third nationally-televised address since the violence began, Mr Ben Ali, 74, said there was “no presidency for life” in Tunisia.
He said he would not attempt to remove the upper age limit for presidential candidates from the constitution.
The president said he felt “very, very deep and massive regret” over the deaths, and that he had ordered his interior minister to ensure that troops stopped firing on protesters unless they were under threat.
“I won’t accept that another drop of blood of a Tunisian be spilled,” he said.
After the speech was broadcast, there were reports of cheering crowds gathering in the capital, and cars honking their horns.
Tunisia’s main opposition leader, Najib Chebbi, welcomed the announcement, but said he was waiting to see “concrete details” of the plans.
The BBC’s Adam Mynott in Tunisia says Mr Ben Ali, who earlier this week blamed the unrest on “terrorists”, has a very sceptical nation to convince.
The fact that violent protests have erupted in towns all over the country shows how widespread the feeling of resentment towards the government is, says our correspondent, and it remains to be seen what response his comments will have.
The president also addressed other key concerns of the protesters, pledging to reduce restrictions on internet access and take action on food prices, which have gone up fourfold in recent weeks.
Mr Ben Ali said there was no “presidency for life” in Tunisia The protests began in mid-December, after an unemployed graduate set himself on fire when police tried to prevent him from selling vegetables without a permit. He died a few weeks later.
The demonstrations were initially about high unemployment and rising food prices, but have escalated to include general anger towards the president over what is perceived to be a corrupt ruling elite.
Earlier this week, Mr Ben Ali dismissed his interior minister in an apparent attempt to stem the unrest.
The government has previously blamed religious groups and opposition parties for stoking the violence.
Mr Ben Ali is only Tunisia’s second president since the country gained independence from France in 1956.
He came to power in 1987 and was last re-elected to a five-year term in 2009 with 89.62% of the vote.
Tunisia is a popular tourist destinations but several countries, including the US and the UK, have advised their citizens against travel to the country while the unrest continues.
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