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Bahrain opposition figure returns

Bahraini Shia opposition leader Hassan Mushaima at Bahrain International Airport in Manama, 26 February 2011

Mr Mushaima called on the government to be responsive to the demands of protesters

A prominent Bahraini opposition leader, Hassan Mushaima, has returned to his country from self-imposed exile in the UK.

The return of the senior Shia figure comes after the government dropped charges against him as one of several concessions made to protesters.

He was greeted by a crowd of supporters waiting at the airport to receive him.

Meanwhile, thousands of demonstrators marched in the capital, Manama, as protests continue for a 13th day.

Mr Mushaima is known for his strong opposition to the ruling Sunni dynasty, and was sentenced in absentia last year on charges of trying to overthrow the government.

He was welcomed by supporters at the airport, where he told the BBC that he wanted genuine democratic reform that could turn Bahrain into a constitutional monarchy.

“We want a real constitution. They’ve promised us (one) before and then did whatever they wanted to,” Mr Mushaima told reporters at the airport.

The BBC’s Owen Bennett-Jones said that Mr Mushaima’s Haq Movement has a significant following in Bahrain’s Shia community and his return could make a difference to the political situation.

Shia account for about 70% of the country’s 525,000 people.

Mid-East unrest: Bahrain

King Hamad, 61, has been in power since 1999Population 800,000; land area 717 sq km, or 100 times smaller than Irish RepublicA population with a median age of 30.4 years, and a literacy rate of 91%Youth unemployment at 19.6%Gross national income per head: $25,420 (World Bank 2009)Country profile: Bahrain Resentment boils over Global concerns over Bahrain ‘Hope and fear’

Mr Mushaima has a reputation as being a radical, and in the past he has named members of the royal family as being corrupt and called for the king to be subject to the rule of law.

Meanwhile, opposition protesters marched from the capital’s landmark Pearl Square to the prime minister’s office, calling for him to resign.

Many waved Bahraini flags and chanted: “The people want the fall of the regime”.

The government’s decision to drop charges against Mr Mushaima is one of the concessions that it has offered the opposition in the hope of securing its participation in a process of national dialogue.

The cabinet has also been reshuffled, with four ministers being removed.

The question now is whether the government is willing to offer enough to heal the deepening rifts in Bahraini society, our correspondent says.

Bahrain – home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet – is the first Gulf country to be thrown into turmoil by the wave of unrest sweeping the Arab world.

On Friday, the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen visited Bahrain and described the country as a critical long-time ally.

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

Iran unloads Bushehr nuclear fuel

The Bushehr nuclear plant has been hit y repeated delays

Iran has confirmed it is having to remove nuclear fuel from the reactor at the Bushehr power plant, the latest in a series of delays to hit the project.

On Friday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it had new information on “possible military dimensions” to Iran’s nuclear plans, which Iran says are purely peaceful.

The IAEA will supervise the unloading of fuel from Bushehr, Iran’s nuclear envoy Ali Asghar Soltanieh said.

Iran began the Bushehr project in 1976.

Iran’s Fars news agency says the fuel is being removed for “technical reasons”.

The fuel at Bushehr is being provided by Russia, which built the plant and whose engineers will carry out the unloading, under the supervision of the IAEA.

“Upon a demand from Russia, which is responsible for completing the Bushehr nuclear power plant, fuel assemblies from the core of the reactor will be unloaded for a period of time to carry out tests and take technical measurements,” Mr Soltanieh said, according to the semi-official Isna news agency.

The BBC’s Tehran correspondent, James Reynolds, says diplomats suggest the entire core of the Bushehr plant is being replaced – potentially a serious problem.

There has been some speculation that the Stuxnet computer virus may be responsible, our correspondent says.

Analysts say Stuxnet – which caused problems at another Iranian enrichment facility last year – has been specially configured to damage motors commonly used in uranium-enrichment centrifuges by sending them spinning out of control.

Some experts believe that the problems at Bushehr call into question the safety and effectiveness of Iran’s nuclear facilities as a whole, our correspondent says.

The IAEA report – obtained by the BBC and made available online by the Institute for Science and International Security (Isis) – says Iran is “not implementing a number of its obligations.”

These include “clarification of the remaining outstanding issues which give rise to concerns about possible military dimensions to its nuclear programme”.

Six world powers are negotiating with Iran over its nuclear programme, and the country is subject to United Nations Security Council sanctions over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment.

Enriched uranium can be used for civilian nuclear purposes, but also to build atomic bombs.

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

Obama calls for budget consensus

Mr Obama said agreement would not be easy

US President Barack Obama has urged Congress to find “common ground” over the budget to prevent a government shutdown.

In his weekly radio address, Mr Obama said economic recovery would stall if lawmakers could not agree on spending cuts before a 4 March deadline.

Republicans and Democrats are trying to work out a compromise short-term budget as an interim measure.

The 2012 budget proposes a $1.1tn (£690bn) deficit cut over a decade.

Although Mr Obama is empowered to propose a budget, it is up to the US Congress to pass it into law and then to distribute the funds.

“Next week, Congress will focus on a short-term budget. For the sake of our people and our economy, we cannot allow gridlock to prevail,” Mr Obama said in his weekly radio address.

“I urge and expect them to find common ground so we can accelerate, not impede, economic growth,” Mr Obama said.

“It won’t be easy. There will be plenty of debates and disagreements and neither party will get everything it wants. Both sides will have to compromise,” he added.

“There will be plenty of debates and disagreements and neither party will get everything it wants.”

President Barack Obama

The president unveiled his proposed budget earlier this month and described the proposal as a “down payment” on future cuts to the US budget deficit.

He said the US had to live within its means and called for some reductions, but said “we can’t sacrifice our future” with drastic cuts.

But Republicans, who control the House of Representatives, do not think the cuts go far enough in tackling the deficit.

Republicans put together an interim proposal to cut $4bn (£2.5bn) in federal spending on Friday as part of legislation to keep the government operating for two weeks past the deadline.

House Democrats have reportedly responded positively to the plan, according to CNN.

Neither party wants to be blamed for a government shutdown, but the Republicans say any plan will have to include cuts.

“Our goal as Republicans is to make sensible reductions in this spending and create a better environment for job growth, not to shut down the government,” Senator Rob Portman said in his party’s weekly address.

On Friday, fourth quarter US growth was revised down to a 2.8% annual rate from the 3.2% previously estimated.

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

Free book scheme handed 50% cut

Adult and child reading together [Thinkstock]

Booktrust has received government funding since 2004

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A charity that gives free books to children in England has been told it will have a 50% cut in funding, two months after fears over its future sparked a political “U-turn” row.

The Department of Education will spend £13.5m over two years on Booktrust.

In December, the government was accused of a partial U-turn over the charity.

First it was told it would lose all its government grant for bookgifting. But after a backlash, ministers said some funding would continue.

At the time, children’s author Philip Pullman said scrapping the scheme would be an “unforgivable disgrace” and former poet laureate Sir Andrew Motion warned of “an act of gross cultural vandalism”.

Meanwhile Labour leader Ed Miliband accused the government of presiding over a “fiasco” and being “mean-minded”.

Announcing the new funding, a Department for Education spokesman said: “The free bookgifting scheme will be delivered by the successful Booktrust charity with government investment valuing £13.5m over two years – half the cost of the previous scheme.”

Booktrust had previously been given an annual budget of £13m for its bookgifting programme.

The charity – which started in 1992 and has received money from the government since 2004 – provides packs of books to parents when their babies are first born, and again at later stages in their development.

It is funded separately by the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Education Secretary Michael Gove said the scheme would “help all children to develop a love for books and will crucially provide extra support to address the needs of children who live with disadvantage”.

Booktrust chief executive Viv Bird said the “significant reduction in central funding” meant the charity had had to make “tough decisions” about the future shape of the bookgifting programmes.

One was losing lose one of the universal packs as part of the Bookstart programme, she said.

“We are pleased that we have been able to safeguard the core bookgifting offer, so that every child has access to books at key stages of their development,” she added.

Under the new agreed funding, babies up to a year old are to be eligible for Bookstart Baby.

Toddlers aged 12 to 30 months will be able to get books through Bookstart Corner, only through Sure Start Children’s Centres.

Three to four-year-olds have the universal offer with Bookstart Treasure Bag, while children aged four and five and 11 to 12 are also eligible.

Bookstart charity co-founder Wendy Cooling was made an MBE in 2008 for services to children’s literacy.

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

Cesars for Polanski and Tarantino

Polanski and Tarantino were among this year’s Cesar recipients

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Roman Polanski has been named best director at the Cesar awards for his political thriller The Ghost Writer.

The film, released as The Ghost in the UK, won three additional prizes for its screenplay, music and editing.

But Polanski missed out on the best film prize, which went instead to the French religious drama Of Gods and Men.

US director Quentin Tarantino received an honorary Cesar at the Paris event, where Facebook drama The Social Network was crowned best foreign film.

Jodie Foster presented Of Gods and Men director Xavier Beauvois with the best film award

Of Gods and Men, inspired by the murder of seven French monks in Algeria in 1996, had led the field ahead of the ceremony with 11 nominations.

Apart from its best film award, though, it only received two other prizes – one for supporting actor Michel Lonsdale and another for its cinematography.

The best actor prize went to Eric Elmosnino for his portrayal of French singer Serge Gainsbourg in a biopic named after him.

His compatriot Sara Forestier was named best actress for The Names of Love, about an activist who converts political opponents to her cause by sleeping with them.

Tarantino was presented his award by Diane Kruger and Christoph Waltz, two of the stars of his 2009 war movie Inglourious Basterds.

Two-time Oscar winner Jodie Foster introduced the event, with French comedian Antoine de Caunes serving as master of ceremonies.

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

LinkedIn service resumes in China

LinkedIn believes it is now available again in China

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Business networking site LinkedIn says access to its services appears to have been restored in China, a day after it was blocked there.

“We will continue to monitor the situation,” a US spokesman for the site said.

Shortly before the site went offline on Friday, one user set up a forum, discussing the idea of a “Jasmine Revolution” in China.

The phrase has been used to describe the popular revolts in the Middle East.

The Agence France-Presse news agency says that one of its journalists in Beijing was able to access the LinkedIn site on Saturday.

Last weekend, a number of pro-democracy demonstrations were held across China, with police making a handful of arrests.

The protests are thought to have been organised in response to calls made on the website Boxun.com, access to which is banned inside mainland China.

Shortly afterwards, a LinkedIn user named Jasmine J created a group called Jasmine Voice.

In one posting, they wrote: “OMG, some pro-democracy fighters really did something here after the triumph of Egypt.”

China already exercises strict control over what citizens can view online, with many websites and politically sensitive subjects blocked. Access to Facebook and Twitter is barred.

But LinkedIn, which is used by a relatively small number of professionals, is accessible via domestic internet servers within China.

However the authorities there appear to have increased the level of filtering in response to the wave of popular uprisings across the Middle East.

Searches for the word “jasmine” are now blocked on the country’s most popular website, Sina.com.

Internet users inside the country reported that some sites were also blocking information on Jon Huntsman, the US ambassador to Beijing.

Mr Huntsman was seen attending one of last weekend’s pro-democracy rallies.

Campaign group Reporters Without Borders criticised the escalation in Chinese net censorship, accusing the authorities of trying to stamp out “all forms of freedom of expression”.

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

VIDEO: Five Minutes With: Jon Culshaw

Impressionist Jon Culshaw talks to Matthew Stadlen about how he discovered his talent for mimicking voices, the rich pickings in the world of politics, how he studies his “victims” and what other careers he might have pursued.

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

GPs told how to spot meningitis

Bacteria are one of the causes of meningitis

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Doctors should check for leg pain, confusion, stiff neck and sensitivity to light in children as the “red flags” for meningitis, a study says.

Headaches, pale colour and cold hands and feet are not reliable early signs of the disease, the report in the British Journal of General Practice says.

The classic meningitis rash appears later during an infection.

Charities said parents should still keep an eye out for all symptoms.

Approximately one in 10 patients infected with the condition will die.

Meningitis is an inflammation of the membranes which cover the brain and spinal cord and can be caused by a viral or bacterial infection.

The researchers said half of children with the condition were initially misdiagnosed, perhaps because symptoms such as the classic rash, appear later in the infection.

The study looked at symptoms at the early stages of the disease by following 1,212 cases at 15 GP surgeries in Oxfordshire and Somerset.

The authors said: “Only confusion, leg pain, photophobia, rash and neck pain/stiffness can be considered ‘red flags’ for this illness.”

They said headache and a pale colour were less common in children with meningococcal disease than in those with minor infections.

Sue Davie, chief executive of the Meningitis Trust, said: “Anything that helps early diagnosis is a good thing.”

“It’s important for parents to trust their instincts”

Chris Head, Meningitis Research Foundation

However, she said this was advice for GPs and warned against parents ignoring other symptoms: “I’m always cautious about homing in on one or two symptoms as parents need to be vigilant against them all.

“Everyone gets hung up on the rash, a third of people said they wouldn’t take action without a rash and that can be deadly.”

Chris Head, chief executive of the Meningitis Research Foundation, said: “This is a significant move forward to enable early recognition of these diseases. Not everyone with meningitis and septicaemia gets all the symptoms.

“Children with septicaemia may not have a stiff neck or dislike of bright lights. Children with meningitis may not get a rash.

“That’s why it’s important for parents to trust their instincts and not be deterred from seeking medical help again if their child gets worse after being seen by a doctor.”

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

Supply talk eases oil price surge

West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil Futures $/barrelLast Updated at 25 Feb 2011, 06:45 ET *Chart shows local time

West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil Future intraday chart

price change %97.83+

+1.71

+1.78

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Oil prices have retreated from Thursday’s multi-year highs amid optimism producers could offset a drop in supply caused by unrest in Libya.

Brent crude was trading at $112.65 a barrel, after almost breaking through the $120 mark i the previous session.

US light crude was at $97.49 a barrel having surged past $100.

Reports suggest Saudi Arabia has increased its oil production by almost 10% to offest production shortages resulting from the unrest.

Global stock markets gained ground after the threat of rocketing oil prices receded.

Leading European markets Paris and Frankfurt were up about 0.5% in early trading – though London’s FTSE 100 index was suspended due to a technical fault.

Earlier, Singapore’s STI stock index and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng saw increases of more than 1% while markets in South Korea, Japan and Taiwan also gained.

Analysts said that the mood had been helped by comments from Saudi Arabia and the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Saudi Arabia has said that it would step in to fill any shortfall in supply should it be needed now, or should the Libyan situation deteriorate.

Reuters news agency quoted an oil industry source saying that Saudi had increased production by 700,000 barrels a day to more than 9 million a day in total.

At the same time, the IEA said that Libyan production had been less affected than many observers had first forecast.

Analysts said that the markets want to see crude supplies becoming available as and when they are needed.

The worry is that if oil prices climb too high, then they will slow global economic growth, and hurt consumers and company profits.

Trying to predict the oil price when it is being driven by geopolitical events, rather than the fundamentals of supply and demand, is particularly difficult, analysts say.

“The fear factor in the market remains high, as the extent of contagion remains unknown,” said Barclays Capital.

“The price correction, should the situation in the Middle East ease somewhat or in the event of Opec production increases, is likely to be quite sharp.”

However, others argued that the drop in the price of oil seen on Thursday afternoon would be short lived.

“I think oil prices are going to trade higher, even with Saudi assurances,” said Tom Kaan at Louis Capital Markets in Hong Kong.

“I think Opec wants to see higher oil prices.”

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

All clear for weather satellites

The first MTGs will launch later this decade

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The all clear has been given for Europe to press ahead with the 3.4bn-euro (£2.9bn) project to build a next-generation weather satellite system.

Eumetsat, the international agency charged with looking after Europe’s Meteosats, said on Friday that all participating nations had now agreed to the programme and its financing.

The new system should bring a step change in weather forecasting capability, guaranteeing European access to space-acquired meteorological data until at least the late 2030s.

Full approval has come thanks to a decision by Belgium’s caretaker government to support the project financially. The nation has not had a ruling administration since a general election in June, and was unable to commit the necessary funds when asked to do so at a meeting of the 26-nation Eumetsat organisation in December.

But the caretaker government has now indicated that Belgium will honour its commitments and this has allowed the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) programme to go into full implementation.

Belgium was not the only member state in Eumetsat to have difficulty in meeting the costs of MTG. Portugal, with its vast public debts, also struggled to meet the timetable for implementation, and only came onboard in recent weeks.

Eumetsat Director-General, Dr Lars Prahm, welcomed the news: “It was not an easy process and the overall financial situation in Europe certainly did not help but I am very pleased to see that all member states have now approved a vital programme which will assure the future of Eumetsat’s geostationary observations over Europe, Africa and the Atlantic Ocean over the next few decades.”

METEOSAT – BIGGER, BETTER

Europe’s 1st imaging satellite (800kg) was launched in 1977; it had just three channelsToday’s 2nd generation imager (above) has 12 channels; it’s a 2-tonne class spacecraftThe planned 3rd generation imager will be a 3-tonne satellite; it will have 16 channelsMTG adds a second platform: a sounding satellite to see the different layers in the atmosphere

MTG will be one of the biggest and the most complex space projects ever undertaken in Europe.

It will be run as a joint undertaking between Eumetsat and the European Space Agency (Esa)

The latter will act as the R&D partner, developing the technology. The former will then operate the space platforms.

MTG will comprise six satellites in total, with the first spacecraft likely to be ready to enter service in 2018.

The platforms will be of two types: an imaging spacecraft to picture weather systems, and a sounding spacecraft (one which can return information about different layers in the atmosphere).

They will be quite unlike their forebears – the second-generation satellites (MSG) that provide weather data today.

For example, MSG satellites are spin-stabilised and build up their images as they rotate across the field of view.

The MTG spacecraft, on the other hand, will look more like standard telecommunications platforms. They will sit and stare at the Earth.

Their image data will have a much higher resolution (capturing details as small as 500m across) and will come down to the ground in a fraction of the time – in as little as 2.5 minutes.

The new spacecraft will also carry many innovations that should translate into more accurate and more detailed weather forecasts.

One key development is an Infrared Sounding Instrument that has been pioneered on Europe’s Metop polar-orbiting Earth-observation spacecraft but which will now be flown in a geostationary orbit by MTG 36,000km above the planet.

The instrument will be able to detect layers of moisture in the atmosphere long before they have developed into weather systems.

[email protected]

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

Gassy galaxies defy dark matter

“Low surface brightness” galaxies like F549-1 lend greater precision to the Mond theory’s predictions

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A controversial theory that challenges the existence of dark matter has been buoyed by studies of gas-rich galaxies.

Instead of invoking dark matter, the Modified Newtonian Dynamics theory says that the effects of gravity change in places where its pull is very low.

The new paper suggests that Mond better predicts the relationship between gassy galaxies’ rotation speeds and masses.

However, critics maintain that dark matter theory is a better general description of the Universe we see.

The study, available online, will be published in Physical Review Letters.

The theory that first proposed dark matter was developed in large part to account for mass that, if everything else we think about gravity is correct, seemed to be missing in rotating galaxies.

Standard formulations of gravity have it that matter circling, for instance, spiral galaxies, should rotate more slowly with increasing distance from the centre of the galaxy – much as the outer planets in our Solar System orbit more slowly than their innermost counterparts.

But the matter in rotating galaxies seems consistently to rotate with roughly equal speed near their cores and at their edges.

In the standard dark matter theory, cosmologists proposed a massive yet invisible quantity of material in order to solve this “flat rotation curve” problem.

This dark matter is imagined to exist in a “halo” around galaxies, providing the extra gravitational pull necessary to speed up those outlying bodies.

By contrast, Modified Newtonian Dynamics (Mond) first appeared in 1983, when Mordehai Milgrom of the Weizmann Institute in Israel proposed it in an Astrophysical Journal paper.

As a modification to the dearly-held formulation of gravity laid out by Isaac Newton, the theory came immediately under fire. It has always maintained a minority position among theories proposed to solve the missing mass problem.

Now, Stacy McGaugh of the University of Maryland in the US says that a study of galaxies that have few stars and are dominated by gas adds weight to the Mond theory.

“Sometimes I wish I didn’t work on this…if your own data don’t get in your face about this, it’s easy to say ‘so-and-so screwed up’”

Stacy McGaugh University of Maryland

The current work hinges on what is known as the Tully-Fisher relation, which maps out the interplay between galaxies’ mass and their speed of rotation.

However, mass estimation is a tricky business because it depends on the amount of light a galaxy emits, which varies considerably with the types and quantities of stars it contains.

To get around this error, Professor McGaugh studied 47 gas-rich galaxies with few stars, known as low surface-brightness galaxies.

He found that the Mond theory neatly predicts the relation between the galaxies’ masses with their rotation speed – and contends that dark matter theory would do so far less accurately.

“My attitude toward low surface brightness galaxies at first was ‘great, this will finally be able to falsify the Mond theory’,” Professor McGaugh told BBC News, “but it was the only thing that explains this shift in the relation.”

“Whenever I look at smallish things like individual galaxies it works really well.”

However, he conceded that “when you get up to the big scale of clusters of galaxies and you try to apply Mond to the whole thing, you fall short of fixing the missing mass problem”.

Lambda-CDM theory holds that dark matter “haloes” surround galaxies and clusters

Dan Hooper, a theoretical astrophysicist at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in the US, said that Professor McGaugh’s formulation “overstates the case” in that it assumes all galaxies will have the same ratio of normal matter to dark matter.

“That’s not what we’d expect,” he told BBC News.

“Some galaxies have very little stars and gas material compared to dark matter, and we don’t expect the biggest galaxies to have the same fraction – which would change the shape of that line (relating galactic mass to spin speed).”

“I don’t think the Mond/dark matter debate hinges on the Tully-Fisher anymore,” he added. “Mond only explains galaxies – everything else it fails to do or simply can’t address.”

Nevertheless, Mond still counts several prominent cosmologists among its adherents, and Professor McGaugh said his work continues to show that Mond is a serious contender that dark matter theory will have to work to disprove.

“Sometimes I wish I didn’t work on this,” Professor McGaugh said. “If your own data don’t get in your face about this, it’s easy to say ‘so-and-so screwed up’.”

He maintains that Mond represents a missing piece of the dark matter model that a majority of his peers hold to be a complete picture of the makeup of our Universe.

“At the very least, it’s telling us something about dark matter that’s not native to our current model.”

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

Delay to higher education plans

David Willetts wants to see a market in university fees

The government is to delay the publication of its plans to reform higher education in England, partly so that it can take into account what fees universities are likely to charge.

The Higher Education White Paper was due to be published by March 2011.

But universities minister David Willetts said he was delaying it in part to see how “price-setting works this spring”.

It comes after MPs voted to raise fees to between £6,000 and £9,000 a year.

The vote was a difficult issue for the coalition government as the Liberal Democrats had opposed any rise in tuition fees.

Labour said the delay showed the coalition’s plans for higher education were “in trouble”.

Mr Willetts has repeatedly warned university vice-chancellors against automatically going for the higher fee level.

Concerns have been raised about the cost to the Treasury of providing subsidised loans to cover raised fees.

The government has used average fees of £7,500 to model its proposals, but higher education experts have suggested that most universities will want to charge nearer £9,000 to avoid being seen as a poorer option.

Speaking to vice-chancellors meeting in London, Mr Willetts warned that if average fees were above £7,500, the government would have to consider cutting teaching grants further by “making offsetting reductions”.

The government’s plans already assume cuts of about 80% to teaching grants, with the money to be replaced by raised tuition fees.

“We have decided to take more time on developing the White Paper”

David Willetts Universities Minister

Originally ministers said higher fee levels would only be allowed in “exceptional circumstances”.

Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial have all suggested they will charge £9,000 a year.

Mr Willetts said: “We have decided to take more time on developing the White Paper – in part to test proposals more thoroughly among the sector, student and other experts; in part to learn from how price-setting works this Spring”.

A spokesman for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said fee levels and where and what students decided to study would influence how much money was available for universities.

He said the White Paper, which will set out the wider reforms to the university sector, was now likely to be published before June.

Universities have to submit their draft access agreements – their commitments on measures to help recruit disadvantaged students – to the Office for Fair Access in April.

These will then be finalised with the regulator and published in July.

But in order to give vice-chancellors an insight into his plans, Mr Willetts confirmed that private providers would be allowed to access the government-subsidised student grants and loans system.

And he confirmed that he would be inviting debate on the issue of whether universities would be allowed to accept additional self-funding students.

These are students who pay for their courses themselves without recourse to the government package of fees and loans.

He said: “What are the pros and cons of universities being able to recruit additional students off quota at no cost to public funds, and can that be done in a …socially progressive way?”

He also said he would work with the Home Office minister, Damian Green, to ensure that any controls on student visas “don’t inadvertently make the UK less attractive to genuine students wanting to come and study”.

Labour’s shadow universities minister Gareth Thomas said: “The delay in publishing the White Paper on Higher Education is further proof that the government’s plans are in trouble.

“Universities are having to plan their future whilst waiting for the government to make its mind up on a whole series of major questions.

“Trebling tuition fees isn’t fair, wasn’t necessary and it’s increasingly clear; the sums don’t add up either.”

He has also writing to Mr Willetts asking for clarifcation on a range of issues.

Paul Marshall, executive director of the 1994 Group of smaller research intensive universities said it was disappointing that the White Paper setting out the package of reform was being delayed.

“With the sector getting to grips with changes to fee arrangements introduced before Christmas, the government must be aware that delaying the White Paper risks creating uncertainty and instability.

“Well targeted radical reform is welcome, but the aims and ambitions need to be clear.”

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

VIDEO: Red alert over fake wine fraudsters

David Reid visits Chateau Margaux to discover the serious steps they are taking to protect their wine from fraudsters

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

Economy shrinks more than thought

Bad winter weather is blamed for the bulk of the UK economy’s contraction at the end of 2010

The UK economy shrank by more than previously thought during the last three months of 2010, revised figures show.

Gross domestic product (GDP) slipped by 0.6% in the period, according to fresh data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Its initial estimate had suggested the economy had contracted by 0.5% – with heavy snow blamed for the slump.

However the ONS said that the revision was not a dramatic one.

“It’s not that much of a shock, this is a very small revision,” the organisation’s chief economist Joe Grice told BBC News.

“The snow effect we think is still 0.5%. On the basis of that, the economy is still flattish at minus 0.1%. The overall picture is still a flattish underlying economy in the fourth quarter.”

The ONS statement added that manufacturing appeared to have done quite well, but that the construction industry was weak. The services sector, which accounts for a large percentage of the economy, contracted.

GDP figures for a particular quarter are produced first as a so-called “flash” estimate, and are later revised at least twice as more detailed information is collated.

“It wasn’t a bad dream. The recovery really did stall in the final three months of 2010, and it wasn’t only the weather. That is the most important conclusion to be drawn from today’s second round of GDP estimates for the fourth quarter”

Stephanomics: No good news on GDP

Labour has criticised the the introduction of a VAT rise and the government’s plans to dramatically cut public spending while the recovery remains fragile.

But a Treasury spokesman said it stood by its position.

“The chancellor said that the fourth-quarter growth figures were disappointing and today’s revision doesn’t change that fact.

“It also doesn’t change the need to deal with the nation’s credit card – the country is borrowing more this year than is spent on the entire NHS.

“What’s more, the survey data so far this year has exceeded expectations.”

The BBC’s economics editor, Stephanie Flanders, said: “Those looking for bad news in these figures (and that is usually everyone) might do better looking beyond the first page, to the trade and investment tables towards the back.

“Investment was 2.5% down on the previous quarter, and was a key factor in the slowdown.”

Joe Grice, chief economist at the ONS: It is ‘a very small downward revision’

She added that net trade, once again, made a negative contribution to the recovery – exports growing 2.3%, but imports up 3%.

Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at IHS Global Insight, took a gloomy view, calling the figure “a hugely disappointing set of data”.

Documents from the Bank of England’s rate-setters, released on Wednesday, had hinted that those who had opposed a hike in rates this month would consider a change in stance if the UK’s GDP figures had suggested the economy had picked up.

Equally, as Vicky Redwood, an analyst Capital Economics, said, figures showing a worsening economics performance may cause a change of heart among those previously in favour of raising rates.

“The slight downward revision might give the more hawkishly inclined members of the MPC reason to pause for thought,” she said.

Three of the bank’s policymakers voted for a rate rise at the last meeting, with the remaining six Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) members voting to keep rates at historic 0.5% lows.

Minutes from the MPC’s last meeting stressed that recoveries from recession were rarely smooth, so more weakness would not be unusual – but it also said growth could pick up in the first quarter if the level of activity returned to normal after the snow, helped along by postponed expenditure.

The MPC will be watching closely to see how the economy has been performing so far this year, without the influence of severe weather.

Worries are growing about the recent pick-up in inflation, boosted by rising commodity prices and the VAT increase.

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

How much red meat should we eat?

Goodbye to the daily cooked breakfast?

Red meat lovers have been warned to cut down their intake by the government’s health advisers. So just how much red and processed meat should we consume?

If you regularly tuck in to a couple of sizzling rashers of bacon for breakfast, a ham sandwich for lunch and a juicy rump steak for dinner, then you are probably eating more than the new recommended allowance of red and processed meat.

In new guidelines recommended by the Scientific Advisory Commission on Nutrition, adults are advised to consume on average no more than 70g (2.5oz) of such meat a day – about 500g (17oz) a week – in order to cut the risk of developing bowel cancer.

This is the equivalent of three slices of ham, one lamb chop or two slices of roast beef a day. But how do our regular meaty meals fare against the new government daily guidelines?

Red meat meals versus daily guidelines

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