Israel's Interior Ministry announced the plans for construction in disputed east Jerusalem just as the U.S. vice president was wrapping up a series of warm meetings with Israeli leaders. There was no immediate reaction from Biden.

The body of Tassos Papadopoulos, who died of lung cancer in December 2008 at age 74, was found dumped in a Nicosia cemetery Tuesday. Why it was taken isn't clear. The country's justice minister said the motive was ransom, but the family says it never got any demands.

Toyota owners claiming that recalls have hurt the value of their vehicles have filed at least 89 class-action lawsuits that could cost the company $3 billion or more, according to an Associated Press review. Those estimates don't include potential payouts for wrongful death and injury lawsuits.

Mideast rivals Israel and Syria on Tuesday each announced ambitions to develop nuclear energy, with Israel facing the prospect that its plan could bring new attention to its secretive nuclear activities.

Vince Gilligan created the Emmy Award-winning drama Breaking Bad, starring Bryan Cranston as a high-school chemistry teacher who becomes a meth dealer to secure his family's finances. Gilligan tells David Bianculli why he chose Cranston for the role — and why he thinks Breaking Bad is different from every other show on TV.

David M. Walker is the former comptroller general of the United States. His book, Comeback America, details the current financial crisis and offers his ideas on controlling spending and restoring fiscal responsibility in the United States.

Excerpt: 'Eclipse of the Sunnis'

Is the biblically inspired Angelology the next Da Vinci Code? James Hynes' Next causes us to inaugurate the genre "Mick lit" (think middle-aged men and the Rolling Stones). A prominent advocate of No Child Left Behind reverses course. And ace spy John Wells is back, undercover and in deep.

The economy is tough for plastic surgeons, too. Some popular procedures, including breast augmentation and tummy tucks, are being performed a lot less often. Botox injections are holding steady, however.

Toyota owners claiming that recalls have hurt the value of their vehicles have filed at least 89 class-action lawsuits that could cost the company $3 billion or more, according to an Associated Press review. Those estimates don't include potential payouts for wrongful death and injury lawsuits.

The Internet company Google and the satellite TV company Dish Network are testing a television search service, according toThe Wall Street Journal. It involves a box for the television that has Google software. Viewers would use their keyboards to search for shows on satellite TV and on Internet sites like YouTube.

Toyota says it has proved that faulty electronics are not to blame for runaway cars and trucks that have been recalled. On Monday, the automaker assembled a group of experts, who said that unwanted acceleration is caused by mechanical flaws. Other experts disagree.

Lizards normally can't move very quickly when the temperature drops. But a new study shows that chameleons have a special adaptation that allows them to quickly catch prey, even when it's cold outside.

China is criticized for being the world's largest producer of carbon dioxide, but a new report shows that a quarter of that is emitted while making things for Western consumers. Researchers say that climate policy must account for emissions resulting from trade.

When writer John D'Agata moved his mother to the suburbs of Las Vegas, he began looking at the history of the government’s plan to store nuclear waste deep in Nevada's Yucca Mountain. The resulting boo—-- About a Mountai—-- is a reporter's notebook that reads like poetry.

Mussels hold tight to rocky seashores with the help of their strong but flexible "beards," or byssal threads. These threads are made of a sticky protein loaded up with iron that suggests a new way of making flexible but strong materials for industrial uses.

Since the Senate passed its version of a health overhaul Christmas Eve, most of the debate has focused on the politics of the effort. By now, many people have forgotten — if they ever knew — what the bill would actually do.

This is it, or so the White House claims: closing arguments on President Obama's effort to overhaul the nation's health care system. Obama asked Congress for a final vote this month, and to persuade Democrats to stick with him he was in suburban Philadelphia on Monday making his case.

On the day his resignation from the House of Representatives became official, Democrat Eric Massa leveled new charges at his party, saying he was forced out because of his opposition to the health care bill. Massa previously had said an ethics inquiry was the reason for his resignation.

Gov. Charlie Crist trails Marco Rubio, the darling of the Tea Party movement, in the polls. But Crist is trying to convince Republican voters that he is a true conservative and that his easygoing relations with Obama are not a case of bad politics, but good manners.

The Air Force is down to a single bidder for one of the largest contracts in Pentagon history. Northrop Grumman pulled out of the competition to build new aerial refueling tankers on Monday — saying the selection criteria were stacked against it. With Northrop's departure, Boeing is the sole bidder on the contract worth about $35 billion.

Toyota says it has proved that faulty electronics are not to blame for runaway cars and trucks that have been recalled. On Monday, the automaker assembled a group of experts, who said that unwanted acceleration is caused by mechanical flaws. Other experts disagree.

The Justice Department is requiring the nation's largest voting machine company to sell off assets it acquired when it purchased its main competitor. The federal government and nine state attorneys general have filed a lawsuit saying the combination last September of Election Systems & Software and its biggest competitor harms competition.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou meets President Obama at the White House Tuesday. The prime minister is seeking international support for his efforts to deal with the debt crisis in Greece. Papandreou says he is not looking for financial handouts, instead he's expected to ask Washington for political support for his domestic austerity measures.

Israel's Interior Ministry announced the plans for construction in disputed east Jerusalem just as the U.S. vice president was wrapping up a series of warm meetings with Israeli leaders. There was no immediate reaction from Biden.

The body of Tassos Papadopoulos, who died of lung cancer in December 2008 at age 74, was found dumped in a Nicosia cemetery Tuesday. Why it was taken isn't clear. The country's justice minister said the motive was ransom, but the family says it never got any demands.

Mideast rivals Israel and Syria on Tuesday each announced ambitions to develop nuclear energy, with Israel facing the prospect that its plan could bring new attention to its secretive nuclear activities.

UNICEF estimates that more than 20,000 children lost their parents in the Jan. 12 quake and its aftermath. Relatives or neighbors are caring for many of these children. Others, such as a group of boys in a Port-au-Prince park, are fending for themselves.

Israel recently reinstated a large import tax on Asian carp, which has hurt business for one of the largest producers of the fish, Schafer Fisheries in Thomson, Ill. Asian carp is used to make gefilte fish, a Jewish delicacy and staple at many Passover Seders.

It's been a tough winter for Florida's tomato crop. A devastating freeze last month wiped out production by 70 percent. The state provides almost all of the tomatoes consumed in the U.S. during this time of year. Farmers are struggling, and soon consumers will notice it too.

It was inevitable that interest in local, sustainable, ethical eating would lead back to hunting. Weekend Edition food commentator Bonny Wolf shares her experience attending a wild-game-friendly dinner party.

If you're tired of winter, Top Chef finalist Carla Hall has an early taste of spring: smooth, cool grapefruit-mint panna cotta with a tart red wine and pomegranate sauce.

President Obama traveled to Acadia University in suburban Philadelphia on Monday to make the case one more time for Congress to pass legislation to overhaul the nation's health care system. He went after Republicans for their unified opposition, and attacked big insurance companies.

Since the Senate passed its version of a health overhaul Christmas Eve, most of the debate has focused on the politics of the effort. By now, many people have forgotten — if they ever knew — what the bill would actually do.

This is it, or so the White House claims: closing arguments on President Obama's effort to overhaul the nation's health care system. Obama asked Congress for a final vote this month, and to persuade Democrats to stick with him he was in suburban Philadelphia on Monday making his case.

President Obama says during a speech in Pennsylvania that insurance companies will keep raising premiums "for as long as they can get away with it," as he embarks on his latest push to build support for a health care overhaul. Obama wants Congress to vote on a bill later this month.

The Connecticut Huskies basketball team beat No. 6 Notre Dame on Monday in the semifinals of NCAA's Big East tournament. UConn surpassed its own mark set from Nov. 9, 2001, to March 11, 2003.

The 65-team NCAA men's basketball tournament field won't be officially announced until this coming Sunday, but the first five invitations to the Big Dance were sent out over the weekend as conference tournament play began.

On last weeks' show, we made some jokes about figure skating ... and figure skating outfits. And, boy, did we hear about it. We'd like to make amends, so we've invited U.S. figure skater Johnny Weir to explain the black-and-pink corset number he wore during his Olympics short program.

Canadians are still basking in the glow of the Winter Olympics. But in Russia, which will host the next winter games, the mood is grim. Russian athletes performed like the Chicago Cubs in Vancouver, and the accusations are flying like shots into Ryan Miller's knee pads. Host Scott Simon talks to Tom Goldman about the week's sports news.

Elizabeth Farry, community relations manager for the Girl Scout Council of Colonial Coast, talks about using Girl Scout Cookies as ingredients in other recipes. Farry has tried many of the recipes on the Girl Scouts' Web site, including fried caramel delights, thin mint brownies and do-si-dos peanut Thai chicken.

Gone are the days of hisses and beeps. Now, most of us log on to the Internet through silent, fast — and often pricey — broadband connections. But at a time when many families are trying to trim the monthly budget, there may be alternatives to those plans. Omar Gallaga of the Austin American-Statesman offers his insight.

Only 41 percent of Americans know what their home Internet download speeds are. But it's good to know: Speeds typically register 10 percent to 20 percent below the limit consumers pay for. There are easy ways to tell if the connection is slow — and Web sites that can help analyze Internet connections.

If you drive a newer car, chances are it's controlled to a surprising extent by computers. Slate's technology columnist Farhad Manjoo says don't be afraid of the computers under the hood — they're far safer than most drivers.

We have plenty on the docket for Oscar weekend, including a liveblog, part two of my encounter with the Best Picture marathon, and an appearance by a comedy staff you might recognize.

Playing a foul-mouthed, gun-toting grandma made Tyler Perry a big — and frequently criticized — name in black entertainment. But Perry, who was an executive producer on the Oscar-winning film Precious, is now looking to take his work in a new direction.

The Hurt Locker, a film about an explosive ordnance disposal technician in Iraq, took home many big awards. But since the movie was released, some soldiers have said that the movie doesn't portray them accurately or honestly.

The Iraq War drama The Hurt Locker has won best picture and five other prizes at this year's Academy Awards. The Top acting prizes went to Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart and Sandra Bullock for The Blind Side. Christoph Waltz won supporting actor for Inglourious Basterds and Mo'Nique for Precious.

Her eyes half-closed, Minneapolis MC Dessa flowed through the rhymes from her new album, A Badly Broken Code, at KEXP. Her hands moved with the rhythm, and her voice was pitch-perfect.

"Lion Face Boy" is the first single from Seabear's sophomore album, We Built a Fire, and it's a perfect display of the band's knack for constructing mountains of instrumentation on a simple idea. The track opens with understated vocals and drums, but eventually bursts into a swarm of piano, horns and guitar.

The tenor sax is a powerful instrument. This is especially apparent in music created by mighty jazz masters whose skills shaped sounds still reflected in present-day compositions. Hear five great pairings, battles and studio jam sessions.

There's a simple logic behind Samuel Barber's emotional Adagio. It progresses from a single note to high emotional wailing to release to final acceptance. On today's centennial of Barber's birth, take a guided tour of the music with commentator Rob Kapilow.

Republican Roy Ashburn, who consistently voted against gay rights measures during his 14 years in statewide office, told a radio station he felt compelled to address rumors that he visited a gay nightclub before his arrest. The 55-year-old father of four said he had tried to keep his personal life separate from his professional life.

This is it, or so the White House claims: closing arguments on President Obama's effort to overhaul the nation's health care system. Obama asked Congress for a final vote this month, and to persuade Democrats to stick with him he was in suburban Philadelphia on Monday making his case.

On the day his resignation from the House of Representatives became official, Democrat Eric Massa leveled new charges at his party, saying he was forced out because of his opposition to the health care bill. Massa previously had said an ethics inquiry was the reason for his resignation.

Gov. Charlie Crist trails Marco Rubio, the darling of the Tea Party movement, in the polls. But Crist is trying to convince Republican voters that he is a true conservative and that his easygoing relations with Obama are not a case of bad politics, but good manners.

If you drive a newer car, chances are it's controlled to a surprising extent by computers. Slate's technology columnist Farhad Manjoo says don't be afraid of the computers under the hood — they're far safer than most drivers.

We have to get it off our chests: Yes, it matters when you talk out loud during the movie.

In her weekly commentary, host Michel Martin says that the many monthlong commemorations of cultural and ethnic histories in the U.S. are more than just fanfare. The observances serve a much larger role: to speak truth to widespread ignorance and to foster respect for diverse contributions to American history.

Barack Obama will have a chance to do something he hasn't done particularly well during his first year in office: successfully defy his opponents and, at the same time, reassure his most loyal supporters. The key, says John B. Judis, is in recess appointments the senate won't confirm.

A long-overdue overhaul of America's space agency has been announcedIN 2004 George Bush announced a plan for America's space agency, NASA, to return to the moon by 2020, land there, explore the surface and set up a base. The moon would then serve as a staging post for a journey to Mars. It was, unfortunately, unclear how this modest proposal would be paid for and, as work began and costs spiralled, the 'vision' seemed more science fiction than science. On February 1st, reality caught up. The back-to-the-moon programme, Constellation, with its Ares rocket (pictured), fell victim to Barack Obama's need to find cuts. The Office of Management and Budget described it as over budget, behind schedule and lacking in innovation due to a failure to invest. The office also said Constellation had sucked money from other, more scientific programmes, such as robotic space exploration and Earth observation. ...

This year's meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science looked at, among other things, fire, siestas, alien life and nuclear forensicsCALIFORNIA, though regarded by some as one of the more civilised parts of the world, is prey to wildfires. Last August, for example, a fire took hold to the north of Los Angeles. Over the course of almost two months it devoured 65,000 hectares (160,000 acres) of chaparral and forest, destroyed 89 houses and claimed the lives of two firefighters. Over the past few years other parts of the American west have burned in similar fashion. Australia, too, saw serious fires last year. The question on many people's minds, therefore, is whether such fires are becoming more common, and if they are, whether that is a result of climate change. To examine this question (and many others, in many fields of scientific endeavour), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) held its annual meeting this year in San Diego. On February 19th a session was devoted to the environmental role of fire. It brought together palaeontologists and ecologists, as well as climate experts, because fire is a natural and useful part of both past and present ecosystems--a fact that human fire controllers have only reluctantly come to recognise in their zeal to snuff out any blaze as soon as possible. ...

A new manual for diagnosing diseases of the psyche is about to be unveiledON FEBRUARY 10th the world of psychiatry will be asked, metaphorically, to lie on the couch and answer questions about the state it thinks it is in. For that is the day the American Psychiatric Association (APA) plans to release a draft of the fifth version of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V). Mental illness carrying the stigma that it does, and the brain being as little-understood as it is, revising the DSM is always a controversial undertaking. This time, however, some of the questions asked of the process are likely to be particularly probing.The DSM, the first version of which was published in 1952, lists recognised psychological disorders and the symptoms used to diagnose them. In the United States, what is in it influences whether someone will be diagnosed with an illness at all, how he will be treated if he is so diagnosed, and whether his insurance company will pay for that treatment. Researchers in other countries generally defer to the DSM, too, making the manual's definitions a lingua franca for the science of medical psychology. And, perhaps most profoundly, the DSM influences how mental illness is understood by society at large. ...

How to analyse smuggled uraniumBETWEEN 1992 and 2007, according to Ian Hutcheon of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, in California, 17kg of highly enriched uranium was seized from smugglers around the world, along with 400 grams of plutonium. In neither case is that enough for a proper atom bomb, but it is still worrying. Presumably, more is out there. Even if it is not, the material that has been found could have been used to make a 'radiological' weapon, by blowing it up and scattering it around a city using conventional explosives. Dr Hutcheon is one of those charged with analysing this captured material, to discover how dangerous it really is and where it came from--and thus whether it has been stolen from legitimate nuclear projects or made on the sly. At the AAAS meeting in San Diego, he showed off some of the tricks of his trade. His main tool is a device called a secondary-ion mass spectrometer. This measures the flight path of ions (electrically charged atoms) through a magnetic field. The lighter an ion is, the more the field bends its trajectory. The spectrometer can thus distinguish between, say, 235U (the fissile sort, from which bombs are made) and 238U (which has three extra neutrons in its nucleus and is much less fissile). Natural uranium has only seven atoms per thousand of the former. Weapons-grade uranium is 95\\% 235U. The 'depleted' uranium used in armour-penetrating shells, by contrast, is almost pure 238U. ...

India's Maoist guerrillas carry out two slaughters, then offer a truceSHORTLY before midnight on February 17th residents of Phulwari, a village in India's northern state of Bihar, were roused by gunfire, explosions and a shrieking mob. It was led by a few of the Maoist guerrillas encamped on a wooded ridge outside the village. Wearing camouflage-green uniforms, they carried assault rifles and explosives. Around 100 rival villagers, of the locals' own Kora tribe, came with them, with bows and arrows and a few small children.Peeping from his mud hut, Kashi, a middle-aged tribal, considered loosing off a few retaliatory arrows, dipped in poison. 'But there were too many,' he recalled this week, standing beside the heap of fine, grey ashes that was his home. His aunt and nephew were incinerated inside it. Kashi's brother--their husband and father--was shot dead while trying to flee with him. In all, 12 villagers were killed that night and around 30 houses destroyed. ...

The economy is booming and politics stable. Yet China's leaders seem edgy'THE forces pulling China toward integration and openness are more powerful today than ever before,' said President Bill Clinton in 1999. China then, though battered by the Asian financial crisis, was busy dismantling state-owned enterprises and pushing for admission to the World Trade Organisation. Today, however, those forces look much weaker. A spate of recent events, from the heavy jail sentences passed on human-rights activists to an undiplomatic obduracy at the climate-change negotiations in Copenhagen last December, invite questions about the thinking of China's leaders. Has their view of the outside world and dissent at home changed? Or were the forces detected by Mr Clinton and so many others after all not pulling so hard in the direction they were expecting? ...

Coalition forces enjoy one of their better weeksNO CHAMPAGNE, one assumes, for General Stanley McChrystal. To the chagrin of his German and Italian colleagues, the earnest American leading NATO forces in Afghanistan has banned alcohol at his Kabul headquarters. But he must be mightily satisfied with developments this week.A much-trumpeted offensive in Afghanistan's bloodiest province, Helmand, was launched on February 13th, centred on the insurgent stronghold of Marja, and has so far gone rather well. Meanwhile, it emerged that the Taliban's deputy leader and operational commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, was recently captured in Karachi, Pakistan. Pakistani co-operation in his arrest marks a shift for a government that has tolerated Taliban leaders on its soil since they fled Afghanistan in 2001. ...

Chinese communism's classic textsTHE year of the Tiger began this week as usual in China with cascades of fireworks and, as is now also the custom, of celebratory text messages on mobile phones. Like the pyrotechnics, Chinese text messages come in a variety of colours: yellow, grey, black and now, with official endorsement, red. Yellow refers to the smutty type, and grey or black to spam messages, many of which offer products or services of various shades of legality. Recently the government has been stepping up efforts to eradicate such abuses. To steer public thinking, it is encouraging the sending of politically correct 'red texts'. ...

America is rallying its friends to concentrate minds in the Islamic RepublicSURELY it is clear by now, many people feel, that Iran would rather go on enriching uranium than talk to America or anyone else about its suspect nuclear activities. If efforts to tempt it round have failed, could a tight economic squeeze lead the regime to think again about the costs of its defiance? A new sanctions resolution will soon be up for discussion at the United Nations Security Council. But suppose the UN cannot get Iran to halt its work to process uranium and plutonium--for use in as yet unbuilt civilian nuclear-power reactors, Iran says, though others suspect they are for bomb-building. In that case, a lot more governments may have to be induced to impose eye-watering economic pain so as to get the regime's attention. ...

A new pattern in opinions about bureaucrats, business and charity UNTIL recently, opinions about the public and private sectors tended to move in mirror image. Some societies mistrusted the state but expected a lot from private firms. In others the state was revered and the reputation of firms was in doubt. And in countries like China where respect for the state ran deep, people were also sceptical of private efforts to do good. Over the past year, patterns have shifted. The latest in a series of annual polls of the 'informed public'--successful, educated people who follow the news--in 22 countries shows that in most, trust in government and the private sector is moving in step, either up or down. In Russia confidence on both fronts is down. In Germany the latest year showed a modest rise (from 35\\% to 41\\%) in trust in government and an equal climb (from 33\\% to 39\\%) in the number who had high hopes of business. Britain was an outlier. There, trust in the state fell (from 41\\% to 35\\%), whereas trust in the private sector inched up, from 45\\% to 47\\%. ...

The professional and presumably state-directed killing of a leading Palestinian has been exposed in embarrassing detail. Perhaps such methods have had their day USING subterfuge to entrap and kill adversaries, in locations far from any battlefield, has been a feature of conflict for the past 3,000 years or so--at least since Jael, one of the warrior heroines of ancient Israel, lured the enemy commander Sisera into her tent, lulled him to sleep with a refreshing drink of milk, and then used a tent peg to smash out his brains. In modern times targeted killing is a more elaborate business, and many of the finer points--how the victim is stalked, how many people are involved--usually remain under wraps. But the plot to eliminate Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a Hamas commander who was found dead in a Dubai hotel room on January 20th, has been laid bare in stark detail by the police in that country, not normally regarded as a model of open government. ...

Modern technology makes killing easier--but harder to get away with ONLY a decade ago the assassins who killed Mahmoud al-Mabhouh would have disappeared into oblivion. Now that is much harder, and not merely for the obvious reason that lenses are ubiquitous. Modern cameras capture more than blurred images: they record the precise bone structure of people's faces. Digitised and interpreted by an algorithm, this information is fed to police computers all over the world. The net is closing around old-fashioned secret-service methods. Biometric passports are already the norm in most European countries. Their chips hold easily checkable data such as retina scans, which are both unique and unfakeable. The thought of an easily disproved false identity fills spymasters with horror. They remember the fate of western agents, in the Soviet Union after the second world war, whose painstakingly forged identity documents had a fatal flaw: they used stainless steel staples, rather than the soft iron fastenings found in authentic Soviet documents. The tell-tale absence of rust allowed Stalin's secret police to spot them. ...

The damage to the world's biggest carmaker may be lastingSAFETY recalls are a common enough occurrence in the car industry. If handled correctly, few have long-term consequences for the manufacturer involved. However, the disaster now engulfing Toyota is of a different order. Not only is Toyota's brief reign as the world's largest carmaker threatened but, more important, so too is its reputation for matchless quality and management. Rivals that had grown used to living in the Japanese firm's shadow are quietly celebrating. Toyota's decision last month to recall 2.3m vehicles in America and then to suspend sales and production of eight models with potential faulty accelerator pedals (it later took similar steps around the world, involving 8m vehicles) has sent shock waves through the industry. The good news was that Toyota announced on February 1st that it had come up with a cure for the sticking pedals which, along with badly fitting floor mats (the subject of another massive recall late last year), have been blamed for at least 19 deaths and more than 2,000 incidents of 'unintended acceleration'. ...

Investors get out their chequebooks for electric-car start-upsTHE idea of the 'Netscape moment', a fund-raising that signals the spawning of a whole new industry, is dear to Silicon Valley types who think back fondly to the browser firm's spectacular initial public offering in 1995. So it was not surprising that in late January Shai Agassi, a former software entrepreneur, greeted a $350m investment in his company, Better Place, led by HSBC, in just those terms. Better Place, based in Palo Alto, which hopes to be the leading infrastructure provider for the world's growing fleet of electric cars, has raised nearly $700m in two years, making it one of the biggest 'clean-tech' start-ups. A few days later, lending some weight to Mr Agassi's claim, Tesla Motors, a pioneering maker of battery-powered sports cars co-founded by Elon Musk, another technology entrepreneur, filed for an initial public offering aimed at raising $100m. There is certainly much discussion of electric cars all of a sudden, although not as much as the internet prompted in 1995 (see chart).Two questions arise. The first is whether Mr Agassi is right in believing that electric vehicles and the industry required to support them are about to enter the mainstream; the second is whether the charge will be led by disruptive innovators like himself and Mr Musk, or whether they will end up being trampled underfoot by the traditional automotive and energy-supply heavyweights. ...

A champion of futuristic biofuels embraces the old-fashioned kindRISING oil prices and mounting concern about global warming may have stoked demand for biofuels, but oilmen and farmers still have relatively little to do with one another. The biggest producers of ethanol are agribusinesses or farmers' co-operatives growing maize (corn) in America and sugarcane in Brazil. Big Western oil firms such as Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell have confined themselves to trading biofuels and blending them into their wares, while dabbling in research into a 'second generation' made not from sugar or maize but from straw, algae or agricultural waste. So the $12 billion joint venture unveiled on February 1st by Shell and Cosan, a big Brazilian producer of ethanol, marks something of a reversal.In Brazil, the world's most mature market for ethanol, the two firms will pool their retail operations. Globally, Shell's sales network, which already distributes more biofuels than any other, will benefit from yet more juice. Shell will invest $1.6 billion over two years, with a view to increasing the venture's annual output from 2 billion litres (440m gallons) to 4 billion litres or more. It will also throw in its stakes in Iogen, a Canadian outfit which is trying to make ethanol from straw, and Codexis, which makes enzymes to improve such processes. That should allow the new entity to capitalise on any technological breakthroughs in that area. ...

Toyota's woes highlight the question of how to manage a product recall--and how not to'FIRST, get the cow out of the ditch. Second, find out how the cow got into the ditch. Third, make sure you do whatever it takes so the cow doesn't go into the ditch again.' This is the homely advice that Anne Mulcahy, the former boss of Xerox, says became her mantra as she fought (successfully) to revive the fortunes of the copying and printing firm. It is a motto that Toyota, the world's mightiest carmaker, might also learn from as it struggles to get to grips with the escalating crisis that has appeared to overwhelm it in recent weeks. Product recalls are common enough among firms making consumer goods. Most are handled quickly and quietly. The companies involved suffer little harm to their reputation and, in some instances, may actually win praise from customers who feel their concerns have been acted upon promptly. But some hit the headlines and stay there for weeks, ultimately doing lasting damage to the business concerned. That is the ditch that Toyota is now in. How did it get there? How can it get out? And can it learn from other firms who have been through something similar? ...

A model transit project hits troubleIN 2004 Denver became a public-transport planner's dream. The sprawling western metropolis approved a $4.7 billion project, known as FasTracks, which aimed to add six new light and commuter railway lines along with 18 miles (29km) of bus lanes across the metropolitan area, all to be built by 2017. Thirty-two regional mayors backed the plan and residents agreed to help pay for it with a 0.4\\% sales tax, topped up with federal grant money. At the time, John Hickenlooper, Denver's mayor, said that 'the whole community came together in the region at a level that we've never seen before.'A lot has changed since then--little of it involving actual construction. Only one track is under way. Planning studies now price the project at $6.5 billion, because of higher construction costs and new safety requirements imposed after two commuter-rail crashes in California in 2005 and 2008. Meanwhile tax revenue is forecast at barely half of what was projected in 2004, thanks to the recession. ...

Rick Perry is poised to win Texas's Republican primary for the governorship--for the third time. Where might that take him next?ON FEBRUARY 15th several hundred conservative activists gathered in Plano, a suburb of Dallas, for a town-hall meeting. It was the sort of crowd where people discuss how to make their own ammunition because bullets are so expensive. In a side room Rick Perry, the governor of Texas, chatted to The Economist as he got ready to make his speech. He mocked Barack Obama's expensive stimulus package, and said if he was in charge of federal spending the departments of energy and education would be the first to go. When he went on, the crowd loved him. Mr Perry faces a gubernatorial primary on March 2nd. A Rasmussen poll on February 1st gave him a 15-point lead over his closest opponent for the Republican nomination, the state's senior senator, Kay Bailey Hutchison. As Mr Perry puts it, 'It has followed the game plan rather closely.' ...

Conservatives call him too weak to be a warrior. Tell that to the TalibanIF THERE is one thing conservatives agree on, it is that Barack Obama is not tough enough to be commander-in-chief. Some insinuate that he doesn't love America enough to defend it wholeheartedly. Never before has a president 'gone before so many foreign audiences to apologise for so many American misdeeds, both real and imagined,' grumbles Mitt Romney, a once and no doubt future Republican presidential candidate. Even France is lecturing America on the dangers of appeasement, which is like 'AIG lecturing us on financial responsibility', scoffs Tim Pawlenty, another aspirant. Mr Obama is 'the groveller in chief', says Michelle Malkin, a conservative blogger. An easy way to raise a cheer at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington last week was to bash the president for letting terrorists get 'lawyered up'. To tumultuous applause, Marco Rubio, a young Republican firebrand from Florida, urged a more robust approach: kill the terrorists or capture them, 'get useful information from them' and then 'bring them to justice...in front of a military tribunal in Guantanamo, not a civilian courtroom in Manhattan.' An anti-Obama bumper-sticker asked: 'So you're for abortion but against killing terrorists?' ...

How a small city in Virginia is replacing coal mines with tech jobsTHERE'S no reason for a city to be there, just a stream and a broad Appalachian valley. But Joseph Anderson wanted a city, and in the 1850s he willed one from the ground after a railway company built its state-line terminus on his father-in-law's farmland. He named it, oddly, Bristol, after one of England's biggest ports. 'Paradise' was his second choice. Now, after the decline of the area's timber and coal industries, paradise is what Bristol has left to sell. The city's cost of living is 20\\% below the national average. The mountains beckon, as does NASCAR's Bristol Motor Speedway. And Bristol offers what 87\\% of America's towns and counties lack: the optic-fibre internet.Bristol, Virginia and Bristol, Tennessee face each other across State Street, six blocks with a restored art deco theatre and 14 empty shopfronts. To the north, electricity comes from Bristol Virginia Utilities, which answers to the city council, a common arrangement in rural America. In 1999 BVU ran optical fibre among its substations and city offices, at first purely for internal use. It used its fibre to save the city money on its phone exchange, but local businesses soon wanted the same service. Home internet service followed in 2002. Then, with $9m in state and federal grants, BVU pushed its fibre north to eight counties in Virginia's Coalfield region. ...

Britain's exporters have a big job to do. Some think their government does tooRUSSIAN households literally cannot get enough exotic, boldly patterned British wallpaper. The demand is there but, as Graham & Brown, which makes the stuff in Blackburn, explains, the export-credit insurance is not. So instead of selling as much as it can--say GBP5m ($7.8m) worth--into Russia every three months with the proceeds insured, it is selling only GBP2m, taking on itself the risk that the Russian wholesalers will not pay their bills.With domestic demand sluggish and government spending constrained for years to come, Britain is counting on companies such as Graham & Brown to haul the country out of the economic doldrums by increasing their sales abroad. So is every other recession-hit country from the United States to Romania. But the weakness of sterling, down 24\\% on a trade-weighted basis since August 2007, has given Britain a big advantage, especially vis-a-vis its main trading partners in Europe. And earlier experience is encouraging: exports helped Britain recover after the recession in the 1990s. ...

The Britain section will soon be choosing an intern to work for several months this summer. Applicants should send a letter and an article of about 600 words that they think would be suitable for publication. A small stipend will be paid. Applications must reach patsydryden@economist.com by March 19th. ...

David Cameron searches for his 'council house' momentFOR all her privatisations of great industries and epic showdowns with reactionary foes, many ordinary Britons admired Margaret Thatcher for nothing sexier than letting tenants in social housing buy their homes. It was the moment when years of think-tank theorising about a property-owning democracy became as tangible as bricks and mortar. Four Conservative leaders have come and gone since then but the latest, David Cameron, also has an arresting vision that needs grounding in specifics. For years he has talked of giving power away, not only to local government but also to citizens themselves. His lieutenants evangelise about spreading data and money in a 'post-bureaucratic age'. Opponents variously disparage this as meaningless fluff or a veiled way of cutting public services. ...

Who and where are the voters who will decide the outcome of the general election?HE OR she must be out there somewhere. That is, according to some marketing men and pollsters. Every election throws up an identikit swing voter--'Mondeo man' and 'Worcester woman' in campaigns of yore--whose demographic group is said to hold the key to the outcome. The latest alliterative super-voters include the 'Swindon swinger' and 'Motorway man'; the latter connotes a rootless, consumerist 20-something who lives on a new housing estate and near a motorway junction. This week Bagehot headed north to try to find these mythical voters, and to discover whether they really hold such sway. He began in Bury North, in Lancashire. The textile mills that once sustained Bury are derelict; the steam railway that runs through it now carries tourists rather than cloth. But proximity to Manchester has helped it to weather the collapse of the old industries. The constituency also includes moorland and some prosperous villages. It is a classic marginal, falling to Margaret Thatcher in 1983 and to Labour in the 1997 landslide. To win in 2010, David Cameron's Tories need to reclaim it. ...

The IMF changes its mind on controls on capital inflowsLEFTOVER piles of slushy snow from the heaviest snowfall in over a century make it hard to take sharp turns on the roads of Washington, DC, these days. But the past couple of weeks have seen plenty of ideological swerves at the IMF's downtown headquarters. Earlier this month the fund's chief economist, Olivier Blanchard, questioned the focus of modern macroeconomic policy on keeping inflation low, arguing that central banks should aim at an inflation rate of 4\\%, rather than the conventional goal of 2\\%. Now a paper* by a group of IMF economists suggests that the fund has substantially rethought its position on the use of restrictions by emerging markets on capital inflows. It concludes that controls are sometimes 'justified as part of the policy toolkit' for an economy seeking to deal with surging inflows. ...

A set of positive indicators hides troubling realitiesPICK a number, any number. Statistics released this week show that the Japanese economy staged a vigorous rebound in the fourth quarter of last year. Real gross domestic product grew by 1.1\\% from the previous quarter, which amounted to an annualised rate of 4.6\\% (see chart). The economy is growing, but the closer you look the murkier things get. The bounce in fourth-quarter GDP partly reflects the economy's starting point. In the previous quarter growth had been nil, having been readjusted downward twice, from an initial estimate of 1.2\\% in November and a revised one of 0.3\\% in December. (If the latest numbers are to be believed, Japan's GDP ended up contracting by 5\\% last year.) ...

Bad debts are peaking and pay is falling at Europe's banksTWO years ago banks began to include tables in their results announcements that were designed to reassure investors that their exposure to toxic securities was under control. The crisis has moved on. Now one European financial firm's presentation includes a slide that pleads 'limited exposure to sovereign debt [of] Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain'. Yet whatever Europe's macroeconomic woes, a more optimistic picture is emerging from its lenders. Setting aside disappointing results from Societe Generale of France, which was hit by more write-downs on American assets, the evidence from fourth-quarter results is that the pace at which loans are souring has peaked. ...

American regulators approve long-awaited restrictions on short-sellingTHE main cause of the financial crisis may have been reckless optimism, but the pessimists are hardly being hailed as heroes. When stockmarkets tumbled in 2008, short-sellers--those who borrow shares and sell them in the hope of buying them back later at a lower price, thereby profiting from a fall in their value--were cast as villains. Politicians have wanted to clip their wings ever since. On February 24th, after a year-long debate, America's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) responded with fresh curbs on shorting.The restrictions will be triggered when a stock has fallen by 10\\% or more in one day. At that point, short-selling would be allowed only if the sale price is above the best available 'bid' in the market. This provision could affect a fair number of shares--4\\% of the market on an average day, and much more in turbulent times, the commission calculates. ...

In several countries more official data are being issued in raw form so that anybody can use them. This forces bureaucrats and creative types to interact in new waysCorrection to this articleYOU might think that Clay Johnson, a campaigner for transparency, would be pleased to see a ferret, with a deerstalker hat and magnifying glass, pop up on his screen. This creature is the mascot for BetaDataFerrett, an online application offered by America's Census Bureau. ...

The joy of unlimited communicationWHAT will the future of social networking look like? Imagine this: your digital video recorder automatically copies a television show that several of your friends were talking about on a social network before the show went on air. Or this: you get into your car, switch on its navigation system and ask it to guide you to a friend's house. As you pull out of the driveway, the network to which you both belong automatically alerts her that you are on your way. And this: as you are buying a pair of running shoes that you think one of your friends might be interested in, you can send a picture to their network page with a couple of clicks on a keypad next to the checkout counter. Networking types like to talk about the idea that there is a pervasive social element in all of the things people interact with. Listen to them long enough and you come away with the impression that your teapot will soon be twittering about what you had for breakfast. Some of the ideas outlined above may sound far-fetched, but a service such as Facebook Connect, which already lets people export their social graph of online relationships to other web-enabled gizmos, suggests they are not completely outlandish. Everything from cars to cookers could ultimately have social connectivity embedded in it. ...

Give a little, take a littleIF THERE is one thing that could halt the ascent of social networks, it is the vexed question of privacy. This is controversial because it goes right to the heart of the social-networking business model. In order to attract users, sites need to offer ways for members to restrict the information about themselves that gets shared with a wider public. Without effective controls people would be reluctant to sign up. But if a site allows members to keep too much of their information private, there will be less traffic that can be turned into profit through advertising and various other means, so the network's business will suffer.'There is a tension here because these networking sites are based on the idea that people will share information about themselves,' says Amanda Lenhart of the Pew Institute for the Internet & American Life, a non-profit research group. 'If people stop swapping content then the sites will fade away.' There is some evidence that people are starting to become more sophisticated about the way in which they manage their data, which could have longer-term implications for the networks' growth. ...

The smart way to hire workersWHEN it comes to online networking, cyberspace often mimics the real world. There are networks such as Facebook and MySpace that are mainly for socialising with friends, and there are others such as LinkedIn, France's Viadeo and Germany's Xing that concentrate on work-related matters. The sites aimed at professionals, although much smaller than the ones for hanging out with friends, are already having a big effect on labour markets. In many ways the world of commerce is a perfect place for a social network to flourish. Doing business, after all, boils down to managing a complex web of relationships with customers, suppliers and others. Professional networks make it easier for people to maintain such relationships and to forge new ones. LinkedIn, for instance, has over 500,000 groups--some better than others--on specialised subjects that people can join to share ideas and make new contacts. ...

You might think that measuring the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere would be a priority. If you did think that, though, you would be wrongIN NEGOTIATIONS on nuclear weapons the preferred stance is 'Trust but verify'. In negotiations on climate change there seems little opportunity for either. Trust, as anyone who attended last year's summit in Copenhagen can attest, is in the shortest of supplies. So, too, is verification. Barack Obama was asked when he was in Copenhagen whether a provision by which countries could peek into each others' assessment processes was strong enough to be sure there was no cheating. He answered reassuringly that 'we can actually monitor a lot of what takes place through satellite imagery'. That statement conjured up thoughts of the sort of cold-war satellite system that America used to identify and count Russian missiles. But the president was being a bit previous; at the moment, no such system exists, because America's Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO), a satellite that would have fulfilled the role, was lost on launch this time last year. The purpose of OCO was to work out the fate of carbon dioxide that is emitted by industrial processes but does not then stay in the atmosphere--about 60\\% of the total. ...

How to predict the consistency of snow'THE wrong type of snow' became famous as a lame excuse in Britain in February 1991 when, caught out by a cold snap, British Rail blamed severe disruption to its services on problems clearing unusually soft and powdery snow from its tracks. But British Rail had a point. There are, indeed, different types of snow--and people who live in mountainous areas, or visit to ski, like to know which ones to expect. Forecasting what sort of snow will fall is not easy. But a pair of researchers at the University of Utah think they have cracked the problem.Jim Steenburgh and Trevor Alcott carried out their research in the Alta ski area, which is about 3,000 metres (10,000 feet) up in the Wasatch range. Good record-keeping at the resort, including precipitation measurements that are taken automatically every hour, allowed them to analyse 457 snowfalls that took place between 1999 and 2007. ...

The coup de grace that shatters ice shelves is administered by ocean wavesIN 2008 part of the Wilkins ice shelf on the edge of the Antarctic peninsular suddenly disintegrated. It was seen by some as a portend. If other, larger shelves--huge ice sheets that have slipped off the land but are not floating freely on the sea--were to break up in a similar way, their non-floating ice (which is not subject to Archimedes's principle that it displaces its own weight of water) would be converted into floating ice (which is), and the sea level would rise. The Wilkins shelf may or may not have been the victim, ultimately, of climate change. Regardless of what weakened it, though, it was not rising temperatures that caused the sudden break up. Peter Bromirski of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego thinks he knows what did: a little-studied phenomenon called infragravity waves. ...

Why hasn't the carbon price fallen further?SOMETHING curious has been happening in the carbon markets. They are entirely political creations--even the most inventive financial engineers would not, on their own, have come up with the idea of a difference in value between the air people breathe in and the air they breathe out. Yet traders seem pretty uninterested in political cues. At the chaotic end of the Copenhagen climate summit in December, prices in the largest market in carbon-dioxide emissions, the European Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), did drop from 14.60 ($20.50) to 12.70. But that still left the price of a tonne of carbon dioxide comfortably above its lowest level last year.The Democrats' subsequent Senate-election loss in Massachusetts, which dealt a crippling blow to the prospects of an American cap-and-trade system that would have greatly expanded world carbon markets, had even less effect. And the announcement this week of the commitments to carbon reduction that countries were willing to accept under the Copenhagen 'accord' caused scarcely a ripple. ...

Most Europeans are doing better than they think, and can take more fiscal austerityIMAGINE two cousins. One comes from continental Europe, France, perhaps. A hypochondriac, his life is filled with vague complaints--stress, fatigue and mysterious aches--for which he takes fistfuls of pills. He is sure that strenuous exercise is a menace to his fragile health. The other cousin is American (or British, take your pick), a risk-taker devoted to extreme sports. Shunning doctors, he feels as strong as an ox, although he has been drinking and overeating for years. Eventually, in 2008, he succumbs to a massive heart attack while out jogging. As far as his French cousin is concerned, a deep truth has thus been confirmed: that exercise is bad for you.Substitute free-market competition for exercise, and you have the European debate over the financial crisis. Sober discussion about how to manage the instability of markets is giving way to a simpler fable. Too many voters now believe that the credit crunch has proved that globalisation is bad for you. And too many politicians are happy to endorse such views. In a televised meeting with voters in January the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, denounced Renault for planning to build a new car in Turkey, saying 'I do not accept that cars sold in France should be manufactured abroad.' ...

Does India's government pay any heed to its economic advisers?ECONOMISTS like nothing better than giving advice to governments. But why do they, of all people, imagine that anyone listens? In their models economists assume that governments, like other actors in the economy, have objectives of their own, which they seek to advance as best they can. They are not disinterested servants of the public good. So governments will ignore a recommendation from their advisers unless it suits them, in which case they would have done it anyway.In his book 'Prelude to Political Economy', published in 2000, Kaushik Basu of Cornell University wrestled with this paradox. 'If, seeing high unemployment in an economy, a person... advises entrepreneurs to employ more labourers, or consumers to demand more goods, this typically causes economists to share a laugh.' And yet economists routinely advise governments to act in the economy's interests rather than their own. ...

A difficult time for a fund-raising spreeA SENIOR World Bank official describes its efforts to secure an additional $3 billion-5 billion in paid-in capital as a 'once-in-a-generation increase to deal with the effects of a once-in-a-generation crisis'. The bank agreed to lend $32.9 billion to poor countries in the year to June 2009, two-and-a-half times the previous year's outlay of $13 billion. If it carried on at this rate, Robert Zoellick, the bank's president, warned in October, its lending would face constraints by the middle of this year.But its search for funds is being complicated by two factors. Some of its rich-country backers have overstretched budgets of their own, to put it mildly. And other large multilateral development banks (MDBs) are also seeking cash. ...

After a hard-won battle, President Yudhoyono has a chance to start againFEZ-WEARING members of Indonesia's parliament called each other transvestites, yelled and scuffled. Outside, the police turned water cannon on protesting students. The climax this week of a parliamentary investigation into a government bail-out of a private bank in 2008 superficially recalled 1998, and the chaos surrounding the fall of the dictator Suharto. But this time the stakes were smaller; the government of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was never going to fall. At issue was how well it could govern.The Bank Century scandal had riveted the press for months. But most of Indonesia's 240m people have preferred chat shows and Hollywood movies, content that the economy has been doing well, growing by 4.5\\% last year. Inflation last year was just 2.8\\%, unemployment is down, and consumer confidence booming. That, however, did not deter Mr Yudhoyono's enemies from plotting to embarrass him and paralyse his government. They managed to do both. Yet he still enjoys an approval rating of about 75\\%. ...

Seven people are arrested in the Irish Republic over an alleged plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist for depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

Dutch bishops order an inquiry into alleged sexual abuses of children by Catholic priests, threatening a new scandal.

Brussels says it hopes European aerospace group EADS was not prevented from fairly bidding for a major US defence deal.

How paedophile priest was allowed to evade justice

Israel announces 1,600 new homes for east Jerusalem, threatening to overshadow the US vice-president's visit.

Israel and Syria both tell a conference in Paris they want to use nuclear power to generate electricity.

A former Israeli spy who played a key role in Africa, the Middle East and the 1980s Iran-Contra scandal has died.

The voter turnout in Iraq's parliamentary election was 62\\%, officials say, despite attacks that killed 38 people.

The endangered deep sea animal, sea cucumber, has been seized from a restaurant at a five star hotel in the Indian capital, Delhi, officials say.

Soutik Biswas on life in India

Indians on historic vote for women in parliament

Kabul residents determined to get on with life

Admits Rao government made a wrong political judgment

HYDERABAD: The condition of the fasting Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president, K. Chandrasekhara Rao, worsened on Tuesday and the medical team attending on him said it could no longer sustain him on artificial medical management. As ...

Mumbai/Washington: David Headley, the terror suspect arrested by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, will soon be charged separately by the Mumbai police for allegedly conducting reconnaissance of targets hit by Lashkar-e-Taiba ...

DUBAI: A string of car bombings in Baghdad on Tuesday left 112 persons dead and 207 injured. A police patrol in Dora district was the first target. This was followed within minutes by four blasts near official buildings. Car bombs ...

Seven people are arrested in the Irish Republic over an alleged plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist for depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

India's upper house sees a second day of uproar as it backs a bill to reserve a third of all parliamentary seats for women.

Princess Caroline of Monaco's husband is fined 200,000 euros for assaulting a hotel owner in Kenya in 2000.

Bangladesh's government is ignoring the plight of thousands of starving Burmese refugees, a US medical charity warns.

Unprecedented disruptions and bedlam can't stop historic legislation.

Thanks opposition for cooperation in the passage of the bill.

The airline is waiting for a cabinet nod to raise its working capital by Rs 1,000 cr.

Sai Kumar ended his life by hanging in his hostel room in the campus.

Raj had approached SC to transfer cases against him from Bihar and MP.

Face The Nation show." title="JINXED BILL: CNN-IBN discusses the Women's Reservation Bill on Face The Nation show." border="0" width="70" height="50" align="left" hspace="5"/>Face the Nation discussed the question: Is Women's Bill anti-democratic?

The bill is likely to be put to vote in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.

Currently, India has only 59 women representatives out of 545 members in LS.

Politician and former cricketer lashes out at country's leadership.

The suicide bomber rammed his car in a building with 600 kg of explosives.

Magnitude 6 earthquake hit many people in their sleep.

Attack is in retaliation to US and Pak govt offensive against Taliban.

It's under court custody since his involvement in the drug abuse case.

Woods and hockey player have a common problem-- they have no control over their sticks.

The Oscars are presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Spiderman stories are often set against a backdrop of current events.

Just seen, never heard: 15 MPs who didn't speak

Somnath left the Lok Sabha with some words of wisdom for unruly MPs.

File Photo)" title="THIS SILENCE NOT GOLDEN: NDA MPs during a silent protest against the government. (File Photo)" border="0" width="70" height="50" align="left" hspace="5"/>The silence of these legislators of major parties was deafening.

Speaker keeps House in good humour in his last day at office.

David Beckham reportedly had a four-month affair with the ex- PA.

India have lost three consecutive matches after beating Pakistan.

Delhi policeman exposed while illegally selling Hockey World Cup tickets.

Paes and Bhupathi toyed with the Russian duo in their 6-3 6-2 6-2 win.

The disinvestment would generate revenue worth $2.5 billion.

He isn't walking into a park with plans to buy Zain Telecom's African business.

Indian owned companies are expected to outperform MNCs.

Sunil Mittal isn't walking into a park with his plan to buy Zain Telecom's African business.

Tata said it would begin selling the gasoline-engine Nano in Europe by next year.

Also, we take you dune bashing with the Mahindra in the great escape.

SUVs and MUVs to cost more after Union Budget.

Maruti, Hyundai announce decision to raise prices.

The city feels so much like back home to an Indian traveller.

Wanderlust offered few alternatives to well-worn tourist tracks for 2010.

Travel website Jetsetter has come up with a list of the world's top 10 islands.

Take a look at the best tea worldwide with distinctive flavour and taste.

Here are the winners of Masand's Movie Review Contest.

Avatar, The Hurt Locker are the leading contenders for Oscar glory.

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Here are the answers and winners of February 12 Really Tough Movie Quiz.

Five tigers were killed in tiger reserves itself in the country.

We show you what gifts to offer to the fairer sex on March 8.

Giga-tweet reported the 10 billionth tweet mark on Friday night.

It is the most anticipated product launch from Apple since the iPhone in 2007.

Children learning to play music at an early age are less prone to depression, say experts.

The lipstick or the eye brush you share with friends are a hazard.

Psycho-oncology is fast being recognised in the treatment of cancer.

The expert on the other side of the chatroom is a stranger, so be careful.

Flatulent Nazi leader took cocktail of 82 medications.

Mehto is believed to have stayed in leading hotels of Chandigarh.

Dozens of Japanese shout out their ardour for spouses, partners at an event.

A resident of Delhi bought four bottles of Maaza and found two dead flies in it.

RBI is keeping customer convenience in mind.

The BPLR of the bank currently stands at 12.25 per cent.

Employees have to pay a hefty FBT on their stock options.

The Finance Minister has scrapped a tax on commodity transactions.

Snow-capped ranges may turn into barren spots in a few decades.

Non-binding deal for combating global warming has US stamp

Non-binding deal for combating global warming has US stamp.

Obama hails non-binding agreement, but poor nations unimpressed.

Big plane uses 20 percent less fuel than comparable aircraft.

Boeing's lightweight carbon, titanium plane designed to save fuel.

SMS GupShup helps in sending message to a hundred people at one time.

Twitter users were led to "Iranian Cyber Army' webpage.

Sensex crashed over 500 points as Pranab was delivering his speech.

Stockbrokers on Monday expressed disappointment over the Budget.

Jaipal Reddy says reviving real estate was important for the country's economy.

21 foreign investment proposals were approved by the govt on Wednesday.

The actor helped carry the Olympic flame into Toronto on Thursday.

James Cameron takes us to the mythical world of Pandora in this film.

A look at the 10 films that have rocked the Hollywood box office in 2009.

George Clooney's Up in the Air bagged six nominations.

Gypsy." title="TENNIS TAKES BACKSEAT: Nadal has appeared with Shakira, almost naked, in a desert for the single Gypsy." border="0" width="70" height="50" align="left" hspace="5"/>Shakira has made her hottest music video ever alongside Rafael Nadal.

Novak Djokovic overcame a racket-smashing tantrum to beat Mikhail Youzhny 7-5 5-7 6-3.

India were playing in the World Group for the first time since their 1998 appearance.

Paes and Dlouhy, who lost the match in less than an hour, were outplayed by the Swedish-Australian combination.

Shyam Saran, PM's Special Envoy, says there is hope after Copenhagen.

High Commissioner of Pak Shahid Malik on punishing 26/11 accused.

Success of Pokharan II nuclear test is not in doubt, says eminent scientist.

Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is in safe hands, Shashi Tharoor.

Seven people are arrested in the Irish Republic over an alleged plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist for depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

India's upper house sees a second day of uproar as it backs a bill to reserve a third of all parliamentary seats for women.

Princess Caroline of Monaco's husband is fined 200,000 euros for assaulting a hotel owner in Kenya in 2000.

Bangladesh's government is ignoring the plight of thousands of starving Burmese refugees, a US medical charity warns.

Somali President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed says efforts are being made to release a UK couple held by pirates as soon as possible.

The son of Rwanda's first President, Dominique Mbonyumutwa, protests at orders to exhume his father's remains.

Princess Caroline of Monaco's husband is fined 200,000 euros for assaulting a hotel owner in Kenya in 2000.

The French navy captures 35 Somali suspected pirates in three days - calling it the biggest seizure since 2008.

Brussels says it hopes European aerospace group EADS was not prevented from fairly bidding for a major US defence deal.

This year's Oscars ceremony in Los Angeles was the most watched in the US for five years, early figures suggest.

Cuba criticises the actions of a dissident journalist, on hunger strike for 12 days in protest at the death of a political prisoner.

Mark Mardell's take on politics and life in the US and North America.

China denies it is spying on Uighur refugees in Sweden, after a Stockholm court jailed a Uigur for passing information to an agent.

Australia level the one-day series against New Zealand after a close 12-run victory in Auckland courtesy of the Duckworth-Lewis method.

Two Brits give their accounts on the devastating earthquake that struck the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Wednesday.

Survivor of Japan's POW camps breaks 65 year silence

Seven people are arrested in the Irish Republic over an alleged plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist for depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

Dutch bishops order an inquiry into alleged sexual abuses of children by Catholic priests, threatening a new scandal.

Brussels says it hopes European aerospace group EADS was not prevented from fairly bidding for a major US defence deal.

How paedophile priest was allowed to evade justice

Israel announces 1,600 new homes for east Jerusalem, threatening to overshadow the US vice-president's visit.

Israel and Syria both tell a conference in Paris they want to use nuclear power to generate electricity.

A former Israeli spy who played a key role in Africa, the Middle East and the 1980s Iran-Contra scandal has died.

The voter turnout in Iraq's parliamentary election was 62\\%, officials say, despite attacks that killed 38 people.

The endangered deep sea animal, sea cucumber, has been seized from a restaurant at a five star hotel in the Indian capital, Delhi, officials say.

Soutik Biswas on life in India

Indians on historic vote for women in parliament

Kabul residents determined to get on with life

The devolution of policing and justice powers to Northern Ireland marks the end to decades of strife, Gordon Brown says.

The coroner at an inquest into the death of four soldiers in an Afghan blast says there were training "inadequacies".

The Ministry of Defence names two British soldiers killed in separate incidents in Afghanistan on Sunday.

A professional gambler is found guilty of running a 34m pyramid scam which targeted people on low incomes.

Brussels says it hopes European aerospace group EADS was not prevented from fairly bidding for a major US defence deal.

Aer Lingus announces plans to lay off 670 staff, including nearly a quarter of its cabin crew, as part of restructuring plans.

The UK goods trade deficit with the rest of the world widens in January, causing the pound to dip below $1.50.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel calls for limits on financial speculators who have been blamed for worsening Greece's financial woes.

Pregnant women in developing countries face the same risk of death as women in the UK did 100 years ago, say campaigners.

A technique that "washes out" the brains of severely ill premature babies may aid survival, a study suggests.

Psychologists say they have treated hundreds of survivors of the 2005 London bombings for post-traumatic stress disorder.

Washington DC will become the first city in the US to make female condoms available for free, local media say.

A plan to create a .xxx net domain for adult content will be revisited three years after it was rejected by internet regulators.

A never-before-seen reaction in nanotubes could make for batteries that pack a mighty punch, say researchers.

Electronics giant Sony says its new 3D television will be on sale in Japan from June, with a cost of 2,600 for a 46-inch screen model.

Costumed fans queue for launch

Record labels put the case for why they are still essential for developing music stars in the digital age.

New Doctor Who actor Matt Smith will meet fans on a UK tour showcasing the first episode of the upcoming series of the show.

Dave Grohl says his band have started writing songs for their next album and that they're planning to start recording in September.

Bob Geldof challenges the BBC to substantiate its report that millions raised for Ethiopia paid for arms.

A never-before-seen reaction in nanotubes could make for batteries that pack a mighty punch, say researchers.

Rummaging in BBC archive for Apollo reports 40 years on

Your help is needed to watch the surface of the Sun

An international panel of experts has endorsed the idea that an asteroid impact killed off the dinosaurs.

Parenting websites, fashion magazines and daytime TV. As the election looms, politicians will pop up in or on them all in the fight for the female vote. But why do women need to be targeted differently and does it work, asks Professor Alison Wolf.

Sports jargon, army slang... what is a hurt locker?

Proof, if needed, that art can marry happily with science

Creative ways councils are cutting back on cash

A fancy-dress race for tweed-clad runners attracts a record number of participants to the Scottish Borders.

Every dog owner in the UK would have to take out insurance under government proposals to crack down on dangerous breeds.

Images from Nigeria, where ethnic clashes near the city of Jos have left many dead.

All Holyrood business is suspended on Tuesday as public sector workers enter the second day of a 48-hour strike.

Liverpool's hopes of qualifying for the Champions League suffer a setback as struggling Wigan beat Rafa Benitez's side 1-0.

Flanker James Haskell comes down on the side of England in the club-versus-country row that has broken out between England and his team Stade Francais.

Former Davis Cup captain David Lloyd calls on Lawn Tennis Association chief Roger Draper to quit over the lack of home-grown male talent.

Super League champions Leeds will face Hull FC in one of four all-top flight ties in the fourth round of the Carnegie Challenge Cup.

New Zealand take on Australia in the third game of the five-match one-day international series in Hamilton.

Laura Marsh makes her highest score for England as they beat India by five wickets in Mumbai to win the Twenty20 series 2-1.

Lancashire coach Peter Moores is certain England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff will play for the county again.

Australia vice-captain Michael Clarke is returning home from the current tour of New Zealand for personal reasons.

Former Davis Cup captain David Lloyd calls on Lawn Tennis Association chief Roger Draper to quit over the lack of home-grown male talent.

Britain's Davis Cup captain John Lloyd is considering his future after becoming the first captain to preside over five successive defeats.

Defending champions Spain ease into the quarter-finals of the Davis Cup thanks to a 4-1 win over Switzerland.

British teenager Heather Watson defeats former world number seven Nicole Vaidisova at the Tangipahoa Tennis Classic.

Ernie Els criticises the timing of Tiger Woods' first public appearance since revelations about his private life made headlines in November.

Camilo Villegas shoots a final round of 68 to win the Honda Classic by five shots.

Hunter Mahan comes from four strokes back to beat Rickie Fowler by a shot and claim the Phoenix Open title.

Lewis Hamilton says he considered leaving Formula 1 plus other gossip and rumours

Rider, team and manufacturer standings for MotoGP 2009.

Motor racing updates from around the world, including the United States.

Super League champions Leeds will face Hull FC in one of four all-top flight ties in the fourth round of the Carnegie Challenge Cup.

Castleford Tigers' stand-off Rangi Chase is sent an RFL disciplinary caution.

Bradford Bulls coach Steve McNamara says their fightback win over Wigan has given the squad a new level of belief.

Jonathan Davies backs fellow Wales code convert Gareth Thomas to be a success in rugby league.

Liverpool's hopes of qualifying for the Champions League suffer a setback at Wigan as the struggling Latics punish an insipid display.

Arsenal's Cesc Fabregas will miss Tuesday's Champions League tie against Porto because of a hamstring injury he picked up against Burnley.

Portsmouth must make a special representation to the Football Association in order to be paid their winnings for reaching the FA Cup semi-final, BBC Sport understands.

Manchester United and England defender Wes Brown will discover on Monday if he has broken a bone in his left foot, possibly threatening his World Cup hopes.

You may notice an extra feature on some of the news stories on the News website in the coming days. As part of the BBC's SuperPower season - a special series on the internet - we will be teaming up with Global Voices, a non-profit blogging network of citizen journalists, to present a different range of perspectives and commentary from around the world. We are no strangers to involving a range of voices in our newsgathering process - and we have long incorporated into our journalism the knowledge, eyewitness reporting and opinion of our audiences in the UK and internationally. But we think Global Voices, which specialises in giving individuals the tools and support to comment and report on the issues that matter to them, could add an interesting extra dimension to some of our news coverage. So over the next two weeks we'll be selecting from, and linking to, relevant posts from Global Voices' network of 200 bloggers and citizen journalists and we'll also be asking Global Voices editors to give their views on how the mainstream media handle the news. I think a good point is made by Ivan Sigal, Global Voice's executive director, when he says: "The idea that citizen journalism is somehow opposed to or in conflict with traditional journalism is now clearly past; it's evident that both exist in symbiotic relationship to one another, with many opportunities to collaborate on the creation of news, storytelling and distribution of content." This will be a chance for us to explore that relationship. See what you think. Steve Herrmann is editor of the BBC News website.

Twenty years ago, a quiet British engineer was on the cusp of changing the world. Tim Berners-Lee was ironing out the wrinkles in a project that would become the "world wide web". As he readily admits, no-one could have predicted its significance. Today, BBC News launches a two-week season on radio, television and the web taking stock of his invention and considering how it is changing our lives. It's a chance to stand back from the break-neck pace of change of the last two decades and to consider how far we have come, and how much further there is still to go. For some of our audience, the web may have become a mundane part of their lives. For others, it will be untested waters. No matter what your experience, we hope the season will use the BBC's reach to uncover untold stories and give you a fresh perspective. We are calling the season SuperPower, a phrase that - we think - resonates with other events two decades ago. Then, the Iron Curtain was falling and the power relationships that had dominated the latter half of the 20th Century had come to an end. The world's superpowers were changing and new ones - with new power structures - emerged. The web grew up against that backdrop and its effect on the new landscape may have only just begun. SuperPower is a chance to examine these changes and to ask who benefits: who is wielding this new-found power? One example is the distribution of knowledge. One view has it that information traditionally imparted power, and that the web is the first medium where everyone can make his or her voice heard. But of course, if you want to take part, you need access. We live in a world of haves and have-nots. Less than one-third of the world is currently online; for more than 4 billion people, it is still an unknown. During the season, we will examine that imbalance. Our On/Off project has been following people in the village of Gitata in northern Nigeria as they make their first tentative steps on to the web using mobile phones. The village, two hours north of Abuja, is not connected to the electricity grid and has minimal links with the outside world. So how will they react when they finally join the "global conversation"? By way of contrast, we will drop in on South Korea - the most wired nation on Earth - where we have persuaded two families to give up their high-speed connection for a week. Can they still function when severed from a society that is apparently so reliant on the web? We will also address how this technology has united previously-isolated people and given them a tool to share their experiences. BBC Russian has spent time with disadvantaged and disabled people to see how the web has allowed them to participate in societies from which they had been excluded. This is a common theme of the web. It is a tool that allows people to contribute to and engage with organisations and people that were previously off-limits. Conversely, it has also forced some organisations to be more transparent and open. This has been keenly felt in journalism. When I joined the BBC, the relationship with the audience was a one-way street. We made programmes for broadcast and - bar the occasional letter - that was the end of the deal. Today, our audience is, as we often point out, at the heart of our thinking. And so another part of the season, MyWorld, will consist of your films, about your perspective on the wired world. And of course, we also want to encourage you to participate in the discussions and debates about this emergent power. We also aim to also reflect what is being said on the web about the season and about world events. Blogworld will highlight the best of blogosphere in multiple languages, while the BBC News website has partnered with the non-profit network of citizen journalists Global Voices to give different perspectives on the news. Of course, any technology can also be used to more nefarious ends. So the season will examine censorship, online crime, cyber-warfare and other more regrettable consequences. Twenty years ago, only the sci-fi-minded could have imagined countries attacking each other with computer code. But now virtual walls join bricks and mortar as means by which countries protect themselves from outside threats. The world has been transformed. The season is a chance to step back and consider this change and ask: if we are all to share this new SuperPower, what shall we do with it? In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash installed. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions. If you're reading via RSS, you'll need to visit the blog to access this content. var emp = new bbc.Emp(); emp.setWidth("512"); emp.setHeight("323"); emp.setDomId("ws_0803"); emp.setPlaylist("http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/emp/8550000/8552600/8552616.xml"); emp.write(); Peter Horrocks is the director of BBC Global News.

An edition of the BBC World Service programme Assignment, alleging that money intended for famine relief in Ethiopia in the mid-1980s was used to buy weapons, has prompted an angry response from aid campaigners. Andrew Whitehead, Editor, News and Current Affairs at the BBC World Service, explains how the story came about. -- By Andrew Whitehead A quarter of a century ago, the BBC's Michael Buerk achieved something very rare - he not only reported the world, but changed it a little bit. His vivid on-the-spot coverage of a famine "of biblical proportions" in Tigray in northern Ethiopia pricked the conscience of the richer part of the world. The money came pouring in. Bob Geldof's Band Aid and Live Aid led the way in galvanising public attention, raising cash and mobilising a huge relief effort. As a result, many thousands of lives were saved - and tens of thousands of those facing starvation received food. In the past week, the BBC World Service has broadcast an Assignment documentary you can listen to it here - based on the testimony of key figures on the ground in and around Tigray in the mid-1980s. It presents evidence, compelling evidence, that some of the famine relief donations were diverted by a powerful rebel group to buy weapons. The documentary has revealed some uncomfortable facts and provoked a strong response. This morning a British newspaper, The Independent, gives over its front-page to complaints from Sir Bob Geldof and several leading charities. They accuse the BBC of "disgracefully poor reporting". The suggestion of aid money being to diverted to buy arms is "palpable nonsense", in the words of Phil Bloomer, director of Oxfam's campaigns and policy division. Sir Bob goes further. "This is a Ross/Brand moment in BBC standards for me", he told The Independent. "It is a disgrace". Ok, so let's stand back a moment. This documentary was put together by Martin Plaut, Africa Editor at BBC World Service News. He has a particular expertise in the Horn of Africa, and indeed reported from there on the famine back in the 1980s. He has spent almost a year gathering material and doing research for this documentary - and the BBC stands by his journalism. As so often is the case, the famine that afflicted northern Ethiopia was compounded by war. Much of Tigray was controlled by a hard left-wing rebel group, the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front. They were fighting the Ethiopian army, then the largest in Africa. This was also the era of the cold war - and the Americans were seeking to undermine the Soviet-aligned Ethiopian government. It is not in dispute that millions of dollars of relief aid was channelled through the Relief Society of Tigray (Rest), which was a part of the TPLF rebel movement. It was the only way of reaching those in desperate need in rebel-held areas. What Martin Plaut's documentary uncovers is the systematic diversion of aid received by Rest to buy arms for the TPLF. Martin tracked down two key former members of the TPLF who explained how they managed to divert the money. They are now at odds with the then TPLF leader, Meles Zenawi, who is currently Ethiopia's Prime Minister. But they are credible voices. One of these former TPLF fighters, the rebel army commander at the time, makes an allegation which has attracted particular controversy - that the organisation made a policy decision that only 5\\% of the money received by Rest would be spent on relief, with the bulk going directly or indirectly to support their military and political campaigns. Among the other accounts featured in the World Service programme, Robert Houdek, who was the senior US diplomat in Ethiopia in the late 1980s, states that TPLF members told him at the time that some aid money and supplies was used to buy weapons. A CIA document paints the same picture. Sir Bob Geldof was given every opportunity to express his point of view while the documentary was being made, but declined to be interviewed. Some relief agencies - including Christian Aid and Cafod - pointed us towards their staff involved in directing food supplies 25 years ago, and those voices were included. Two key aid workers active in and around Ethiopia in the 1980s confirm in the BBC World Service programme the way in which relief was channelled through Rest - though they dispute that there was a significant diversion of money for arms buying. "If we were being conned, I think it was on a very small scale," said Stephen King, then overseeing from Sudan the work of Catholic charities in providing food to the starving. The documentary did not say that most famine relief money was used to buy weapons - it did not suggest that any relief agencies were complicit in the diversion of funds - it explicitly stated that "whatever the levels of deception, much aid did reach the starving". But there is a clear public interest in determining whether some money given as famine relief ended up buying guns and bullets. And that's what the evidence suggests.

So finally we can say - they are going to happen. After decades of arguing and a whole host of reasons why they should not happen - there will now be debates during the general election campaign between those who aspire to be prime minister. After months of negotiation - constructive and good-humoured but often tough and mind-numbingly detailed - an agreement has been worked out between the three broadcasters - ITV, Sky and BBC - and the three largest UK political parties - Labour, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats - over the three debates which will take place, one on each network during each week of the campaign. Here are the key principles for the debates. [40KB PDF] Here is the programme format agreed by all parties. [44KB PDF] The fact that debates have never happened before is an indication of how difficult it is - especially in the pre-election atmosphere - for the broadcasters and the parties involved to find sufficient common ground. But all involved were very clear that these were events which should and could add to the understanding of voters as they make up their minds. Each broadcaster will also be looking carefully at how to ensure the obligations of impartiality are properly fulfilled. The BBC will hold subsequent leaders' debates in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, part of a range of measures to ensure that the SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Northern Ireland parties have appropriate opportunities to be heard. There will also be special arrangements in the programming around the BBC debate itself - a week before polling day - to ensure that other parties which have demonstrated that they have some electoral support - UKIP, the Green Party and the BNP - will have their say. The broadcasters' negotiating panel had a number of ambitions: to involve the public in the debates; to establish a format in which the leaders would actually debate with each other; to make the debates interesting and engaging and not, perhaps, as formulaic and structured as the American presidential debates can be. For some it's making history - for others it's a constitutional anomaly... whichever, the debates will now happen - and election campaigns may never be the same again in this country. Ric Bailey is the BBC's chief political adviser.

Exclusive: Former president urges Cameron to rein in Unionist partnersThe former US president George Bush has made a direct plea to David Cameron to support the Northern Ireland peace process, amid widespread concern in the US about the Tories' new electoral pact with the Ulster Unionists.In his most active intervention since leaving the White House, Bush took the rare step of calling the Conservative leader to ask him to use his influence to press his unionist partners to endorse the final stages of the 15-year search for a settlement.The intervention by Bush, in a telephone call last Friday, appeared to have failed last night when the Ulster Unionist party confirmed that it would vote against the devolution of policing and criminal justice powers to Belfast.The unanimous decision by the party executive means that the once mighty UUP, which governed Northern Ireland until direct rule was imposed in 1972, will be the only member of the four-party power sharing executive that will vote no today. The Democratic Unionists and Sinn Fein, which brokered the agreement on policing last month, will join the SDLP in voting for the deal.The decision by the UUP to oppose what London describes as the final piece in the jigsaw of the 1998 Good Friday agreement will come as a blow to Cameron and will cause alarm in the US. The Tory leader supports the devolution of policing powers to Belfast but appears to have failed to persuade his political allies in Northern Ireland to follow his lead.Amid alarm in the US at the prospect of a UUP no vote, Bush telephoned Cameron last Friday to ask him to plead with the UUP leader, Sir Reg Empey, to endorse the deal. While the UUP does not have enough votes to scupper the deal, political leaders in the US fear a no vote from the UUP could undermine support for the settlement within the DUP and among the wider unionist community.The Guardian understands that the White House is so concerned that the US economic envoy to Northern Ireland, Declan Kelly, persuaded Bush to intervene. The former president, who took a close interest in the peace process during his years in the White House, telephoned Cameron to ask him to use his influence to persuade Empey to vote for the deal."There was a feeling that a conservative to conservative conversation was the right way to go about this," said one source familiar with the transatlantic negotiations. "This conversation was borne out of the concern that Empey is holding out." Another source familiar with the contact said: "This is the most active thing George W Bush has done in his post-presidency period. He has been incredibly restrained and diplomatic since leaving the White House. He has maintained radio silence."One source familiar with thinking on Northern Ireland on both sides of the Atlantic added: "The fact that George W Bush has decided to intervene is really significant. He was interested in the peace process as president and appointed an envoy. It is a general sign of how concerned people are in the US about what David Cameron is up to."A Tory source said: "George Bush did have a conversation with David Cameron. It was a positive conversation. David underlined his commitment to the agreement and said we are doing all we can to support it. But he said that we cannot force Sir Reg to vote for it. George Bush thanked David and said, 'I can see you are engaged.'"Democrats and Republicans will be bitterly disappointed with last night's decision by the UUP. As one of the main architects of the Good Friday agreement in its former days as the Northern Ireland's largest party, the party traditionally reflects middle ground unionism.But Empey, who is minister for employment and learning in the executive, believes it is foolish to devolve the final set of powers while the coalition is struggling to function. A meeting between the UUP and the Sinn Féin deputy first minster, Martin McGuinness, broke up after just three minutes last night.The White House has been watching developments with care. Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, yesterday pleaded with Empey in a phone call to support the deal.A group of US Congress members wrote to Cameron last month to issue a stark warning that dissident terrorists will be "emboldened" to intensify their attacks if he fails to persuade the Tories' partners to endorse the final stage of the peace process. Cameron has faced pressure in recent weeks over his decision to form an electoral pact with the UUP, which could provide him with crucial support if the general election leads to a hung parliament. The pact has prompted fears in Washington that he may abandon the even-handed approach to Northern Ireland that was adopted by John Major. Northern Irish politicsGeorge BushDavid CameronNorthern IrelandConservativesNicholas Wattguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Price of averting postal strikes could be rise in junk mail as small print of deal to end dispute removes delivery restrictionsRoyal Mail has been given the go-ahead to deliver unlimited quantities of junk mail to British homes after a peace deal with unions ended a long-standing agreement restricting deliveries.Each year, an estimated 4bn pizza flyers, leaflets from local councils and blank envelopes promising the recipient cash prizes are already thrust through letterboxes by its postal workers.But the deluge has been held in check by an agreement limiting Royal Mail workers to no more than three items of junk in each household weekly to make sure their bags do not get overloaded.Tonight, the postal group and the Communication Workers Union finally reached a wide-ranging deal to end their dispute after the wave of national strikes last autumn – and buried in the small print of the 79-page document is a pledge by Royal Mail to remove the restrictions.What Royal Mail calls "unaddressed mail" has become so important to its bottom line that some postal workers claimed at the end of stoppages last year that they were told by managers to deliver backlogged junk mail before letters, despite householders' frustration at having to wait longer for letters. Now householders fed up with clearing their doormat of junk mail will no longer enjoy a respite at the weekends: Royal Mail is planning more of the deliveries on Saturdays.A spokesman for Royal Mail said the lifting of the restrictions would not lead to more junk mail being delivered in total because others operators might deliver less. Currently, Royal Mail workers deliver only about a quarter of the UK's total junk mail and the company hopes to take business from other postal operators.The agreement, which has to be approved by the CWU's members, does not specify how many more items of junk mail Royal Mail will deliver to each home. One postal worker writing for the Guardian website said it could be "six items, eight items, maybe more ... it could be limitless."Nigel Woods, postal expert for watchdog Consumer Focus, said tonight: "Junk mail is annoying for everyone. Royal Mail must approach this responsibly to ensure that customers are not deluged with unwanted mail. Customers concerned about being inundated can enter into an opt-out scheme but must be aware that this may also block mailings that they may want to receive."The agreement also outlined a 6.9\\% pay rise over three years for Royal Mail workers, a cut in working hours and further assurances that there will not be compulsory redundancies. The CWU and Royal Mail also agreed to co-operate over the company's modernisation programme.Dave Ward, CWU deputy general secretary, said: "It's been a long time coming, but this deal delivers on the major issues which postal workers have fought for. There's a balance of pay and operational changes which will help offset job losses and ensure our members are fairly rewarded for change."Royal MailPostal serviceConsumer affairsTrade unionsTim Webbguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Plan to extend dangerous dogs law to cover attacks on private property and to require third-party insuranceAll dogs are to be compulsorily microchipped so that their owners can be more easily traced under a crackdown on dangerous dogs to be unveiled today.The package will include extending the dangerous dogs law to cover attacks by dogs on private property to protect postmen, and making third-party insurance compulsory so that victims can be financially compensated.The measures will be set out by the home secretary, Alan Johnson, who will point to rising public concern that "status dogs" are being used by some irresponsible owners to intimidate communities or as a weapon by gangs.The RSPCA says the number of complaints about dog fights has risen 12-fold between 2004 and 2008. In London alone, police seized 900 dangerous dogs in the last year.Johnson is expected to give details of the package in a speech on crime and antisocial behaviour."Britain is a nation of animal lovers, but people have a fundamental right to feel safe on the streets and in their homes," he said."The vast majority of dog owners are responsible, but there is no doubt that some people breed and keep dogs for the sole purpose of intimidating others, in a sense using dogs as a weapon."He said ministers were determined to stamp this out. The crackdown has been endorsed by the environment secretary, Hilary Benn.The package is expected to also include proposals to give police and councils more powers to tackle the problems of dangerous dogs by introducing dog control notices; consider removing exemption rules that allow some people to keep banned types of dogs; and introduce compulsory third-party insurance so victims of dog attacks are financially compensated.Under the scheme a microchip the size of a grain of rice is injected under the skin of the dog between its shoulder blades. The chip contains a unique code number, the dog's name, age, breed and health as well as the owner's name, address and phone number. When the chip is "read" by a handheld scanner the code number is revealed and the details can be checked on a national database.Many dog owners already microchip their dogs with the details logged on the national PetLog database. Vets, dog wardens and RSPCA branches offer the service at a cost of £10 to £35.The practice appeals especially to those who take their dogs abroad. If the scheme were made compulsory owners would face a fine for failing to microchip their dogs. It is not known how the scheme will be phased in but it is assumed a "puppies first" approach will be adopted.Four types of dog are banned under the dangerous dogs legislation, including pit bull terriers and Japanese tosas.The ban means it is illegal to breed or keep one of these breeds unless a court places the animal on the exempted dog index and it is neutered, tattooed, microchipped, muzzled and kept on a lead in public.Much of the legal framework stems from the 1991 Dangerous Dogs Act, which used to be held up as an example of the poor quality of legislation passed by MPs in haste but has actually proved a resilient and useful law over the past 19 years.The Home Office said yesterday: "While this legislation is an essential tool in tackling antisocial behaviour, the government wants to look at it again to ensure it is working as it should and enables the police, local authorities and the RSPCA to take swift action to protect the public and stop abuse."A Home Office grant of £20,000 is to be spent this year helping police forces train dedicated dog legislation officers to deal with dangerous dogs.A leaked Whitehall discussion document on dog control legislation suggested that competence tests for dog owners would also be included. This sparked a storm of protest on the blogosphere among dog lovers and does not appear to have been included in the final version.Benn said: "There is a lot of public concern about dog attacks, including the recent tragic deaths of young children, and about the rise in the number of so-called 'status dogs' used to intimidate or threaten people. This is a serious issue of public safety."The government wants to hear what people think about the law as it stands and what more we might do to protect people from dangerous dogs."Billy Hayes, general secretary of the CWU, which represents postal workers, said: "This is a long-overdue, but extremely welcome step."We've been calling for changes to the law for several years now following some terrible dog attacks on postal workers."AnimalsAlan Travisguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

• Tory leader rejects claims party is reliant on tycoon• Pressure for answers over non-dom row intensifiesDavid Cameron claimed tonight that he had succeeded in diluting the Conservatives' reliance on money from their controversial deputy chairman, Lord Ashcroft, as the party confirmed the billionaire peer would not serve in a Tory government after the election.In a BBC interview, Cameron tried to draw a line under the issue that has dogged his party for more than a week, saying Ashcroft's donations to the Conservatives were "entirely legal" and insisting he "has answered the questions about where he pays his tax".Ashcroft revealed last Monday he had agreed with the government that he could remain a "non-dom" despite promising when he became a peer in 2000 to take up permanent residency in the UK. Cameron insisted reporters were "flogging a dead horse" in pursuing the story."When I became leader of the Conservative party it was in debt to the tune of £20m. That is now in single figures," Cameron said. "I have sorted out the debts of the Conservative party. I have sorted out the funding … I have made it less reliant on a few wealthy people. I've broadened its base. I've paid off loans including a very large loan to Michael Ashcroft so the party is not in his debt one piece. That is what I've done – dealing with the debts of the Conservative party. I look forward to rolling up my sleeves and dealing with the debts of the country."Cameron rejected the view that he was too weak to take on Ashcroft. "I would put it to you that it's now time for the BBC to go after the Labour party and ask questions about their donors and where they pay tax. We have answered those questions some time before the general election and I'm very pleased we've done so."Tonight a spokesman for the Tory leader went further than Cameron did in his interview, revealing that Ashcroft would not become a minister. "Michael Ashcroft has said that he is standing down as deputy chairman of the Conservative party after the election to concentrate on his media and business interests. Under the ministerial code this would exclude him from holding a government post."Pressure is mounting on ministers to make a statement about the unusual way that Ashcroft was allowed to claim non-dom status and avoid tax despite his British origins.A series of parliamentary questions are due for answer by the Treasury this week about the circumstances in which Ashcroft was granted his tax concession in 2000, believed to have saved him tens of millions of pounds.One, tabled by the Labour MP Paul Farrelly, asks under what circumstances a person born in the UK, whose parents were UK citizens, and who is a "long-term resident" of the UK, can qualify to be classified as a UK non-dom. Another asks what requirements Belize passport-holders must satisfy to be allowed to claim UK non-dom status. Ashcroft, who describes himself as "proud of my essentially British roots", was born in Chichester, Sussex, shortly after the second world war, in which his father fought for Britain. His parents came from Burnley and Bolton and both also, says Ashcroft, were "sturdy Lancastrians and proud of their roots" .Ashcroft spent three years as a child in Belize, where his father was briefly posted as a colonial administrator, before he returned to be schooled and to work in England. In the 1990s, he spent less than a decade as a tax exile, a non-resident with a house in Florida and business interests in the Belize tax haven.The granting of non-dom status, under which it was ruled that Ashcroft's true abode was in a foreign country, enabled him to resume British residence and obtain a peerage without having to pay full British taxes.William Hague, Conservative leader at the time, promised the honours scrutiny committee Ashcroft would pay "tens of millions a year" in British taxes, and a solemn undertaking was made public at the time from Ashcroft that he would again become a "permanent resident" of Britain. But he has since claimed the committee members agreed he could secretly change the word "permanent" to "long-term", meaning temporary.Ministers normally avoid giving information about individuals' tax affairs, but the minister in charge of tax, Stephen Timms, may find it hard to avoid answering one pointed parliamentary question due to appear on the order paper: "To ask … how many people holding Belize passports are a) classified as non-domiciled in the UK for tax purposes and b) on what date each was granted such status?"The unanswered question behind the political row about Ashcroft is what information his accountants gave the revenue to persuade it of the unlikely thesis that he had turned himself into a foreigner.On the face of it, Ashcroft did not fit the criteria set out in revenue guidelines newly drafted in 1999. These said that a person of British origins could escape his "UK domicile" only if: "You leave your country of domicile and settle in another country." Before allowing a Briton to renounce his domicile, the Revenue said it also needed: "strong evidence you intend to live there permanently or indefinitely".Yesterday the Lib Dem peer Lord Taverne wrote to the subcommittee on Lords interests to ask for an investigation into Ashcroft's peerage. Taverne said: "Lord Ashcroft does not appear to have been straight with the Lords. This directly contravenes the principles of standards in public life and therefore raises the question of his suitability for public office."Michael AshcroftParty fundingDavid CameronConservativesDavid LeighPatrick Wintourguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Price of averting postal strikes could be rise in junk mail as small print of deal to end dispute removes delivery restrictionsRoyal Mail has been given the go-ahead to deliver unlimited quantities of junk mail to British homes after a peace deal with unions ended a long-standing agreement restricting deliveries.Each year, an estimated 4bn pizza flyers, leaflets from local councils and blank envelopes promising the recipient cash prizes are already thrust through letterboxes by its postal workers.But the deluge has been held in check by an agreement limiting Royal Mail workers to no more than three items of junk in each household weekly to make sure their bags do not get overloaded.Tonight, the postal group and the Communication Workers Union finally reached a wide-ranging deal to end their dispute after the wave of national strikes last autumn – and buried in the small print of the 79-page document is a pledge by Royal Mail to remove the restrictions.What Royal Mail calls "unaddressed mail" has become so important to its bottom line that some postal workers claimed at the end of stoppages last year that they were told by managers to deliver backlogged junk mail before letters, despite householders' frustration at having to wait longer for letters. Now householders fed up with clearing their doormat of junk mail will no longer enjoy a respite at the weekends: Royal Mail is planning more of the deliveries on Saturdays.A spokesman for Royal Mail said the lifting of the restrictions would not lead to more junk mail being delivered in total because others operators might deliver less. Currently, Royal Mail workers deliver only about a quarter of the UK's total junk mail and the company hopes to take business from other postal operators.The agreement, which has to be approved by the CWU's members, does not specify how many more items of junk mail Royal Mail will deliver to each home. One postal worker writing for the Guardian website said it could be "six items, eight items, maybe more ... it could be limitless."Nigel Woods, postal expert for watchdog Consumer Focus, said tonight: "Junk mail is annoying for everyone. Royal Mail must approach this responsibly to ensure that customers are not deluged with unwanted mail. Customers concerned about being inundated can enter into an opt-out scheme but must be aware that this may also block mailings that they may want to receive."The agreement also outlined a 6.9\\% pay rise over three years for Royal Mail workers, a cut in working hours and further assurances that there will not be compulsory redundancies. The CWU and Royal Mail also agreed to co-operate over the company's modernisation programme.Dave Ward, CWU deputy general secretary, said: "It's been a long time coming, but this deal delivers on the major issues which postal workers have fought for. There's a balance of pay and operational changes which will help offset job losses and ensure our members are fairly rewarded for change."Royal MailPostal serviceConsumer affairsTrade unionsTim Webbguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Exclusive: Former president urges Cameron to rein in Unionist partnersThe former US president George Bush has made a direct plea to David Cameron to support the Northern Ireland peace process, amid widespread concern in the US about the Tories' new electoral pact with the Ulster Unionists.In his most active intervention since leaving the White House, Bush took the rare step of calling the Conservative leader to ask him to use his influence to press his unionist partners to endorse the final stages of the 15-year search for a settlement.The intervention by Bush, in a telephone call last Friday, appeared to have failed last night when the Ulster Unionist party confirmed that it would vote against the devolution of policing and criminal justice powers to Belfast.The unanimous decision by the party executive means that the once mighty UUP, which governed Northern Ireland until direct rule was imposed in 1972, will be the only member of the four-party power sharing executive that will vote no today. The Democratic Unionists and Sinn Fein, which brokered the agreement on policing last month, will join the SDLP in voting for the deal.The decision by the UUP to oppose what London describes as the final piece in the jigsaw of the 1998 Good Friday agreement will come as a blow to Cameron and will cause alarm in the US. The Tory leader supports the devolution of policing powers to Belfast but appears to have failed to persuade his political allies in Northern Ireland to follow his lead.Amid alarm in the US at the prospect of a UUP no vote, Bush telephoned Cameron last Friday to ask him to plead with the UUP leader, Sir Reg Empey, to endorse the deal. While the UUP does not have enough votes to scupper the deal, political leaders in the US fear a no vote from the UUP could undermine support for the settlement within the DUP and among the wider unionist community.The Guardian understands that the White House is so concerned that the US economic envoy to Northern Ireland, Declan Kelly, persuaded Bush to intervene. The former president, who took a close interest in the peace process during his years in the White House, telephoned Cameron to ask him to use his influence to persuade Empey to vote for the deal."There was a feeling that a conservative to conservative conversation was the right way to go about this," said one source familiar with the transatlantic negotiations. "This conversation was borne out of the concern that Empey is holding out." Another source familiar with the contact said: "This is the most active thing George W Bush has done in his post-presidency period. He has been incredibly restrained and diplomatic since leaving the White House. He has maintained radio silence."One source familiar with thinking on Northern Ireland on both sides of the Atlantic added: "The fact that George W Bush has decided to intervene is really significant. He was interested in the peace process as president and appointed an envoy. It is a general sign of how concerned people are in the US about what David Cameron is up to."A Tory source said: "George Bush did have a conversation with David Cameron. It was a positive conversation. David underlined his commitment to the agreement and said we are doing all we can to support it. But he said that we cannot force Sir Reg to vote for it. George Bush thanked David and said, 'I can see you are engaged.'"Democrats and Republicans will be bitterly disappointed with last night's decision by the UUP. As one of the main architects of the Good Friday agreement in its former days as the Northern Ireland's largest party, the party traditionally reflects middle ground unionism.But Empey, who is minister for employment and learning in the executive, believes it is foolish to devolve the final set of powers while the coalition is struggling to function. A meeting between the UUP and the Sinn Féin deputy first minster, Martin McGuinness, broke up after just three minutes last night.The White House has been watching developments with care. Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, yesterday pleaded with Empey in a phone call to support the deal.A group of US Congress members wrote to Cameron last month to issue a stark warning that dissident terrorists will be "emboldened" to intensify their attacks if he fails to persuade the Tories' partners to endorse the final stage of the peace process. Cameron has faced pressure in recent weeks over his decision to form an electoral pact with the UUP, which could provide him with crucial support if the general election leads to a hung parliament. The pact has prompted fears in Washington that he may abandon the even-handed approach to Northern Ireland that was adopted by John Major. Northern Irish politicsGeorge BushDavid CameronNorthern IrelandConservativesNicholas Wattguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

• Probation staff should be sacked, says Denise Fergus • Justice secretary promises review of supervisionThe justice secretary, Jack Straw, today won the backing of James Bulger's mother and MPs from all parties for his refusal to bow to tabloid media demands for the immediate disclosure of the reasons for Jon Venables's recall to prison.Denise Fergus, the mother of murdered two-year-old James Bulger, said she was "prepared to wait a bit longer" to find out the full details to prevent jeopardising any future court case.But Straw, speaking at the Commons, did have to promise a "thorough review" of Venables's probation supervision since his release in 2001, after Fergus demanded the sacking of "whoever's been protecting and looking after Venables in the nine years of his release".Venables and Robert Thompson, both aged 10 when they murdered Bulger after abducting him from a shopping centre in Bootle in 1993, were released in 2001 after serving seven years and eight months in local authority secure units. Both were given new identities protected by an anonymity order that is still in force.Straw again tried to defuse the media campaign by explaining to MPs why he was not able to give any more details of the reasons behind Venables recall after giving further consideration to the matter.The justice secretary did however suggest that Venables' alleged offence – which has widely been reported as linked to child abuse images – was only uncovered as a result of concerns that his new identity was no longer secure. "During the week beginning the 22 February, officials in my department learned of the compromise of Venables' new identity. Subsequently information came to light that Venables may have committed a serious breach of his licence conditions."Straw said Venables was recalled to custody on the same day and has since remained in prison while a parole board hearing is pending. He said full details had not been provided because both the police and the director of public prosecutions had advised that the "premature disclosure of information could undermine the integrity of the criminal justice process, including any potential prosecution".Straw added: "It is critical that if charges do follow, it is possible to hold a fair trial – fair for the defence and fair for the prosecution."The latest round of tabloid speculation over reasons for Venables's recall was sparked by the failure of the government's senior law officers to secure an injunction on Friday night against the Sun newspaper, which reported that his recall had followed a serious sexual offence. The attorney-general's office confirmed today that it had been unsuccessful in securing an injunction. The implication was that the judge rejected the official claim that publication could breach his anonymity.Legal reminders were issued to the media over the weekend advising them of the terms of the original anonymity order, but this did not prevent the Sunday Mirror reporting details of the new alleged offence.Fergus, in her first broadcast interview, called for the probation staff who had monitored her son's killers to be sacked and demanded to know what offences had been committed."The government just don't know how to handle this now. Because this is so big again, the government are just treating it like a football, kicking it to one another."But she did accept that it may be unsafe to immediately disclose the details."I don't want to do anything to jeopardise this at all. If he has hurt someone else or killed someone else I hope they get justice as well," she told ITV's This Morning. "I was told that if any of them breached their terms I would be informed straight away. Now I believe [that was] not the case. I'm just sick of them closing doors in my face."If these allegations that are reported in the papers are true, then this has been going on in the nine years of their release ... whoever has been looking after and protecting Venables, I'm calling for them to be sacked."In the Commons, Straw also received widespread backing with Liberal Democrat MPs saying the rule of law was more important than the demands of tabloid media competition and Tory MPs warning against "lynch mob justice" in prison.James Bulger murderCriminal justiceCrimeJack StrawAlan Travisguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Holding case taken by former Guantánamo detainees behind closed doors would set 'very dangerous precedent', says lawyerThe government will attempt today to have a case about torture heard entirely behind closed doors in a move that some lawyers say would extend secrecy to a new area of hearings, overriding ancient principles of English law.This morning a case will come before three appeal judges in London in which seven men are seeking damages against the government for mistreatment during what they say was their "extraordinary rendition" and torture facilitated by the British security services.The men include former Guantánamo Bay detainees Binyam Mohamed and Moazzam Begg. But the government is seeking to have the case held in secret, less than two weeks after the court of appeal ruled that seven paragraphs of secret evidence in the case of Mohamed should be made public.Lawyers for the men say that if successful, the government's application would extend closed proceedings into findings of fact in the civil courts for the first time."This would set a very serious precedent," said Louise Christian, a partner at Christian Khan who represents Martin Mubanga, one of the claimants, who was also detained at Guantánamo Bay. "If you allow evidence in ordinary civil cases to be kept secret, there is no doubt it will be endlessly used by the government. As the Binyam Mohamed case illustrated, this is really about the government avoiding embarrassment for the reality of their collaboration with the US and all that happened, rather than any real national security issues."The claimants have never been charged with an offence and are pursuing a claim for a range of civil wrongs including torture, false imprisonment and misfeasance in public office.Last month the court of appeal heavily criticised the security services in a ruling in Mohamed's case. Publicising their judgment after an attempt by government lawyers to have damaging remarks about the security services edited out, three of England's most senior judges said British agents "appear to have a dubious record when it comes to human rights and coercive techniques".The government responded furiously to the comments, and to the court's decision to release the seven paragraphs, which it said had damaged intelligence-sharing with the US.But today lawyers for the men bringing the civil claim will argue that the attempt to hold an entire damages case in secret goes far beyond any previous rulings. The government applied to have the case heard behind closed doors last July, when lawyers for government bodies including MI6 the Secret Intelligence Service, the Foreign Office and the attorney-general, argued that more than 250,000 documents would have to be provided, more than half of which were marked "secret", and disclosure would take up to 10 years.If successful, the application could open the way for a range of civil claims to be held in private using a system of "special advocates" – specially vetted lawyers appointed by the court – who would not be able to discuss the case with clients."This would have serious implications for other actions against the state, such as civil actions against the police or immigration services where they are accused of breaches of human rights or unlawful detention, actions against police usually about assault and imprisonment," said Christian. Experts are describing the attempt as a challenge to open justice – a central principle of English law strengthened by the European convention on human rights, and to the adversarial nature of English trials, which dates back to at least the 13th century.The claimants will argue that such changes would have to be approved by parliament, with strong safeguards in place.Lawyers also say the case would have drastic implications for the rest of the UK's legal system, creating "severe practical difficulties," because they would be unable to advise clients or reach settlements out of court. Concerns have also been raised that English common law – which depends on precedents from previous cases being followed by lawyers and judges – will be unable to develop if hearings and judgments are kept secret.Last November the high court judge Mr Justice Silber said the government could have the case heard in secret, stating that the court had the power to order a closed hearing because of the scale and complexity of the case, and the "high proportion of very sensitive material".The government will defend that decision today, and denies that the attempt to have the case heard in secret was part of a cover-up. "The government is not seeking to cover up information or relevant material in these cases. Quite the opposite," a Foreign Office spokesperson said. "We applied for a closed procedure so that the court will be able to fully consider the large volume of relevant material already identified that cannot be disclosed openly without a real risk of causing substantial harm or real damage to the public interest."But today lawyers for the men bringing the claim will argue that Silber's judgment was "founded on a misunderstanding"."Allegations of collusion in torture and extraordinary rendition are some of the most serious that could possibly come before a court and the government," Christian said. "The court is very aware of the tactics in trying to avoid proper disclosure in these sorts of claims."LawTortureBinyam MohamedGuantánamo BayMI6Afua Hirschguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Nouri al-Maliki and Iyad Allawi talk up performance in Iraqi election that drew smaller but broader vote than in 2005Sixty-two per cent of Iraqis voted in yesterday's general election, with both the conservative incumbent prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, and his secular rival, Iyad Allawi, claiming today to have performed strongly in the poll.The turnout was lower than the reported 76\\% turnout in the 2005 poll, which was boycotted en masse by two provinces, but higher than in last year's provincial ballot, the electoral commission said.The lower nationwide tally this time seems to have been balanced by a higher than 50\\% turnout across all provinces, including the restive Sunni heartland. Preliminary results in the landmark poll are expected by Thursday, and several months of horse-trading to select a prime minister are expected to follow.The pre-poll frontrunners, Maliki and Allawi, were both talking up their performances, although neither man is likely to be able to form a government without entering into a coalition with at least one other rival.Officials in Maliki's heartland in the Shia south of Iraq said his political list had won in at least three provinces. Allawi, a secular Shia Muslim, is believed to have polled well in Baghdad and, perhaps surprisingly, in the exclusively Sunni Anbar province, as well as Sunni areas of Baghdad. He needs his cross-sectarian platform to take hold across large sections of Iraqi society to stand a hope of being elected for a second time as leader.There are no indications yet of widespread voter fraud and US officials in Iraq today cautiously predicted that the mass withdrawal of their forces would begin in earnest about 60 days after a final result was determined.The US commanding general, Ray Odierno, said: "Today I believe we are going to be on 50,000 [troops] by 1 September. We believe we are right on track."That number matches a pre-election pledge to withdraw all combat troops from Iraq by the end of the summer as part of a security agreement signed between Baghdad and Washington. Odierno said 35,000 US troops had left Iraq since September and another 45,000 were expected to pull out between May to November.He said the barrage of explosions that reverberated around Baghdad as voting got under way yesterday were caused by dozens of bottles packed with explosives and detonated by mobile phones, not mortars and rockets, as the Iraqi army had previously claimed.The devices seemed aimed more at deterring voting than at causing widespread carnage, although up to 35 people were killed and several dozen more wounded, according to two Baghdad hospitals visited by the Guardian. At least two buildings were rigged with explosives and blown up."We did not have a single track yesterday," Odierno said, in reference to radar sites that track the launch and trajectory of the rockets and mortars that regularly pepper Baghdad's international zone and some US bases.He said joint Iraqi and US forces had intercepted 20 suicide vests in the three days before the election as well as three to four vehicle bombs and a cell of would-be female suicide bombers in Diyala province, north of the capital.IraqMartin Chulovguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Men wielding machetes leave up to 500 dead near Jos as Nigerian leader calls meeting with security chiefsA nappy-clad baby was among the corpses of children tangled with each other in a morgue after a massacre that left hundreds of dead in central Nigeria.Another young victim appeared to have been scalped, while others had severed hands and feet, the Associated Press reported. One female victim appeared to have been stripped below the waist but later covered by a strip of black cloth.The death toll near the city of Jos, central Nigeria, was at least 500 after an attack by men wielding machetes before dawn on Sunday, a local official said. Police said the number of dead recorded so far stood at 55. One aid worker said it was difficult to count because some bodies were charred beyond recognition.Residents of three predominantly Christian settlements near Jos said Muslim herders from surrounding hills had launched what appeared to be reprisal attacks following sectarian clashes which killed hundreds in January. Some witnesses told the BBC that villagers were caught in fishing nets and animal traps as they tried to flee and were then hacked to death. Mud huts were also set on fire.Mark Lipdo of the Stefanos Foundation, a Christian aid group, told the BBC: "We saw mainly those who are helpless, like small children and then the older men, who cannot run, these were the ones that were slaughtered."The Zot village was completely wiped out: almost all the people there, except those who were able to escape by running to another place. But almost everyone who was found there was killed." Lipdo said he could confirm 93 deaths in Dogo Nahawa village alone, adding: "These are the ones we know, but there are corpses charred beyond recognition."He said the youngest was just three months old. Residents there also said the dead included a four-day-old baby.Gregory Yenlong, state commissioner for information in Plateau state, said: "Soldiers are patrolling and everywhere remains calm … we are estimating 500 people killed but I think it should be a little bit above that."Acting President Goodluck Jonathan called an emergency meeting with all security service chiefs to discuss strategies to prevent clashes spreading to neighbouring states.Jos, which lies at the crossroads of Nigeria's Muslim north and predominantly Christian south, has been under a military curfew since the outbreak of violence in January.NigeriaDavid Smithguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Barbara Rosenkranz in U-turn over country's ban on Holocaust denialA far-right contender to become Austria's head of state was forced to denounce the Nazis today, promising to uphold a national ban on denying the Holocaust after previously insisting that it was a matter of free speech.Amid growing uproar over a tabloid campaign to make her president, Barbara Rosenkranz, a deputy leader of the far-right Freedom party, surprised the Austrian elite last week by announcing she would challenge the incumbent, Heinz Fischer, for the Austrian presidency next month.Rosenkranz, a mother of 10 married to a man who was prominent on the Austrian neo-Nazi scene for two decades, has repeatedly criticised Austria's laws criminalising denial of the Holocaust. Asked on national radio last week whether she believed the Nazis murdered millions of Jews in concentration camp gas chambers, she answered evasively, adding that freedom of expression also meant allowing "absurd, bizarre opinions".Following an outcry and criticism from her main backer, the mass-circulation Kronen Zeitung newspaper, she publicly signed a statement today pledging never to contest the country's anti-Nazi legislation."Democracy, freedom and human dignity have always been the foundations of my views and my political activities. This is why I condemn the crimes of the era of the National Socialistic regime. I distinctively dissociate myself from Nazi ideology," she said in the statement, according to the Austrian Times.The about-face was dismissed as meaningless by her political opponents, and an opinion poll showed that two out of five Austrians believed she was damaging the country with her views.Rosenkranz is the sole challenger running against Fischer, a Social Democrat, with the mainstream Christian democrats, or Austrian People's Party, failing to put up a contender.While she has little chance of winning, her campaign is seen as a test by the extreme right and its powerful backers to gauge how much support they can muster. They hope she will be helped by the absence of a mainstream centre-right candidate.Rosenkranz is running a campaign strong on xenophobia and opposition to the European Union, opposing immigration and calling for the closure of Austria's borders with the newer EU countries of central Europe.The Kronen Zeitung and its elderly publisher, Hans Dichand, are very powerful in Austria. Last week Dichand endorsed the Rosenkranz candidacy, writing that she was "a courageous mother" who would make a "good Austrian president". He added that her main pitch would be to blame the EU for "the completely incomprehensible opening of the borders to the east".Vienna's Jewish community said it was unacceptable for "other political posts in the country to be occupied by cellar Nazis" and described her candidacy as "contempt for the 65,000 Austrian Jews murdered in the Shoah".The far-right Freedom party leader, Heinz-Christian Strache, said Rosenkranz might win 35\\% of the vote next month.AustriaThe far rightHolocaustIan Traynorguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

At least 57 people dead after magnitude-6 earthquake strikes eastern province in early hours of morningA strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6 struck eastern Turkey this morning, killing at least 57 people, an official said.The quake occurred at 4.32am in Elazig province, while many people were asleep.Stone or mud-brick homes and minarets of mosques were toppled in six villages and 57 people were killed, said the deputy prime minister, Cemil Cicek.The worst-hit area was the village of Okcular, where some 17 people were killed and homes crumbled into piles of dirt. Another 13 people were killed in the village of Yukari Demirci.The government's crisis centre said around 100 people were injured.The epicentre was near the village of Basyurt, according to Istanbul's Kandilli observatory seismology centre. It recorded more than 20 aftershocks, the strongest of which measured 4.1.CNN-Turk television said the dead included four young sisters trapped in the rubble. Rescue workers were trying to pull one other person out of the debris in Okcular village, it reported."Everything has been knocked down. There is not a stone in place," said Yadin Apaydin, administrator for the village of Yukari Kanatli, where he said three villagers had died.The quake was felt in the neighbouring provinces of Tunceli, Bingol and Diyarbakir, where residents fled to the streets in panic and spent the night outdoors.Some of the injuries occurred during the panic, when people jumped from windows or balconies. TV footage showed people bringing the injured to hospital by cars and taxis.Rescue workers and soldiers at Okcular lifted debris and Turkey's Red Crescent organisation began setting up tents in the region.Earthquakes are frequent in Turkey, much of which lies atop the North Anatolian fault. In 1999, two powerful quakes struck north-western Turkey, killing about 18,000 people.TurkeyNatural disasters and extreme weatherHaroon Siddiqueguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

The cost of a colour TV licence is to rise to £145.50 as part of an ongoing six-year deal between the BBC and the governmentThe cost of the annual BBC colour TV licence fee will increase by 2\\% to £145.50 per household from 1 April.Next month's licence fee increase was brought into effect by an order laid before the House of Commons today, which will also see the cost of a black and white TV licence increase by £1 to £49.This is the fourth year of a six-year licence fee deal between the BBC and the government, which runs to the end of March 2013.The future of the annual licence fee increase is more uncertain than at any time in the BBC's almost 90-year history, with both Labour and the Conservatives talking about the corporation potentially having to get by with less money.Last year the Tories took the unusual step of forcing a Commons vote on the annual licence fee increase, arguing that it should be frozen at £139.50.However, this move was defeated by 334 votes to 156 with the backing of Labour and Lib Dem MPs.The current six-year licence fee deal, negotiated in 2006, allowed for a 3\\% annual increase for the first three years, then two years with a 2\\% boost. The level of the licence fee for the final year, up to the end of March 2013, has yet to be set.• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000.• If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".BBC licence feeBBCTelevision industryJason Deansguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

• First American women to fly military aircraft remembered• Gold medals for 300 still alive, and relatives of deceasedDuring the second world war, as American and British pilots were dying over Europe and the Pacific, hundreds of American women flew the skies over the US in support roles, testing military aircraft, training fighter pilots and ferrying planes about the continent.Thirty-eight died in the line of duty, but their service was soon forgotten, their records buried in the archives even though they had paved the way for the integration of women into the armed services.Tomorrow the women airforce service pilots, or Wasps, will be honoured by the US Congress when it awards them gold medals for their service.They were the first American women to fly military aircraft. The idea came from Jacqueline Cochran, an accomplished pilot, who convinced top brass in the US army air force that if women took on flying duties at home, they would make more men available for combat duty.In 1943 the Wasp programme was created. Eager to join up, more than 25,000 women applied, and more than 1,000 completed the six-month programme. They were stationed at 120 airbases across America. They did flight testing and instruction, towed targets for air-to-air gunnery practice and ferried personnel and cargo, including components for the atomic bombs. They flew more than 60 million miles in every type of military aircraft and on every kind of assignment that men flew – bar combat."I'd fly them over their targets," said Carol Brinton Selfridge, who was a 24-year old mother of two when she joined the Wasps. "The boys went down in the nose of the plane and dropped those bombs on the desert floor. Then I'd go back up to about 15,000 feet and fly back."The bodies of the 38 women who died were shipped home for burial at their families' expense, with no flags flown nor military honours, because they were officially civilians. When the programme dissolved in December 1944 the Wasps were forced to pay their way home. Unit records were sealed and classified until 1980‚ effectively writing the women out of the early drafts of the war history, according to supporters in the US Senate.In 1977 Congress granted the Wasps veteran status. Today the women will finally get the recognition their supporters say they deserve — medals awarded to surviving Wasps and families of the deceased by the US Congress. Republican Kay Bailey Hutchinson of Texas, who is sponsoring the awards in the Senate, warns that Congress has little time to lose. The women are all in the 80s and 90s, and more than a dozen died in the year the award was pending. Roughly 300 of the original corps survive."Today women fly every type of aircraft, from combat fighter aircraft to the space shuttle," Hutchinson said. .Although women are officially barred from ground combat in the US military, female pilots routinely fly missions in Iraq and Afghanistan that blur the lines between support and fighting roles. Tammy Duckworth, a top official in the US veterans affairs department, was a Black Hawk helicopter pilot in Iraq. She lost both her legs and partial use of an arm when she was shot down in a rocket-propelled grenade attack.Last month General George Casey, the army chief of staff, said "women are an integral part of the force". He and John McHugh, the army secretary, said the military would review policies that bar women from ground combat units.US militarySecond world warWomen in politicsDaniel Nasawguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Staff at Department for Work and Pensions claim managers instructed them to give mock recorded messages during strikeCivil servants who continued working during yesterday's national strike have revealed they were told to pretend to be answering machines to cope with an overload of calls from the public.Staff at the Department for Work and Pensions in Carlisle said today they were given a brief script to read out before hanging up, in the style found on telephone answering machines.The instruction by managers was initially leaked on Facebook after chitchat between strikers and colleagues who had stayed at work. One worker said: "To begin with, we all found it hard to keep a straight face, and occasionally, I slipped up and I ended up giving my name to the person who was calling."The staff said their fake-robot message was issued for peak lunchtime, between midday and 2pm. The script read: "Due to the high volume of enquiries we are currently experiencing we are unable to take your call. Please call back later."The clerical worker said: "I believe the idea was that we would have difficulty coping because of the strike, but it just seems like a silly way to handle the problem. We were asking why they didn't just prepare a proper answering message saying we couldn't answer calls because of the industrial action. It just seemed wrong to hang up on people."A spokeswoman for the DWP did not confirm the instruction but said: "Due to a high volume of customer calls yesterday between 12pm and 2pm some customers were asked to call back after 2pm. Otherwise the majority of our customers had their calls and requests dealt with immediately and in the usual manner."On the picket line outside the Carlisle offices, which serve Cumbria, Jennifer Wright, branch organiser for the Public and Commercial Services Union, said: "Pretending to be an answering machine is hardly good customer service. Some people may have been sitting waiting for the phone to be answered for 10 minutes – and they're not ringing up just for a chat, they've usually got important questions."Civil servicePublic sector payPayPublic sector careersMartin Wainwrightguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Union proposals including 2.6\\% pay reduction have not been accepted unconditionally by BA managersA strike by BA cabin crew appeared increasingly likely after a last-ditch offer of a 2.6\\% pay cut failed to achieve a breakthrough in talks today.Yesterday, representatives of the Unite trade union and its Bassa cabin crew branch tabled a cost-cutting package including a pay cut this year and reductions in perks such as telephone allowances.Unite claimed the proposals exceeded the airline's savings target of £60m a year, but ‑ with the 5pm deadline for achieving a deal approaching ‑ they have not been accepted unconditionally by the airline.A source close to the talks, at the TUC headquarters in London, said it was likely that BA executives would turn the offer down.Another source said the Unite chief negotiator, assistant general secretary, Len McCluskey, was not optimistic that an agreement could be reached.Unite and Bassa officials will formalise strike dates, and a walkout could take place as soon as next Wednesday once the union has given BA the obligatory seven days notice of strike action.According to a poll on the Bassa website, nearly one-third of BA's 12,000 cabin crew want a strike lasting longer than 10 days. Unite has already announced that it will not strike over the Easter holidays.The final Unite offer of a reduction in cabin crew costs of £61.85m a year appeared to be foundering amid BA scepticism over the level of immediate cost savings in the document.A deal over the creation of a separate fleet, staffed by lower paid cabin crew, has been rejected by the airline, which claimed savings would not be delivered immediately because the fleet had yet to be created.Unite's cost savings document, seen by the Guardian, argued that the move would save £10m a year – but BA's refusal to acknowledge the plan effectively leaves the Unite proposal at £51.85m a year, below the airline's savings target.A draft agreement between both sides, now unlikely to be formally accepted, contains a pledge to "rebuild the trust damaged by the recent dispute".That relationship now stands on the brink of another marked deterioration.BA has drawn up plans to break a strike with 1,000 volunteer cabin crew drawn from the ranks of its 38,000 workforce and a fleet of 23 chartered jets.Willie Walsh, the chief executive, last week said he hoped to operate a "substantial proportion" of the airline's Heathrow long-haul operations and a "good number" of short-haul flights.BA will operate its entire schedule from London City airport during the expected strike, and has also claimed more than two-thirds of its Gatwick-based crew will work normally, leaving its long-haul schedule from the UK's second-largest airport intact.The airline operates 650 flights a day with its 239-plane fleet, mostly from Heathrow, but has not said which routes would be kept open by the stand-in workforce.The dispute between BA and Unite has been protracted, marked by high court hearings and accusations of intimidation on both sides.After months of talks, during which BA failed to secure agreement on cost cuts, the airline unilaterally removed at least one flight attendant from long-haul flights in November, triggering a strike ballot.While some cabin crew privately acknowledged that the changes had not created significant problems, Unite and Bassa officials were furious that they were brought in without negotiation.The development has meant, however, that substantial moves ‑ such as Unite's acceptance of putting lower-paid new recruits on a separate fleet of planes ‑ have been overshadowed by the battle to partially repeal staffing cuts.BA lost £401m at a pre-tax level last year, and is heading for another substantial loss this year.The airline has targeted cost savings of £140m per year in its cabin crew budget but has failed to reach agreement with Unite over how to achieve those efficiencies.British AirwaysAirline industryTravel & leisureAir transportTrade unionsDan Milmoguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Despite the decision by the European Union last week to approve the cultivation of a GM potato, plant scientist Eoin Lettice argues that consumers will only accept the technology when it provides tangible benefits for themLast week's decision by the European Commission to allow genetically modified potato varieties to be grown in some European Union countries concludes a 13-year campaign by the German chemical company BASF.Ordinary potatoes produce two kinds of starch, but the GM potato Amflora only produces the economically useful form, amylopectin, which is used in the paper, textiles and adhesives industries. Production of the uneconomic form, amylase, has been turned off by genetic modification, so the useful starch doesn't need to be separated from the useless form during processing.BASF says that while starch from its GM potato will not be used in human food, it may use the product in animal feed.What particularly worries opponents of GM technology, however, is that Amflora carries an extra gene that makes the potato resistant to the antibiotics neomycin and kanamycin.Why is it there? GM plants are produced by inserting novel genes into individual plant cells and then growing the cells into whole plants in the laboratory. Gene insertion can be achieved by using a bacterium to "ferry" it into the cell or by blasting it in using a gene gun. Alternatively, the tough plant cell wall can be stripped off and the gene can be inserted into this "naked" cell.Regardless of the technique used, not all of the plant cells will take up the novel gene and incorporate it into their own DNA – perhaps just five cells out of every thousand. Tagging the novel gene with an antibiotic resistance gene allows modified cells to be singled out, because they will be resistant to a specific range of antibiotics.This has been a source of concern for campaigners, but in June 2009, the European Food Safety Authority ruled that marker genes like this are unlikely to cause adverse effects on human health and the environment. As a result of limitations in sampling and detection it was unable to be conclusive, but the authority emphasised that it considered Amflora to be safe.BASF first submitted its Amflora potato for approval in 1996. However, an EU-wide moratorium on GM between 1998 and 2004 delayed the process substantially. When the potato was resubmitted for approval after the moratorium ended, progress was so slow that in 2008 BASF filed an action against the EC in the European Court of First Instance for "failure to act" and decide on the issue despite the European Food Safety Authority saying in two separate reports that the product was as safe as any conventional potato.The company claimed that the previous commissioner, Stavros Dimas, "unjustifiably delayed" the decision on several occasions.Now, within weeks of stepping into the role, the new European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy, John Dalli, has given the green light for planting to begin. BASF says the potatoes will be grown in Germany and the Czech Republic this year, and in Sweden and the Netherlands in 2011.Opponents of GM technology have been quick to denounce the decision, with Greenpeace saying that Dalli has "steamrolled" a decision through. Given that the potato variety in question has undergone 13 years of testing since its first submission, this analogy might be better applied to the lumbering decision-making process in Europe rather than this final decisive move by the new commissioner.At the root of this issue is consumers' wariness about GM foodstuffs and GM organisms in general. Consumers genuinely do not see the worth of GM products, which is why there is a need to move beyond crops that confer benefits to industry and growers alone towards second-generation GM that produces added health and nutritional benefits for consumers.Hans Kast, president and CEO of BASF Plant Science, is on record as saying that the Amflora potato could potentially earn European farmers an extra €100 million annually. The company has also pointed out that it is losing between €20m and €30m in licence income for every lost cultivation season.Perhaps I'm being presumptuous, but I can't imagine many Irish or European consumers lying awake at night worrying about lost revenues for BASF. What Irish consumers are interested in, however, are real and tangible benefits from their foods.In a survey in 2005 by Ireland's Agriculture and Food Development Authority, 42\\% of consumers questioned indicated that they would consider purchasing a hypothetical GM-produced yoghurt if it had anti-cancer properties. In the same study, 44\\% of consumers said that they would use a GM-produced dairy spread if it had anti-cancer properties."Second generation" GM crops also have a role to play in developing countries, with the development of fortified foodstuffs such as "golden rice" to counteract malnutrition. A new variety of Golden Rice has been engineered to produce even more pro-vitamin A to combat vitamin A deficiency.Undoubtedly, some British and Irish consumers, in common with their European counterparts, are reluctant to consume GM crops and see them growing in their countries. The focus of industry on benefits to the grower and seed producer rather than on consumer-centred benefits will prolong this reluctance and hamper the innovation in our food and agriculture industries that is so badly needed.Eoin Lettice is a lecturer in the department of zoology, ecology and plant science at University College Cork, Ireland. He specialises in the control of plant pests and diseasesGeneticsAgricultureControversies in scienceFoodGMguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

How can normal people be made to act heroically?In paying tribute to Michael Foot last week, David Cameron used an intriguingly double-edged phrase. He described the former Labour leader as "almost the last link to a more heroic age in politics" – a duly respectful compliment, but one that also hinted that Foot was from a bygone era where politics was done in brash primary colours rather than the thoughtful shades used today.Of all the virtues, heroism is now the most remote. Heroes are either mythic or historical characters (Achilles or Gandhi) or they are superhuman (Spider-Man, or even 9/11 firefighters). What they are not is one of us. Our age has role models and it has celebrities, but it has no room for heroes.Fighting to revive heroism is Philip Zimbardo, the septuagenarian who is probably the most famous living psychologist in the world. Zimbardo built his career on the study of evil; in 1971, he led the Stanford Prison Experiment, where long-haired students were put in a mock jail and divvied up as prisoners or guards at random. Within a few days, the "guards" were humiliating their "prisoners", refusing some permission to urinate and subjecting others to simulated sodomy.That experiment and others convinced Zimbardo that ordinary people could be driven to evil acts if put in horrific situations. His latest work flips that principle and asks: how can normal folk be made to behave heroically? By heroism, the psychologist does not mean altruism but the risking of one's safety or status, sometimes for an ideal. Zimbardo talks of the "banality of heroism" – a neat inversion of Hannah Arendt's observation that the Nazi Adolf Eichman demonstrated "the banality of evil" – and points out that social scientists have done acres of research on evil but barely any on heroism. And to that end, he has been slaving away – heroically, one might say – lecturing policy-makers and raising research funds.There is more to this project than academic papers, however. Matt Langdon works with Zimbardo and, as head of the Hero Construction Company, runs his own character-building classes for 10-14 year olds. "I always tell them that the opposite of a hero isn't a villain – it's a bystander," he says.PsychologyAditya Chakraborttyguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Chosen insect feeds on invasive species but not other closely related plants and cropsBiological warfare is to be declared on an alien invader, Japanese knotweed, that swamps gardens and rivers, with the release of an insect to eat the virulent weed.The decision by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is the first allowing one non-native species, a flying insect resembling a miniature moth, to control the seemingly unstoppable spread of an alien plant.However, it is likely to cause concern among wildlife lovers because of a long history of human interventions in the natural world ending in failure, and sometimes causing worse problems than the original, as with the cane toad in Australia.In a public consultation by Defra last year about 20 responses opposed the scheme, though 42 were in favour.The wildlife minister, Huw Irranca-Davies, said the fast-growing Japanese knotweed was estimated to cost £150m a year to control, and was able to grow through buildings and roads.Fallopia japonica has also been blamed for flooding, by causing erosion to river banks and clogging up streams with dead plants."This project is not only ground-breaking, it offers real hope that we can redress the balance," said Irranca-Davies.Experts estimated in 2003 that it would cost £1.5bn to fund a physical clearance campaign for Japanese knotweed.Laboratory tests were started on pests from Japan which control the knotweed by feeding on sap from its stems, causing the plant to die back.The tests showed the chosen Aphalara itadori did not eat any other species, including closely related British plants and important crops.The psyllids – or plant-jumping lice, which grows to only 2-2.5mm – will be released at two sites initially, under close supervision.If these outdoor trials are a success the trials will be extended to another six sites, none of which Defra will disclose.The concept is similar to biological pest control practised by some farmers, using predator insects to control crop pests. The non-native predatory beetle Rhizophagus grandis was also released in Britain under licence in the mid-1980s to tackle the invasive alien spruce bark beetle (Dendroctonus micans).On conservation and wildlife internet forums, opponents of the idea said they feared the impact on other native wildlife, for example species that might start feeding on the psyllids. One blogger compared the risk to the traditional nursery rhyme "I know an old lady who swallowed a fly" in reference to the long pursuit of one animal to destroy another – ending in the lady swallowing a horse: "She's dead of course." The Global Invasive Species Programme said that despite a few well-known failures, a third of biological control programmes to tackle pests and weeds were judged successes, and the system was often considered more "permanent, efficient, environmentally sustainable and relatively cheap" than using chemicals or mechanical removal."While there are some risks, which still may be considered by some to be unacceptable, biological control is increasingly viewed as being the preferred management strategy for invasive species, wherever possible, and in the case of biological weed control specifically, it has an enviable safety record," said Sarah Simons, Gisp's executive director.Japanese knotweed, which is native to Japan, Taiwan and China, was introduced by botanists into Britain in the 19th century as an ornamental plant. It grows at up to a metre a month, and a fragment of just 0.8 grams can grow into a new plant. Invasive predators have become a global problem and are among the top causes of global species threats and extinctions according to conservation experts.The Royal Horticultural Society suggests gardeners destroy knotweed using glyphosate-based weed-killers or by digging out the roots and cutting back regrowth, however it warns that the process can take several seasons. Experts stress that uprooted plants must be destroyed carefully to avoid spreading. "Eradication requires steely determination," says the RHS.Invasive speciesPlantsInsectsPesticidesBiologyJuliette Jowitguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

There is no simple way to battle public hostility to climate research. As the psychologists show, facts barely sway us anywayThere is one question that no one who denies manmade climate change wants to answer: what would it take to persuade you? In most cases the answer seems to be nothing. No level of evidence can shake the growing belief that climate science is a giant conspiracy codded up by boffins and governments to tax and control us. The new study by the Met Office, which paints an even grimmer picture than the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, will do nothing to change this view.The attack on climate scientists is now widening to an all-out war on science. Writing recently for the Telegraph, the columnist Gerald Warner dismissed scientists as "white-coated prima donnas and narcissists … pointy-heads in lab coats [who] have reassumed the role of mad cranks … The public is no longer in awe of scientists. Like squabbling evangelical churches in the 19th century, they can form as many schismatic sects as they like, nobody is listening to them any more."Views like this can be explained partly as the revenge of the humanities students. There is scarcely an editor or executive in any major media company – and precious few journalists – with a science degree, yet everyone knows that the anoraks are taking over the world. But the problem is compounded by complexity. Arthur C Clarke remarked that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". He might have added that any sufficiently advanced expertise is indistinguishable from gobbledegook. Scientific specialisation is now so extreme that even people studying neighbouring subjects within the same discipline can no longer understand each other. The detail of modern science is incomprehensible to almost everyone, which means that we have to take what scientists say on trust. Yet science tells us to trust nothing, to believe only what can be demonstrated. This contradiction is fatal to public confidence.Distrust has been multiplied by the publishers of scientific journals, whose monopolistic practices make the supermarkets look like angels, and which are long overdue for a referral to the Competition Commission. They pay nothing for most of the material they publish, yet, unless you are attached to an academic institute, they'll charge you £20 or more for access to a single article. In some cases they charge libraries tens of thousands for an annual subscription. If scientists want people at least to try to understand their work, they should raise a full-scale revolt against the journals that publish them. It is no longer acceptable for the guardians of knowledge to behave like 19th-century gamekeepers, chasing the proles out of the grand estates.But there's a deeper suspicion here as well. Popular mythology – from Faust through Frankenstein to Dr No – casts scientists as sinister schemers, harnessing the dark arts to further their diabolical powers. Sometimes this isn't far from the truth. Some use their genius to weaponise anthrax for the US and Russian governments. Some isolate terminator genes for biotech companies, to prevent farmers from saving their own seed. Some lend their names to articles ghostwritten by pharmaceutical companies, which mislead doctors about the drugs they sell. Until there is a global code of practice or a Hippocratic oath binding scientists to do no harm, the reputation of science will be dragged through the dirt by researchers who devise new means of hurting us.Yesterday in the Guardian Peter Preston called for a prophet to lead us out of the wilderness. "We need one passionate, persuasive scientist who can connect and convince … We need to be taught to believe by a true believer." Would it work? No. Look at the hatred and derision the passionate and persuasive Al Gore attracts. The problem is not only that most climate scientists can speak no recognisable human language, but also the expectation that people are amenable to persuasion.In 2008 the Washington Post summarised recent psychological research on misinformation. This shows that in some cases debunking a false story can increase the number of people who believe it. In one study, 34\\% of conservatives who were told about the Bush government's claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction were inclined to believe them. But among those who were shown that the government's claims were later comprehensively refuted by the Duelfer report, 64\\% ended up believing that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.There's a possible explanation in an article published by Nature in January. It shows that people tend to "take their cue about what they should feel, and hence believe, from the cheers and boos of the home crowd". Those who see themselves as individualists and those who respect authority, for instance, "tend to dismiss evidence of environmental risks, because the widespread acceptance of such evidence would lead to restrictions on commerce and industry, activities they admire". Those with more egalitarian values are "more inclined to believe that such activities pose unacceptable risks and should be restricted".These divisions, researchers have found, are better at explaining different responses to information than any other factor. Our ideological filters encourage us to interpret new evidence in ways that reinforce our beliefs. "As a result, groups with opposing values often become more polarised, not less, when exposed to scientifically sound information." The conservatives in the Iraq experiment might have reacted against something they associated with the Duelfer report, rather than the information it contained.While this analysis rings true, the description of where the dividing line lies isn't quite right. It doesn't describe the odd position in which I find myself. Despite my iconoclastic, anti-corporate instincts, I spend much of my time defending the scientific establishment from attacks by the kind of rabble-rousers with whom I usually associate. My heart rebels against this project: I would rather be pelting scientists with eggs than trying to understand their datasets. But my beliefs oblige me to try to make sense of the science and to explain its implications. This turns out to be the most divisive project I've ever engaged in. The more I stick to the facts, the more virulent the abuse becomes.This doesn't bother me – I have a hide like a glyptodon – but it reinforces the disturbing possibility that nothing works. The research discussed in the Nature paper shows that when scientists dress soberly, shave off their beards and give their papers conservative titles, they can reach to the other side. But in doing so they will surely alienate people who would otherwise be inclined to trust them. As the MMR saga shows, people who mistrust authority are just as likely to kick against science as those who respect it.Perhaps we have to accept that there is no simple solution to public disbelief in science. The battle over climate change suggests that the more clearly you spell the problem out, the more you turn people away. If they don't want to know, nothing and no one will reach them. There goes my life's work.Climate changeClimate changeClimate change scepticismIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)Hacked climate science emailsGeorge Monbiotguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Conflict sparks debate about online censorship and highlights Apple's control over software platformThe International Federation of the Periodical Press (FIPP) is considering making a complaint to Apple over the computer firm's request that German publisher Springer censor the naked girls on one of its iPhone apps. Springer-owned tabloid Bild's "Shake the Bild Girl" app allows iPhone users to undress a model. Each time the user shakes the phone, the girl strips an item of her clothing. While Bild features naked women daily in its pages, Apple ruled that the girls in its iPhone app should wear bikinis.The Association of German Magazine Publishers (VDZ) asked FIPP last week to approach Apple over the issue. FIPP is debating the issue, but has no further comment at the moment. The VDZ chief executive, Wolfgang Fuerstner, has warned that Apple's move might represent a move towards censorship. In an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel he said: "Publishers can't sell their soul just to get a few lousy pennies from Apple." Bild Digital CEO Donata Hopfen agreed: "Today they censor nipples, tomorrow editorial content." Apple asks publishers of general interest apps to respect its US "no nipples" policy. In November, German weekly Stern's app was dropped from the App Store due to an erotic photo gallery. When Apple approached Bild in January, the publisher censored the PDF version of the paper programmed for the iPhone. According to Doepfner, Springer is Apple's second biggest client worldwide after Google. And Springer makes good money via Apple. The "Shake the Bild Girl" app costs €1.59 a month and can be topped up with a PDF of the printed Bild for €3.99 a month. Springer's head of public affairs, Christoph Keese, said that the iPhone apps launched Bild and its other newspaper Die Welt have sold a total of more than 100,000 units. Apple's intervention has made it clear to publishers that they find themselves in a new role in a digital world. When Apple announced at the end of Feburary that it would "remove any overtly sexual content from the App Store", publishers had to follow that request. It is Apple that has final control over its platform, not the publishers. Digital mediaiPhoneNewspapersCensorshipCharging for contentMercedes Bunzguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

PS3/ XBox 360, Square Enix, £49.99, Cert 16A battle is raging across the world and flames lick at every messageboard. Why? Well, the new Final Fantasy is now just two days away, and its many fans can hardly wait to pop it into their PS3s. Or, and here's the rub, into their Xbox 360s.The franchise, which will surely break 100 million units sold with this release, is something of a gaming phenomenon. It singlehandedly popularised computer role-playing games outside Japan and in doing so propelled the original PlayStation into an unassailable lead in the first big battle of the consoles. Sony owes a great deal to Square Enix, and it says a lot about Bill Gates's ambition for XBox that Final Fantasy XIII is no longer a Sony exclusive. Never mind that Final Fantasy originated on a Nintendo console – or indeed that this isn't even the first FF game to appear on Xbox 360…Name-calling aside, this is everything one has come to expect from a Final Fantasy title. Even without Blu-ray it looks amazing, and not just in its abundant cut-scenes. The epic storyline sees an all-new group of unlikely heroes embark on a typically convoluted quest to save their world and themselves in the process. Meet Lightning, Snow, Hope, Fang, Sazh and Vanille. They look like refugees from an explosion in a hair gel factory. They look every inch like heroes of a Final Fantasy.If you enjoyed previous iterations, then you'll love this, and even if you haven't, it may be time to give Final Fantasy another try, because this is the most streamlined, accessible and straightforwardly playable quest to date.Every single fight, of which there are many, is scored with up to five stars. The critical factor is the speed with which foes are annihilated. This, together with the super-slick Active Battle System, controlled in real time by the rather elegant new Paradigm controls, hurls our heroes ever onward with unexpected pace. Which is not to say that this is a quick game. There are days, not hours, of gameplay here.It is refreshing in this era of "interactive movies" such as Heavy Rain that a game can be so grandly and unapologetically linear as Final Fantasy XIII. You fight a bit; you watch a bit. Although clearly evolved, this is essentially the same spectacular hackathon it has always been, and with so many fans of the format, more power to it. Now, if only they could all just get along…GamesPlayStationXboxguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Company working with satellite provider on feature that would let users search both TV content and web videos on set-top boxes Once again, rumours are making their rounds that Google is going to make some sort of set-top box play. The latest: the Wall Street Journal reports that the company is working with Dish Network on a new feature that would let users search both TV content and web videos on set-top boxes "using elements of Google's Android operating system".The tie-in direct with Dish Network, a broadcast satellite service provider, makes sense, since both companies already have a close relationship on the TV, where Google TV Ads counts Dish Network as one of its primary partners.But there are some big caveats and unknowns: It's unlikely that the service will come to market soon, since the WSJ makes a point of emphasising that the tests are limited for now to a "very small number" of Google employees. Also, no set-top boxes that run on Android are currently on the market. But as far back as November 2007 there were rumours that Google was working to build an app platform for set-top boxes. Nothing has come of that, although that effort would presumably be related to this one in some way.If Google did go ahead and launch some sort of "Google TV search", competitors would include Clicker, the much-hyped (and funded) online video search engine which has deals with set-top boxes like Boxee and popbox, so that users can search Clicker from their TVs.A Google spokesman said the company does not comment on rumour or speculation. Related storiesClicker Gets $11 Million For Online Video Search EngineGoogle's Android Is Moving Into The Digital HomeDigital mediaTelevision industryOnline TVGoogleSearch enginesTelevisionpaidContentguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Video games publisher Ubisoft has apologised after thousands of players were locked out of its systems over the weekend.PC users started reporting problems accessing some of the French company's most popular games, including best-seller Assassin's Creed 2, on Sunday afternoon. It later emerged that attackers had targeted the company's controversial anti-piracy system, causing it to break down - which in turn left thousands of people unable to play.The chaos was so widespread because of the way that Ubisoft's copy protection system - which requires players who have bought the game to log in online and verify that they are not playing a pirated version - is designed. By flooding the anti-piracy servers with web traffic, the unknown attackers forced it to collapse and therefore locked out those players who tried to sign in.This angered many gamers, who felt that they had been punished for buying legal copies of the company's games - which cost as much as £50."We've had to agree to their draconian rules in order to play their game, however Ubisoft haven't given a single thought to what happens when their servers screw up," said one disgruntled user on the company's web forums. "[This] only penalises legitimate customers like myself who want to play your fantastic games but cannot," said another.The company initially blamed the problems on "exceptional demand" - but in a statement on Monday, Ubisoft admitted that it had been targeted."Ubisoft would like to apologise to anyone who could play Assassin's Creed 2 or Silent Hunter 5 yesterday," it said. "Servers were attacked and while the servers did not go down, service was limited from 2.30pm to 9.30pm Paris time.""Ninety-five percent of players were not affected, but a small group of players attempting to open a game session did receive denial of service errors."The attack itself brings into question the company's decision to roll out its controversial digital rights management (DRM) to try and stop its games from being illegally copied.Although the games themselves do not involve online play, the sign-in system is required for anybody playing titles like Assassin's Creed 2, which has sold more than 8m copies worldwide since it was release in November.The constant tension between publishers, consumers and pirates has caused problems in the past - such as when Electronic Arts released Spore, a highly-anticipated evolutionary simulator that required online validation before it could be played. After complaints from thousands of users, the company eventually relaxed the rules.But Ubisoft's system has caused extra irritation with players because it means that the titles cannot be used at all without a constant internet connection - a particularly drastic requirement given that the company says there are actually no cracked versions of the games in question in the wild.The same denial of service technique employed by the Ubisoft attackers is often used by hackers and blackmailers to threaten online businesses, or by those protesting against web sites or companies. And despite the company's assurances that only a handful of players were affected, however, it appears that the problems may not yet be over. On Monday some users reported similar difficulties, leading the company to confirm via Twitter that "our servers are under attack again" and that "we're working on it".GamesDigital rights managementPiracyBobbie Johnsonguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Liverpool suffered a major setback in their attempts to preserve their residence in the Champions League when they succumbed to defeat at relegation-threatened Wigan. No margin for error, their manager, Rafael Benítez, had warned before kick off. But this Liverpool team is full of errors.They would have reclaimed fourth place with a victory. Instead, their seventh away defeat of this Premier League campaign has left them sixth, one point behind Tottenham Hotspur in the final Champions League zone but having played one game more than Spurs, two more than Manchester City and three more than Aston Villa. Five bookings indicated their frustration.Wigan's slide towards relegation had appeared inexorable, with one win in 13 league games– against Wolves in January – explaining their position one point above the bottom three. There was a noticeable aversion to risk in Roberto Martinez's team in the early stages, although given that their malaise has far deeper roots than the pitch here, that came as no surprise.One glimpse of the quagmire that welcomed Spurs 16 days ago confirmed that the surface had to be re-laid but it was disconcerting to see the staff at work before this game had kicked off. The uneven turf needed treatment after the warm-up, with the distribution from all players paying an inevitable price once the match began.Liverpool were first to settle and they looked well equipped to increase Wigan's insecurities. Javier Mascherano, again preferred at right-back, with Glen Johnson returning to the bench after a three-month absence, caused problems with a low cross that fell to Steven Gerrard on the edge of the area – the shot was sliced over. Shortly after that Fernando Torres struck the outside of Chris Kirkland's post from close range, after Maxi Rodríguez's header had found the Spaniard unmarked from a Gerrard corner. First impressions were to prove thoroughly deceptive, however.Wigan's holding midfield duo, Mohamed Diame and James McCarthy, gradually took control in their individual battles, displaying an accuracy in the challenge and on the ball that Liverpool's midfielders failed to match. Gerrard in particular had an ordeal.While Diame and McCarthy provided the foundation for the home side's improvement, their penetration came from Charles N'Zogbia, once he discovered he had the beating of Emiliano Insua on the right. The Argentinian left-back was the first of three Liverpool players to be booked in the opening 33 minutes for a foul on N'Zogbia. The supply line from N'Zogbia flowed, with the lone striker, Marcelo Moreno, close to scoring in front of an open goal after the winger had spun Insua inside the box and crossed hard and low from the right.Hugo Rodallega wasted an inviting free-kick from 20 yards and though Dirk Kuyt combined with Yossi Benayoun to produce a decent opening for Gerrard, which Paul Scharner stifled with an excellent block tackle, the Latics continued to present the greater threat.Their goal, however, owed much to Liverpool's carelessness. Kuyt collected a throw-in deep inside his own half and for some reason that could not be blamed on the pitch, sent a dreadful pass straight to Emmerson Boyce. Wigan's right-back suddenly transformed himself into Rivelinho, spraying a delightful cross with the outside of the foot over the visiting defence, and the unmarked Rodellega volleyed his first goal since Boxing Day – and Wigan's first in 382 minutes of football – wide of the exposed José Reina.The Colombian striker was presented with a clear opportunity to double Wigan's advantage 42 seconds after the restart when McCarthy broke through a vast expanse of space down Liverpool's left, not for the first time, and picked out Rodallega free on the far side. Wigan's leading goalscorer took too long to consider his options and enabled Mascherano to block the shot when it came.Torres squandered a decent chance of his own from a Rodríguez cut-back on the right and went agonisingly close with a late volley from Kuyt's knockdown. Despite showing the urgency the situation demanded in the second half, Liverpool were constantly vulnerable at the back. A ludicrous comedy of errors almost gifted Wigan a second when Jamie Carragher headed a long ball over his own goalkeeper and cannoned his clearance against the industrious Moreno. The ball looped towards goal, where Sotirios Kyrgiakos spared his partner's embarrassment with a vital headed clearance off the line.Premier LeagueWigan AthleticLiverpoolAndy Hunterguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

• Gloucester centre and Leeds flanker among reinforcements• Jim Telfer says Scots have 'more mature ideas'England have been forced to summon a posse of reinforcements, including Mike Tindall and the in-form Leeds flanker Hendre Fourie, before Saturday's Calcutta Cup game at Murrayfield. Shane Geraghty, Olly Morgan and Tom Palmer have also been recalled to the fold amid lingering doubts over the fitness of several squad members.The second-row forward Simon Shaw, as expected, is out of contention to face Scotland after injuring his left shoulder against Ireland. Morgan has been included as full-back cover, in case Delon Armitage should fail to recover from damaged ribs, while Tindall has been formally restored to the senior squad in place of the injured Leicester centre Dan Hipkiss. Geraghty, who was unceremoniously dropped following the autumn Tests, is back in case the knock to the head suffered by Toby Flood in Leicester's weekend win over London Irish prevents the threequarter from travelling north.The most tantalising call-up, however, is that of the uncapped Fourie, a 30-year-old back-rower who hails from Burgersdorp in South Africa's rural Eastern Cape. Fourie – who has played for the Cheetahs and Rotherham as well as England Saxons and is known to his team-mates as Shrek – has been a storming presence in the Premiership lately and was prominent in Leeds's gripping victory over Saracens on Sunday.As things stand he owes his selection to the unlucky Wasps No8 Dan Ward-Smith's latest knee ligament problem. It would be no surprise, however, if at some stage in the coming months Fourie becomes the latest South African-born sportsman to represent England at senior level.For now, though, Johnson seems more inclined to stick with the bulk of the side who have served England in their three previous Six Nations games. Leicester's Louis Deacon would appear the most likely candidate to replace Shaw in the starting side, with an impatient Ben Foden standing by to replace Armitage. Another defeat, however, would surely cause a more radical reshuffle and the likes of Fourie, Tindall, the Northampton wing Chris Ashton and the up‑and‑coming Leicester scrum‑half Ben Youngs may be closer to a starting place than they imagine.An element of surprise would certainly come in handy this weekend. If anyone should know Johnson's players inside out it is Andy Robinson, a proud Englishman wearing the Scotland head coach's tracksuit. Robinson is no fool and he will have done meticulous homework on the likely England XV. Anything that could inject a scintilla of doubt into Scottish minds would also deflect suggestions, not least from the former Scotland coach Jim Telfer, that England are a "poor team" with little tactical spark."We have more mature ideas and a coach who's positive," said Telfer at the weekend. "In terms of philosophy, Andy Robinson and Martin Johnson are about as far apart on the spectrum as it is possible to get."Maybe Telfer is trying to goad England into playing the kind of unstructured game which would play into the hands of the outstanding home back row, Kelly Brown, Johnnie Beattie and John Barclay. What is undeniable is that England need to emerge from a rut that is largely of their own creation. So far, to paraphrase Muhammad Ali, they have tended to float like a bee and sting like a butterfly.How many Englishmen are in top form? Dan Cole, Tim Payne, Deacon – the list is not a particularly daunting one. In the last two Six Nations England have finished strongly. If they fail to do so this time, clubs like Stade Français, the employers of James Haskell, will be entitled to ask if the Rugby Football Union's stern stance on player release is having the desired effect.The consolation for England is that life could be worse. They could be heading for Murrayfield with half their backs out injured, having lost all their games and with their coaches tearing their hair out, as is their hosts' current lot. The bad news is that the Scots show every sign of being a motivated team with a big win lurking within them. The law of averages would suggest that day is not far off. Are England good enough to avoid the looming ambush, having flattered to deceive against Ireland?"Essentially the guys were guilty of trying to play too much rugby, too close to their own line, on a day when they should have concentrated on kicking or driving into the opposition half and pressurising them." Johnson's words might have been uttered in the aftermath of the Ireland game but they actually come from his autobiography and refer to England's painful grand slam defeat in Edinburgh in 2000. Same old song? At some point English rugby really has to change the record.Six Nations rugbyEngland rugby union teamScotland rugby union teamRugby unionRobert Kitsonguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

• England batsman set for top of order against Bangladesh• It's important to keep improving as a player, says TrottJonathan Trott believes he has done all he can to book a place in England's side for the first Test against Bangladesh from Friday but is not sure where he might be asked to bat.The 28-year-old put behind him the disappointment of being edged out of the limited-overs side by a fellow South African, Craig Kieswetter, to hit 101 before retiring on day two of the warm-up match against Bangladesh A in Chittagong.His efforts helped England to 281 for seven declared before James Tredwell struck twice in the hosts' 131 for three, a lead of 52.It was a decisive statement from Trott on his first knock since arriving in the country. "I'm pretty pleased with how it went," said the Warwickshire batsman. "It was important for me to stay positive and to make the best of my chance when it came, which I feel as though I've done."It was a pretty good pitch but it was difficult this morning – a bit overcast, quite testing. Every chance you get for England is a good opportunity and one you need to take. I definitely feel I've given myself the best chance going into the Test."With a little more work in the nets, I think I can reach top form for that match."While his selection now seems likely, his position in the order is less obvious. Michael Carberry was chosen as batting cover when Andrew Strauss opted out of the trip and, as a left-handed opener, is a like-for-like replacement for the resting captain. But, with competition for places strong, Trott has emerged as a potential first-timer at the top of the order."I don't know too much about that [the likely batting order]," he said. "No one's said anything, we've only really talked about this match but, any opportunity, whether it's batting three or opening is good."Yesterday I came in in the second over so it's a similar thing to opening. It's one of those things you just have to adjust to."Trott burst on to the international scene with an Ashes-winning century on debut but endured a comparatively lean time in the South Africa Test series before ceding his ODI place to Kieswetter.Now the Cape Town-born player is hoping to put those experiences to good use. "I did well in the one-dayers in South Africa and it was really good to win that series but, unfortunately, we drew the Test series and I didn't finish the way I would have liked to," Trott said."I feel I had a pretty good tour in retrospect but it's important to keep improving as a player in what is an ever-improving England side. That's the goal."I want to be able to contribute to a successful England side. Long tours are valuable experience, learning how to perform for the full tour. That is something I'll look back on and use to my advantage, hopefully for a long time, to help the side."England resume in the field tomorrow looking for seven quick wickets and a modest chase if they are to secure victory against Mohammad Ashraful's team.Tredwell, meanwhile, who took his seventh and eighth wickets of the game, should get plenty of bowling time to wrap up a 10-wicket haul.England in Bangladesh 2010England Cricket TeamCricketguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Find out all you need to know about the upcoming Formula One season with our comprehensive guide

• Leading US banks blamed for triggering financial crisis • Policymakers propose a rival European monetary fundEuropean countries are blocking Wall Street banks from lucrative deals to sell government debt worth hundreds of billions of euros in retaliation for their role in the credit crunch.For the first time in five years, no big US investment bank appears among the top nine sovereign bond bookrunners in Europe, according to Dealogic data compiled for the Guardian. Only Morgan Stanley ranks at number 10.Goldman Sachs doesn't make the table. Goldman made it to number five last year and in 2006, and number eight in 2007, the data shows. JP Morgan was in the top ten last year and in 2007 and 2006 but doesn't appear this year."Governments do not have the confidence that the excessive risk-taking culture of the big Wall Street banks has changed and they still cannot be trusted to put the stability of the financial system before profit," said Arlene McCarthy, vice chair of the European parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee. "It is no surprise therefore that governments are reluctant to do business with banks that have failed to learn the lesson of the crisis. The banks need to acknowledge the mistakes that were made and behave in an ethical way to regain the trust and confidence of governments."European sovereign bond league tables are now dominated by European banks such as Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank, and Société Générale, the Dealogic table shows. Their business model is usually seen as more relationship-based, while US investment banks have traditionally been focused on immediate deal-making.Being left out of government bond sales means missing out on one of the top fee-earning opportunities this year, given the relative drought in mergers and acquisitions and stock market flotations. Western European governments need to raise an estimated half a trillion dollars this year to refinance debts and pay for bank bailouts and rising unemployment.Banks typically take a percentage of the total deal value for underwriting a bond issue, which could run into tens of millions given the ballooning sovereign debt sales this year. On a 1\\% fee, Barclays Capital would have pocketed $92m (£61m) from the $9.2bn European bonds it helped sell this year.Barclays may have profited as a domestic anchor of UK debt sales, as a certain level of "nationalism" has surfaced according to Philip Augar, author of Chasing Alpha and other books about investment banking. "People have done as much as possible to take care of their own financial institutions," Augar said.The National Bank of Greece featured in the top 10 for the first time in at least five years, according to Dealogic. Greece left Goldman and Morgan Stanley out of its most recent bond sale, and also dropped hedge funds from its list.Petros Christodoulou, the head of Greece's debt management office, told the Guardian the bond issue had been directed to more "long-term" investors as they were seeking market stability. Greece has had tense relationships with Goldman recently after it emerged that the US bank had helped hide the real level of the country's public debt with derivatives contracts. The country also denied reports about the bank selling a stake of its debt to the Chinese government fund.Investment banks insist their business areas are separated by confidentiality walls, but countries have been furious about some of their trades appearing to conflict – either on their own books, or on behalf of clients.Goldman Sachs said its overall position in the European sovereign bond market had improved this quarter once US dollar denominated deals were included. It said its own data showed it ranked fourth in European sovereign bond sales this year.Greece, Spain, Germany and France are also pushing for changes in the credit default swap market, where investors can bet against the possible default of a country, ultimately bringing more instability.Britain, Spain, Ireland and Belgium have not used Wall Street firms in the largest 10 deals of the year, according to Dealogic.Britain used Barclays, Deutsche, RBS and Royal Bank of Canada in its $7bn issue last month, the data shows. Spain has also used Santander, as well as Barclays, Citi and SocGen in recent issues.Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley have exploded in wealth and power over the past decade. In their glass towers in Canary Wharf, or in Goldman Sachs' European headquarters on Fleet Street, reception rooms regularly welcome prime ministers, world business leaders and multibillion-pound investors."The power of big investment banks was a factor in the banking crisis, and it's up to regulators and customers to stand up to them, and not picking them is one of the ways," Augar said.But the power accumulated is too large to wane, the author said. "I doubt this will last," he said. "The US investment banks will be back in Europe before too long because they are very powerful and they have a very big footprint in Europe."The EU is also trying to curb US financial power by creating its own monetary fund – a replica of the Washington-based IMF.The need of a European fund has emerged during the Greek crisis, as European politicians have insisted financial troubles should be resolved at home.BankingHedge fundsUnited StatesGreeceGoldman SachsJP MorganMorgan StanleyFinancial crisisCredit crunchEuropean UnionDeutsche BankElena Moyaguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

US food conglomerate's promise to reverse closure of Bristol plant will be examined by inquiry into UK confectioner's takeoverThe Takeover Panel is investigating whether Kraft broke its strict rules during the battle to win control of Cadbury, as the sale of one of Britain's best-loved firms to a foreign predator continues to rankle.The inquiry stems from Kraft's decision to close Cadbury's Somerdale plant in Keynsham, near Bristol, despite the American firm's chief executive, Irene Rosenfeld, promising at the outset of the bid battle that she would reverse the decision set in train by the previous management.Last month, within a week of Kraft's £11.9bn offer winning shareholder approval, Kraft shocked union leaders and politicians by announcing that the plant, which employs 400 workers, would close after all.The about-face intensified union doubts over Kraft's commitment to preserving British jobs in the wake of the deal that saw the confectioner subsumed within a $50bn (£33bn) turnover conglomerate. In addition to the Somerdale job losses, up to 150 jobs are threatened at Cadbury's offices in Uxbridge, west London, and Bournville in Birmingham as Kraft looks to weed out duplicated roles.If Kraft is found to have breached the panel's code, it could face a private or public "statement of censure". The panel has no powers to intervene in the bid or impose fines.Kraft's decision to press on with the closure of Somerdale appeared to come out of the blue with the business secretary, Lord Mandelson, complaining that he had not been forewarned. MPs will question Kraft executives when they appear at the Commons business, innovation and skills select committee later this month.The investigation came to light after Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Conservative party candidate for North-East Somerset, wrote to the Takeover Panel arguing that Kraft's change of heart broke rules demanding that bidders "prepare statements with the highest degree of care and accuracy" and not make statements that, "while not factually inaccurate, may be misleading".Rees-Mogg said Kraft's behaviour was "shameful". "It gave people in Keynsham false hope in its prospectus, which was either careless or deliberately misleading," he said.Explaining its decision to close Somerdale, Kraft argued that Cadbury had invested more than £100m in improving its Polish factories, with production of some lines set to be transferred as soon as the summer. Brands made at Somerdale include Fry's Chocolate Cream, Double Decker and Crunchie. In a statement, Rosenfeld said: "It became clear that it is unrealistic to reverse the closure programme, despite our original intent to do so. While this is a difficult decision, we have moved quickly to end any further uncertainty."A spokesman for Kraft said: "Throughout the transaction, it has never been our policy to comment on the UK Takeover Panel. Any questions should be addressed to the panel itself."A spokesman for the Takeover Panel declined to comment.KraftCadburyMergers and acquisitionsFood & drink industryTrade unionsJob lossesPeter MandelsonManufacturing sectorZoe Woodguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds