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Public health minister Anne Milton says people should wait until they are over 45 before getting into politics, making David Cameron too young to govern.
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Zoe Belfield had been riding horses most of her life Tributes have been paid to a student who died after falling from a horse the day after her 18th birthday.
Zoe Belfield, from Llandudno, Conwy, had ridden horses most of her life, and was described by a friend as “kind hearted, always smiling and happy”.
She was flown to Glan Clwyd Hospital, Bodelwyddan, after suffering a serious head injury near her home on Sunday, but died later.
She was studying A-Levels at Llandrillo College, Conwy.
A Welsh ambulance service spokesman said: “We were called on Sunday at 1.30pm to an incident involving an 18-year-old girl falling from a horse.
“The patient had suffered a serious, life-threatening head injury and was flown to hospital by air ambulance.”
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The London Ambulance Service (LAS) says it expects to cut 890 jobs over the next five years as part of an attempt to cut costs.
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Sony has settled its lawsuit with an American hacker who unlocked the secure operating system on the PS3.
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Yuri Gagarin: “I was never nervous during the space flight – there were no grounds for it”
Russia is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first human space flight when cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin completed a single orbit of Earth.
It will be marked by ceremonies and a 50-gun salute at the Kremlin in Moscow.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said it was a “revolutionary” event that changed the world.
Gagarin’s achievement earned him instant global stardom, and dispelled fears humans could not survive beyond the Earth’s atmosphere.
Since his flight in 1961, more than 500 men and women have followed in his footsteps.
Mr Medvedev is to visit mission control outside Moscow and talk with astronauts on the International Space Station to mark the event.
Later in the day, he will deliver a keynote speech on the future of the Russian space programme.
Before Gagarin, no-one knew for sure if a human could withstand the conditions in space, says the BBC’s Steve Rosenberg in Moscow; some believed weightlessness would induce madness, that the G-forces on take off and re-entry would crush the body, and there was concern over the effects of radiation.
Children watch a model rocket blast off during a celebration at a school in St Petersburg, Russia But when Gagarin’s face and voice were beamed down from space, the world saw that the cosmos was not to be feared – it was to be explored, our correspondent says.
On 12 April 1961, to the cry of “Let’s go!”, Yuri Gagarin embarked on a voyage lasting 108 minutes in a tiny two-metre-wide (6ft) capsule, then ejected and parachuted down into a field in central Russia.
“The most emotional moment was when we heard he was walking and waving; his arms and legs were whole. We understood in one sigh that our five to six years of hard work had paid off and we had achieved something huge,” said veteran cosmonaut Georgy Grechko, now 79, who worked as an engineer on Gagarin’s space capsule.
The US responded 10 months later, when John Glenn made the first US orbital flight.
Unlike in Gagarin’s time, space is no longer the preserve of two superpowers, our correspondent adds.
Today as well as Russia and America, there are other players in space, including Europe, China and India – with their own programmes and their own vision for space exploration, he says.
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Anti-US feeling across Pakistan has escalated in recent months Pakistan has asked the US to reduce the number of CIA agents in the country and to limit drone strikes along the Afghan border, US media reports say.
The reports quote unnamed officials and come as US and Pakistani spy chiefs met at the CIA’s headquarters in Virginia.
An official spokesman described those meetings as “productive”.
Relations between the countries have struggled to recover after a row over a CIA contractor who shot dead two men in the city of Lahore earlier this year.
Last month a Pakistani court freed Raymond Davis after acquitting him of two counts of murder, when relatives of the two men he shot dead pardoned him in court.
Mr Davis maintained the men had been trying to rob him.
The case stoked anti-American feeling across Pakistan and led to angry demonstrations – particularly when it emerged that he worked for the CIA. Hardline religious parties were keen to see him punished.
About 335 US personnel, CIA officers and contractors and special operations force personnel were being asked to leave the country, the New York Times reported. It quoted an unnamed Pakistani official said to be closely involved in that decision.
Pakistan also wants the removal of CIA contractors on assignments that Pakistan have not been informed about, Pakistani officials told the paper.
The officials estimated that would account for 25%-40% of CIA staff in the country. The reduction in CIA operations appears to have been personally requested by Pakistan’s army chief Gen Ashfaq Kayani.
Pakistan is also demanding restrictions in the US drone campaign aimed at eliminating militants in Pakistan’s restive north-west, another unnamed Pakistani official told the New York Times.
US drone attacks have escalated in the region since President Barack Obama took office. More than 100 raids were reported in the area last year.
Only American forces have the capacity to deploy drone aircraft in Pakistan The US does not routinely confirm it is conducting drone operations in Pakistan, but analysts say only American forces have the capacity to deploy such aircraft in the region.
Drone attacks are hugely unpopular with the Pakistani public. Correspondents say they have the tacit approval of the authorities, although Pakistani leaders deny secretly supporting the strikes.
Many militants, some of them senior, have been killed in the raids, but hundreds of civilians have also died.
The continuing strains in relations emerged as CIA director Leon Panetta and the head of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence directorate, Ahmed Shuja Pasha, met for discussions.
According to unnamed US officials quoted by the New York Times, no request was made at that meeting for reductions in CIA personnel.
“Director Panetta and General Pasha held productive discussions today and the CIA-ISI relationship remains on solid footing,” Preston Golson, a CIA spokesman, told Reuters news agency.
“The United States and Pakistan share a wide range of mutual interests and today’s exchange emphasised the need to continue to work closely together, including on our common fight against terrorist networks that threaten both countries,” he said.
These reports follow a candid interview that Pakistan’s President, Asif Ali Zardari, gave to the Guardian newspaper on Monday saying that the Afghan war was “destabilising Pakistan”.
He also rejected a recent White House report which said Pakistan lacked its own plan to fight insurgents in the country, adding that most US politicians lacked an understanding of the situation.
The BBC’s Syed Shoaib Hasan in Karachi says that Mr Zardari’s interview comes at a time when many in Pakistan feel that the US continues to point fingers at the country’s instability, while directly contributing to it with its actions along the Afghan border.
Mr Zardari’s statements are likely to meet with approval from Pakistan’s security establishment, which increasingly feels the US is taking its Pakistani alliance for granted, our correspondent said.
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The world’s first membership organisation dedicated to spreading happiness is launched in London.
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The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was crippled by last month’s earthquake and tsunami Japanese authorities have raised the measure of severity of their nuclear crisis to the highest level, officials say.
The decision was taken due to radiation measured at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi power plant, NHK reported.
The highest level for nuclear accidents (seven) had previously only applied to the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.
Meanwhile a 6.3-magnitude earthquake was reported off eastern Japan, the second tremor in as many days.
The aftershocks come a month after a huge quake and tsunami hit Japan, leaving nearly 28,000 dead or missing.
An official from the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan announced that the crisis level at the Fukushima Daiichi plant was being raised in a televised statement, adding that it was a preliminary assessment that was subject to confirmation by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The level seven signifies a “major accident” with “wider consequences” than the previous level, officials say.
Until now the incident at Fukushima was rated a level five, so upgrading to a level seven is a worrying jump.
But officials here point out that the change is not being made because of a sudden deterioration at the plant.
Rather a full assessment of the available data now suggests that Fukushima merits the higher rating according to internationally agreed standards.
There is no suggestion that the decision is related to a recent series of powerful aftershocks.
The move comes a day after the government announced it was extending the exclusion zone around the nuclear plant. Five communities where levels of radiation could pose a long term risk to health will be evacuated over the next month.
“We have upgraded the severity level to seven as the impact of radiation leaks has been widespread from the air, vegetables, tap water and the ocean,” said Minoru Oogoda of Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (Nisa), the government’s nuclear watchdog.
One official from the Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco), which operates the nuclear plant, said that radiation leaks had not stopped completely and could eventually exceed those at Chernobyl, Reuters news agency reported.
However, a nuclear safety agency spokesman told reporters the leaks were still small compared to those at the plant in Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union.
“In terms of volume of radioactive materials released, our estimate shows it is about 10% of what was released by Chernobyl,” he said.
The decision to raise the threat level was made after radiation of 10,000 terabequerels per hour had been estimated at the stricken plant for several hours.
That would classify the crisis at level seven on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (Ines).
It was not clear when that level had been reached. The level has subsequently dropped to less than one terabequerel an hour, reports said.
The severity level of Japan’s nuclear crisis has so far been set at five, the same as that of the accident at Three Mile Island in the US in 1979.
Japan has also said it is extending the evacuation zone around the crippled nuclear plant because of radiation concerns.
The zone will be widened to encompass five communities beyond the existing 20-km (12-mile) radius, following new data about accumulated radiation levels, officials said.
Japan’s nuclear commission said that according to preliminary results, the cumulative level of external radiation exceeded the yearly limit of 1 millisieverts in areas extending more than 60 kms (36 miles) to the north-west of the plant and about 40 km to the south-southwest.
On Monday, a 7.1-magnitude quake hit north-east Japan, leaving three people dead. It also triggered a brief tsunami warning, and forced workers to evacuate the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
Tuesday’s quake rocked buildings in the capital, Tokyo.
There were no immediate reports of fresh damage, though Japan’s Narita international airport temporarily closed its runways, and metro and train services were interrupted.
The cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant were damaged in last month’s disaster and workers have been struggling to prevent several reactors from overheating.
Officials have warned it will be several months before the situation at the nuclear facility is brought fully under control.
Tepco said on Tuesday that a fire had broken out briefly at Reactor 4, before being extinguished.
The official death toll from the disaster is 13,130, while 13,718 remain unaccounted for. More than 150,000 people have been made homeless.
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A scheme aimed at increasing the number of bees in the UK is encouraging farmers to plant more wildflowers.
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Inside Laurent Gbagbo’s Abidjan compound
Sporadic gunfire can be heard in Ivory Coast’s main city, Abidjan, a day after former President Laurent Gbagbo was arrested.
The BBC’s Mark Doyle in the city says it is not clear whether pro-Gbagbo forces or criminals are responsible.
But he says mortars are also being fired.
Mr Gbagbo was seized after refusing to accept defeat in last year’s elections. His successor, Alassane Ouattara, has appealed for the violence to end.
Our correspondent says Mr Ouattara’s first priority will be to restore security.
A joint operation by pro-Ouattara forces, the UN and French military captured Mr Gbagbo from his official residence, where he had been under siege for more than a week.
Mr Ouattara said Mr Gbagbo would be put on trial, and said a truth and reconciliation commission would be set up.
“The head of the snake has been cut off,” said one soldier loyal to elected President Alassane Ouattara. “Gbagbo’s militia will simply vanish now. The war is over.”
“It’s great,” said another man. “We are just so happy, and so relieved. The war is finished now.”
Is it? Much, I suspect, will depend on how Mr Ouattara handles the next few days, and what signals he sends regarding the treatment of both Mr Gbagbo and his armed supporters.
Troops now consolidating their hold on Abidjan will need to act forcefully to ensure there is not a rash of reprisal killings.
Some 1,500 people have been killed across the country and a million forced from their homes during the four-month stand-off in the world’s largest cocoa producer.
The UN and French forces intervened after they accused Mr Gbagbo’s forces of using heavy artillery against civilians.
The UN, which helped organise the elections, said Mr Ouattara won, but Mr Gbagbo refused to accept defeat.
In other developments:
The UN human rights office has confirmed the deaths of 536 people during recent fighting in western Ivory Coast; it has named a panel to investigateThe Reuters news agency reports that 14 bodies were found in the pro-Gbagbo area of YopougonFormer colonial power France has announced it will give Ivory Coast 400m euros ($575m; £350m) in emergency aid.
Our correspondent says some Abidjan residents are still too afraid to leave their homes in case they are caught by gunmen.
Many residents have been trapped for days by the fighting.
Alassane Ouattara’s forces are a mixture of army defectors, ethnic militias and traditional hunters Some pro-Gbagbo troops may have refused to surrender, or the shooting could be coming from some of the thousands of Gbagbo supporters who were given weapons to fight the pro-Ouattara forces, our correspondent says.
There are also reports of reprisal killings and there are hardly any police on the streets.
Our correspondent says the only robust and well organised force the new president can count on are the UN and French forces.
The pro-Ouattara forces, who swept down from their northern strongholds earlier this month, include army defectors, as well as ethnic militiamen and traditional hunters, who may not always obey orders or respect military discipline, analysts say.
An end to the insecurity would allow markets to re-open and people to return to their homes.
For life to return to normal, banks must also open.
They have been closed for more than two months because of financial sanctions imposed on Mr Gbagbo to try to force him from power.
Until a 2002 rebellion split the country in two, Ivory Coast was the most developed economy in West Africa and Abidjan was known as the “Paris of Africa”.
Speaking on his TV channel hours after Mr Gbagbo’s capture, a sombre Mr Ouattara appealed to Ivorians to “abstain from all reprisals and violence”.
“After more than four months of post-electoral crisis, marked by so many human lives lost, we are finally at the dawn of a new era of hope,” he said.
Mr Gbagbo, his wife Simone and his “collaborators” would be investigated by the judicial authorities, Mr Ouattara said, adding that their personal security would be guaranteed.
Mr Gbagbo and his wife have been put under UN police guard at Abidjan’s Golf Hotel, where Mr Ouattara has his headquarters.
Mr Gbagbo has been shown on pro-Ouattara TV sitting in a room, looking dazed but apparently uninjured, wearing an open shirt and white vest.
He called for an end to the fighting.
But French TV showed pro-Ouattara forces beating his son, Michel, and other Gbagbo supporters.
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Sackett used his hands and clothing to strangle Jessie A man with learning difficulties has been convicted of raping and murdering a 16-year-old girl in north London.
Zakk Sackett, 20, sexually assaulted and strangled Jessie Wright before dumping her body in an alley behind the flats where he lived in Islington.
The court heard he became obsessed with his friend Jessie and attacked her in March 2010 while high on cannabis.
Sackett told the Old Bailey she consented to sex but died accidentally after he got her in a head-lock.
Identified as a vulnerable defendant Sackett, of Outram Place, sat behind screens during the trial “to allay his fears about being seen by people in the public gallery”.
In the later stages of the trial he chose not to go into the court and refused to go in the dock as the jury delivered a unanimous verdict.
During the trial jurors heard he raped Jessie in a parking bay and used his hands and clothing to strangle her.
He then dragged her body to a footpath next to the flats where he lived with his grandmother, hauled Jessie over a wall and dropped her 15ft (4.5m) to the ground.
Jessie’s body was discovered the next day, partially covered with a piece of wood with her top pulled up and some of her clothes scattered around the area.
Tests showed she had injuries to her arms and hands and had died from compression to the neck.
Zakk Sackett had been in trouble in the past for assault and battery Sackett told jurors he would never harm Jessie, and that she was a “lovely girl” whom he still thought about, adding: “I have not got a bad bone in my body.”
His defence claimed the reason for dumping her body, selling her phone and later lying to police about what happened was that he was in a panic.
But prosecutors said Jessie was killed in the course of being raped by the defendant.
Her parents paid tribute to their “beautiful, loving girl” in victim impact statements read to the court.
Jessie’s father Anthony said: “She had a bubbly personality and anyone who had the honour of having her in their life loved her.
“She was an intelligent girl who would have had a bright future in front of her.
“We will never be able to come to terms with losing Jessie in this terrible way.”
Jurors were told Sackett’s parents died when he was an infant and he had been in trouble in the past for assault and battery as well as threatening behaviour.
He is due to be sentenced later.
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Robert Chalmers is accused of covering up the death of Samantha Wright A man has gone on trial at the High Court in Edinburgh accused of murdering a woman whose remains were found in a bin 16 months after her death.
Robert Chalmers, 59, denies murdering Samantha Wright, 24, who lived on Stevenson Drive, Edinburgh, “by means unknown”.
He also denies attempting to defeat the ends of justice after the alleged murder in June 2008 in Magdalene Drive.
Mr Chalmers blames another man, Vasile Ungureanu.
The charge claims that as part of a cover-up, between 12 June 2008 and 12 October 2009, Mr Chalmers attempted to dismember Ms Wright’s body and repeatedly failed to inform the authorities of her death, preventing them from investigating and finding out how she died.
It is also alleged that at some time during that period, Mr Chalmers removed the body, hidden in a house in Magdalene Drive, took off some of her clothes, dumped her remains in a refuse bin and covered her with foliage.
Mr Chalmers is also alleged to a have turned over a mattress stained with Ms Wright’s blood, to hide the marks, and to have got rid of blood-stained bedding and her clothes and personal items.
The trial before Lord Malcolm is expected to last about seven weeks.
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A UN torture investigator claims that US officials are denying him unmonitored access to alleged Wikileaks whistleblower Bradley Manning.
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Results are being announced at a state level – the official results will be out late this week Preliminary parliamentary poll results revealing big losses for the ruling party show Nigeria “has changed”, an analyst has told the BBC.
“It tells a story to every politician: You can no longer take Nigerians for granted,” Victor Burubo said.
High-profile PDP casualties include speaker of the lower house Dimeji Bankole and ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo’s daughter in the senate.
Despite some violence, observers said Saturday’s poll was well-conducted.
The initial vote had to be postponed from 2 April after voting material failed to reach many areas.
Previous elections since the return to civilian rule in 1999 have been marred by widespread fraud and intimidation.
Elections for the presidency and state governorships were also delayed and are now to be held on 16 and 26 April respectively.
With more than 70% of preliminary results announced at a state level, President Goodluck Jonathan’s People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has suffered significant losses.
The party that has dominated politics since the military returned to barracks has so far taken 59 seats in the 109-member senate and 140 seats in the 360-member House of Representatives.
Correspondents say it is not clear whether the PDP will lose its absolute majority in both houses as voting in some 13-14% of parliamentary constituencies – where polling had begun on 2 April – has been delayed until 26 April.
The party has lost out to two newly formed parties, the opposition Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in the south-west and to the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in parts of the north.
There was another embarrassing loss for the PDP in the northern state of Katsina where Maryam Yar’Adua, daughter of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, failed in her bid get into the House of Representatives.
But Mr Burubo, who leads the National Ijaw Council in the southern oil-rich Niger Delta, said the PDP’s bad showing on a parliamentary level would not affect the presidential vote.
“I have a feeling that a good number of areas where the PDP has been beaten will still revert to the PDP candidates, Dr Goodluck Jonathan and his running mate Sambo because of who they are are – not just because of the party,” he told the BBC’s Network Africa programme.
He said Mr Jonathan, who is from the under-developed Niger Delta where inhabitants have felt ignored by politicians, is popular in the region.
His main opponents on the presidential ticket are former anti-corruption campaigner Nuhu Ribadu for the ACN and former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari from the CPC.
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A poster promoting a play about incest is criticised by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Leeds for using an image of Christ and the Virgin Mary.
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