![Image]( "Ban on 'shale gas' extraction urged")
Campaigners are calling for a ban on the extraction of "shale gas" in the UK until potential environmental and human health risks have been properly assessed.
Exploitation of the natural gas in this country is expected to begin near Blackpool, Lancashire, later this month, but the Co-operative has raised concerns the process of extraction can contaminate local groundwater.
In the US, some residents in areas where drilling for shale gas is taking place can set fire to their drinking water and have become ill because of pollution by gas and chemicals, according to a new documentary Gasland.
The gas is found in shale formed from deposits of mud, silt, clay and organic matter. It is extracted by drilling down and then horizontally through the ground and then by "fracking", a process of hydraulic fracturing of the shale using high pressure liquid containing chemicals to release the gas.
According to a report by the Tyndall Centre for the Co-operative, information about which chemicals are involved in the process is not publicly available but data on what is being stored at drilling sites in the US indicate the use of chemicals which are toxic or cause cancer. The Co-operative, which is running a campaign against "unconventional" fuels such as tar sands from Alberta, Canada, which are a much more polluting source of oil than conventional oil, has also raised concerns about whether the gas fits with a move to a low carbon economy.
While shale gas does not emit much more carbon in its production and use than conventional natural gas, and could improve the UK's energy security, its exploitation worldwide could add to the greenhouse gases already being released - increasing the problem of climate change.
Paul Monaghan, head of social goals and sustainability at the Co-operative, also said there was no evidence in the US that the exploitation of shale gas was driving a switch away from dirtier coal for generating electricity. And he said that while it could help the UK's energy security as North Sea gas runs low, it could also take investment away from developing renewable energy. "It's like tar sands in your backyard, both in terms of local pollution and in terms of carbon emissions," he said.
Kevin Anderson, professor of energy and climate change at the Tyndall Centre, said: "In an energy-hungry world, any new fossil fuel resource will only lead to additional carbon emissions. "In the case of shale gas there is also a significant risk its use will delay the introduction of renewable energy alternatives. Consequently, if we are serious about avoiding dangerous climate change, the only safe place for shale gas remains in the ground."
A Department of Energy and Climate Change spokesman said: "We support industry's endeavours in pursuing such energy sources, provided that tapping of such resources proves to be economically, commercially and environmentally viable. All onshore oil and gas projects, including shale gas exploration and development, are subject to a series of checks, including local planning permission before they are able to move ahead with drilling activities".
But the Commons' Energy and Climate Change Committee has launched an inquiry into shale gas in a bid to answer the questions raised by the prospect of exploiting the fuel source in the UK. Tim Yeo, chairman of the parliamentary committee, said: "Shale gas is a very interesting new area, and could potentially make quite a significant contribution to available reserves in North America and even in the UK. But it does raise some new environmental and related questions."
Three people have been killed after a car and a van were in collision.
The woman driving the car and two male passengers died in the crash on the A30 Great South West Road near Hatton Cross Underground station in west London just after 6am on Monday.
Police believe the car was attempting to turn in the road when it was hit by the van, whose driver escaped uninjured.
Another man travelling in the car was taken to hospital but he is not believed to be seriously injured.
No arrests have been made and the Metropolitan Police are appealing for any witnesses to call the road death investigation unit on 020 8941 9011.
Campaigners are calling for a ban on the extraction of "shale gas" in the UK until potential environmental and human health risks have been properly assessed.
Exploitation of the natural gas in this country is expected to begin near Blackpool, Lancashire, later this month, but the Co-operative has raised concerns the process of extraction can contaminate local groundwater.
In the US, some residents in areas where drilling for shale gas is taking place can set fire to their drinking water and have become ill because of pollution by gas and chemicals, according to a new documentary Gasland.
The gas is found in shale formed from deposits of mud, silt, clay and organic matter. It is extracted by drilling down and then horizontally through the ground and then by "fracking", a process of hydraulic fracturing of the shale using high pressure liquid containing chemicals to release the gas.
According to a report by the Tyndall Centre for the Co-operative, information about which chemicals are involved in the process is not publicly available but data on what is being stored at drilling sites in the US indicate the use of chemicals which are toxic or cause cancer. The Co-operative, which is running a campaign against "unconventional" fuels such as tar sands from Alberta, Canada, which are a much more polluting source of oil than conventional oil, has also raised concerns about whether the gas fits with a move to a low carbon economy.
While shale gas does not emit much more carbon in its production and use than conventional natural gas, and could improve the UK's energy security, its exploitation worldwide could add to the greenhouse gases already being released - increasing the problem of climate change.
Paul Monaghan, head of social goals and sustainability at the Co-operative, also said there was no evidence in the US that the exploitation of shale gas was driving a switch away from dirtier coal for generating electricity. And he said that while it could help the UK's energy security as North Sea gas runs low, it could also take investment away from developing renewable energy. "It's like tar sands in your backyard, both in terms of local pollution and in terms of carbon emissions," he said.
Kevin Anderson, professor of energy and climate change at the Tyndall Centre, said: "In an energy-hungry world, any new fossil fuel resource will only lead to additional carbon emissions. "In the case of shale gas there is also a significant risk its use will delay the introduction of renewable energy alternatives. Consequently, if we are serious about avoiding dangerous climate change, the only safe place for shale gas remains in the ground."
A Department of Energy and Climate Change spokesman said: "We support industry's endeavours in pursuing such energy sources, provided that tapping of such resources proves to be economically, commercially and environmentally viable. All onshore oil and gas projects, including shale gas exploration and development, are subject to a series of checks, including local planning permission before they are able to move ahead with drilling activities".
But the Commons' Energy and Climate Change Committee has launched an inquiry into shale gas in a bid to answer the questions raised by the prospect of exploiting the fuel source in the UK. Tim Yeo, chairman of the parliamentary committee, said: "Shale gas is a very interesting new area, and could potentially make quite a significant contribution to available reserves in North America and even in the UK. But it does raise some new environmental and related questions."
Terrified tourists could be stuck in strife-torn Tunisia until the middle of this week, it has been revealed.
British Airways (BA) is operating its normal Monday service between Tunis and Gatwick. But for those not able to get on that flight, the next BA flight is not until Wednesday, meaning an anxious wait for British holidaymakers confined to their hotels in the North African country.
Robert Jenkins, staying in the resort of Hammamet with his wife, was critical of BA for allowing his flight last Friday to leave from Gatwick. But BA has said it is continuing with its five-flights-a-week service to Tunis and that there were seats available on its Wednesday flight.
Mr Jenkins, from Fetcham in Surrey, told the online Daily Mail: "I can't believe that BA allowed the flight to take off when they knew the Foreign Office had advised against non-essential travel to Tunisia. We hadn't seen the news and the warning was not mentioned when we checked in or when we boarded."
The 51-year-old is in Hammamet with his brother Richard, 59, and sister-in-law Veronica, 61.
Richard Jenkins, a court usher from Byfleet, Surrey, said: "We haven't even been out of the front door, we are so scared. Our three daughters are really worried. They just want us back as quickly as possible."
A BA spokesman said: "There are seats available on Wednesday's flight back to Gatwick. People can rebook online.
"We are monitoring the situation in Tunisia carefully. We continue to operate flights to and from Tunis to help as many of our customers as possible. We would not operate a service unless we were confident that it was safe to do so. Customers who are booked to travel to or from Tunis in the next 72 hours can claim a full refund, rebook to a different date or to an alternative destination."
Major tour operators have brought home hundreds of British holidaymakers from Tunisia in the last few days. But it was estimated that between 1,000 and 1,500 British nationals remained in the country, which has been hit by rioting and civil disorder in the past week.
Christopher O'Connor, UK Ambassador to Tunisia, said: "Clearly, there have been a lot of people killed and injured. Those (British tourists) who do stay, we encourage them to stay indoors, and to avoid any signs of violence and demonstrations near them."
Joanna Yeates's killer could have entered and left her flat without being seen by any of her neighbours, official documents reveal.
The only way into the murdered landscape architect's apartment in Bristol is through a private front door down a side path.
Detectives have established that Miss Yeates returned home on the night she disappeared exactly a month ago, but they are still investigating how her body came to be dumped in a country lane three miles away.
Her coat, boots, mobile phone and keys were found in the flat, but no trace has been found of a Tesco pizza she bought on her way home.
Miss Yeates, 25, lived with her boyfriend, Greg Reardon, 27, in a sunken ground-floor apartment in a large converted Victorian house at 44 Canynge Road, Clifton.
A floorplan obtained from the Land Registry shows the young couple's flat is self-contained, with its own front door on the right of the building, and has a simple layout with three main rooms off the entrance hall.
The living room looks out on the front lawn and the single bedroom at the rear has a view of the house's back garden. The small kitchen - where Miss Yeates may have cooked the pizza - opens on to the living room and has a window looking out on the path running along the right side of the house.
There is a communal entrance at the front of 44 Canynge Road for most of the other flats, but a second ground-floor apartment also has its own front door at the rear of the property. Miss Yeates and Mr Reardon rented the flat from Chris Jefferies, 65, a retired English teacher at nearby Clifton College, who was arrested on suspicion of the murder before being released on bail.
Plans of the house were submitted to Bristol City Council for planning permission when it was split into flats in the late 1980s, and Avon and Somerset Police murder detectives have obtained a copy of the documents as part of their investigation.
Miss Yeates went missing on the night of December 17 after leaving friends in the Ram pub in Park Street, Bristol. Her body was found on Christmas morning by a couple walking their dogs in Longwood Lane in Failand, North Somerset.
The Government cannot afford to delay essential reform of Britain's public services, David Cameron has warned.
As ministers prepared to publish legislation to radically overhaul the NHS, the Prime Minister said that failure to modernise was draining resources away from the public sector.
In a keynote speech at the Royal Society of Arts in London, he dismissed suggestions that services could carry on as they were as "a complete fiction".
The Government's plans for the NHS were denounced by six health service unions - including the British Medical Association and the Royal College of Nursing - as "potentially disastrous", but Mr Cameron insisted that change was essential.
"Every year without modernisation the costs of our public services escalate. Demand rises, the chains of commands can grow, costs may go up, inefficiencies become more entrenched. Pretending that there is some 'easy option' of sticking with the status quo and hoping that a little bit of extra money will smooth over the challenges is a complete fiction.
"We need modernisation, on both sides of the equation. Modernisation to do something about the demand for healthcare, which is about public health. And modernisation to make the supply of healthcare more efficient, which is about opening up the system, being competitive and cutting out waste and bureaucracy.
"Put another way: it's not that we can't afford to modernise; it's that we can't afford not to modernise."
With the Government also set to publish details of its school reforms next week, Mr Cameron cited the experience of Tony Blair, who found that delaying public service reform simply resulted in "institutional inertia" against change.
He acknowledged that in the past the Conservatives had not always shown sufficient respect for those who worked in public services, but insisted he would "revere, cherish and reward" an ethos of public service.
The Prime Minister also rejected suggestions that the Government was trying to do "too much at once" in pushing through change, saying: "Every year we delay, every year without improving our schools is another year of children let down, another year our health outcomes lag behind the rest of Europe, another year that trust and confidence in law and order erodes."
An Irish junior minister has joined rebel ranks trying to oust Taoiseach Brian Cowen as leader of the ruling Fianna Fail party.
As Foreign Affairs Minister Micheal Martin claimed other Cabinet members also wanted change, Billy Kelleher said he would vote to end Mr Cowen's rule. Mr Kelleher warned he also believed the majority of Government ministers and backbenchers wanted change.
The junior minister, who holds the trade and commerce portfolio but not a seat at the Cabinet table, claimed Fianna Fail had failed to communicate properly with the public.
"The reality is that Fianna Fail must recognise the current climate of public opinion, and I believe the time has come for a change of leader who will put forward a positive agenda and engage with the public," he said.
Mr Martin has led the charge against the Taoiseach, claiming that the survival of the party is at stake at the next election, due in March. He claimed there was back-biting and whispers in the party throughout last year over Mr Cowen's leadership.
The Taoiseach broke with protocol on Sunday night to announce he would put forward a motion of confidence in himself in a secret ballot at Tuesday's meeting of the parliamentary party. He needs 36 votes to survive.
Two other senior Cabinet members, Finance Minister Brian Lenihan and Tourism Minister Mary Hanafin - both put up as potential leadership candidates - have yet to declare their intentions.
Mr Martin has tendered his resignation amid the crisis. The Taoiseach refused to accept it but the offer will stay on the table until the issue is resolved at the secret vote. The Foreign Affairs Minister said party members around the country have warned him that they do not want Mr Cowen as leader in the election campaign.
Government Chief Whip John Curran said he had not heard of any other minister backing Mr Martin.
"Brian Cowen, staying on not just as Taoiseach but as leader of Fianna Fail, is prepared for the battle," Mr Curran said.
The Serious Fraud Office could be merged with the new FBI-style National Crime Agency under Government plans to tackle corporate corruption and fraud which costs the UK £30 billion a year, the Home Office has said.
Policing Minister Nick Herbert said the new Economic Crime Agency would end the piecemeal approach to tackling white-collar crime.
A consultation on the body, and whether it will be part of the National Crime Agency (NCA), will take place later this year, with "the initial elements of the agency" in place "in shadow form by the end of the summer", Mr Herbert said.
Both the Serious Fraud Office and the Financial Services Authority (FSA) could be merged into the new agency under the plans.
Mr Herbert told the Financial Times: "As the department with the role of crime-fighting, it is right that the Home Office should be focused on economic crime. There has not been that focus until now."
The NCA is set to replace the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca), which was also heralded as "Britain's FBI" when it was launched by Labour in 2006, with the aim of tackling organised crime and protecting the UK's borders.
The mother of murdered schoolgirl Sarah Payne criticised plans on Sunday to merge the UK's child protection agency with the NCA.
Sara Payne, who was given a 50/50 chance of living following a massive brain seizure just over a year ago, said cash-saving measures would undo the good work already done to protect youngsters.
"The merger will result in it being watered down and you won't have a specialised unit in the end," she told the News of The World.
Jim Gamble, former chief executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, quit in October after the change was announced, criticising plans to remove its independence and describing it as a "mistake for child protection".
Heartbroken gaelic football manager Mickey Harte helped shoulder the coffin for his murdered newly-wed daughter as thousands of people joined the funeral cortege.
One of Northern Ireland's busiest roads was blocked to all traffic as mourners made their way to St Malachy's church outside Ballygawley where Michaela McAreavey, 27, was buried in her wedding dress.
Irish President Mary McAleese was among those who attended the funeral of Tyrone GAA manager Harte's daughter. Many others followed the cortege from the family home in bright winter sunshine.
It was one of the biggest funerals in Northern Ireland for several years, with political and community representatives from all sides attending.
The roads were lined with hundreds of GAA fans and friends of the young Irish language teacher who was strangled in her honeymoon suite in Mauritius a week ago - just days after she was married in the same church where Requiem Mass was held.
Her widower John, parents Mickey and Marian, and brothers Mark, Michael and Mattie have been devastated by the death. Mr McAreavey and Mr Harte carried the coffin in sombre silence.
Tyrone senior gaelic football team members and local club Errigal Ciaran, which Mr Harte used to manage, provided a guard of honour from her parents' home to the church. On arrival, another guard of honour was provided by Mr McAreavy's local football club, Tullylish in Co Down, and Mrs McAreavey's form class at St Patrick's Academy in Dungannon.
Archbishop of Armagh Cardinal Sean Brady presided over the Mass.
As Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson addressed representatives at Stormont as the legislature reconvened after its Christmas break, he said the 27-year-old's tragic death had captured public attention and united people in grief.
Mr Robinson said the young teacher had been a valued relative and friend to those who shared her life, but that their warm tributes meant many more people now felt they knew her. Ulster Unionist representative Danny Kennedy, who said he knew the McAreavey family, extended his sympathies to the young woman's bereaved relatives and those of her husband John.
A teenager stood by as her boyfriend knifed her father to death in a row over money, a court has heard.
Antiques dealer Antoni Robinson, 61, was stabbed 15 times as he slept in bed at his home in Old Colwyn, North Wales, Mold Crown Court heard.
Prosecutors said Gordon Harding, 20, launched the attack "supported and encouraged" by his girlfriend, the victim's daughter, Ashleigh Robinson, 19.
Harding and Robinson, of Llanelian Road, Old Colwyn, are accused of murder with Sacha Roberts, 19, of Woodland Road West, Colwyn Bay, and a 16-year-old girl who cannot be identified because of her age. All four deny the charge.
Andrew Thomas QC, opening for the prosecution, said the attack happened in the early hours of July 7 last year when the four defendants gained access to Robinson's home as he slept.
He told the jury of seven women and five men that Robinson suffered wounds to his face, neck and upper body, including four stab wounds to his back.
At least two knives were used, the prosecutor added, a 'Commando' style army knife with a 7in (17.8cm) blade and a kitchen knife with a 3in (7.6cm) blade.
Mr Thomas alleged the killing was the tragic result of a family dispute over money, jewellery and property.
He said Harding had admitted stabbing Robinson but that it had been in self defence. Mr Thomas told the court that Robinson "did not appear to have put up much of a struggle".
He said: "It appears that Mr Robinson had not been able to fight back or to escape. We say Mr Robinson must have been completely overpowered by his attacker or attackers."
A former Tory peer made "false, deceptive and misleading" claims for expenses, a jury has heard.
Lord Taylor of Warwick submitted forms saying his main residence was in Oxford when he was actually living in London, prosecutor Helen Law told Southwark Crown Court.
He claimed for travelling expenses between the two cities and for night subsistence to cover being in London, she said.
The place in Oxford was where his half nephew lived and Lord Taylor has agreed that he never stayed at the address and had no legal or financial interest in it, Ms Law added.
Lord Taylor of Warwick is on trial after being charged with six counts of false accounting.
Doctors have successfully operated on shot congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords' eye socket to remove bone fragments as she continues to show more signs of improvement.
They said there were no complications from the surgery and Ms Giffords is improving so much that she was able to give her husband a pat on the back.
Dr Randall Friese said astronaut Mark Kelly also told doctors he saw Ms Giffords smile. The doctor said sometimes people see what they want to see, but that "if he says she's smiling, I buy it."
Ms Giffords still cannot speak because of a tracheotomy done so the breathing tube could be removed from her mouth.
Dr Michael Lemole said the eye operation entailed making an incision above the eyebrow, removing bone chips to relieve pressure and reconstructing the roof of the socket.
Ms Giffords responded from the moment she arrived at the emergency room on January after being shot point blank in the head on January 8 outside a store in Tuscon, Arizona.
At first she squeezed a doctor's hand, then she raised two fingers. She opened her unbandaged eye shortly after President Barack Obama's bedside visit last Wednesday.
Then, more milestones - which doctors said were all indicative of higher cognitive function - were achieved, all with her husband at her side.
Mr Kelly asked her to give him a thumbs-up if she could hear him. She did more than that. She slowly raised her left arm. By the end of the week, she had moved her legs and arms.
Ms Giffords and 18 others were shot when a gunman opened fire at a meet-and-greet she was hosting outside a supermarket in her own hometown. Six people died.
Many bankers are paid more than they are worth, the chairman of taxpayer-backed Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) admitted.
Sir Philip Hampton said there was not enough disparity in pay between the "stars" of investment banking and the average "journeymen players".
His comments will fuel calls for a crackdown on bankers' bonuses and come as ministers are in talks with the City about limiting this year's settlements.
"The star quality, as it were, seems to filter down to people who don't seem so star quality," Sir Philip told the BBC for a documentary about the banks to be broadcast on Tuesday night.
"There is, if I can use the expression, a sort of gangmaster cultural phenomenon in this, that you recruit top people who really do make a difference, who really do move markets and get business and are really high achievers.
"But they do tend to associate themselves with people who aren't such stars, but they want them around and they trust them, sometimes they move with them and there is a team associated with it. And the disparities between the top stars in the team and some of the journeymen players, if you like, is probably not as marked as it should be."
Sir Philip's comments are especially pointed as RBS is majority-owned by the state. He took over at RBS in 2009 after it was bailed out by the Treasury.
This year's total bonus pot for bankers is expected to amount to about £7 billion, despite continued public anger about the role played by the banks in the recession.
The issue is the source of coalition tensions as Liberal Democrats demand a tougher line on the banks than Prime Minister David Cameron appears ready to take.
Mr Cameron has insisted he cannot "hammer" the banks over bonuses because the Government needs their tax revenues and their capacity to lend to businesses.
An 18-year-old man is in a stable condition in hospital with a gunshot injury after reports of a shooting.
The teenager was taken by ambulance from Frith Road, Dover, Kent, to the William Harvey Hospital at 8pm on Monday.
The Dover Grammar School for Girls is located in the street where the incident happened.
Kent Police said: "Police are currently dealing with an incident in the Frith Road area of Dover following reports of a shooting which took place just after 8pm (on Monday) evening, where a man has received a single gunshot injury.
"The man has been taken to hospital where he is currently in a stable condition.
"Police are currently at the scene and there are a number of road closures in place around Frith Road, Charlton Green and Salisbury Road.
"An investigation is under way to trace the offender and police are appealing for anyone who has any information about this incident or who may have witnessed it to contact them on 01622 690 690."
Police advised road closures might still remain in place on Tuesday morning.
A Kent Police spokesman would not confirm whether a firearm was involved in the incident, but said there was a "spontaneous incident in Frith Road".
A spokeswoman for South East Coast Ambulance Service said: "We were called to that address at about 8pm and an 18-year-old male was conveyed to the William Harvey Hospital.
A Scottish Premier League footballer has been charged in connection with an alleged serious sexual assault.
Dundee United striker David Goodwillie was charged after a 24-year-old woman made a complaint over an incident in Armadale, West Lothian, on January 2.
The 21-year-old Scotland international will appear at Livingston Sheriff Court at a later date.
A Lothian and Borders Police spokesman said: "A 21-year-old man has been charged in connection with an alleged serious sexual assault on a 24-year-old woman in Armadale on January 2.
"Inquiries into the incident are ongoing."
The Government's plans for the NHS introduce "significant institutional upheaval" without really changing its aims, according to a damning report from MPs.
Ministers have failed to show the plans represent the most "efficient" way of delivering good patient care, while some risks to the health service will increase, said the cross-party Commons Health Committee.
MPs said they were "surprised" by the "significant policy shift" between what the coalition promised to do in May and the plans set out in its health white paper in July.
The coalition programme outlined an "evolution" of existing bodies in the NHS but the white paper "proposes a disruptive reorganisation of the institutional structure of the NHS which was subject to little prior discussion and not foreshadowed in the coalition programme".
Such a surprise, while not necessarily wrong, increases the risks to implementing policy, and risks not fully engaging staff, the MPs' report said. While supporting the objectives for the health service, the MPs said the priority for the NHS was to find £15 billion to £20 billion in "efficiency savings", as ordered by NHS chief executive David Nicholson.
This is already something that is "extremely challenging" and so the failure to properly plan for upheaval in the NHS is of "particular concern" in the current financial context. "The Nicholson challenge was already a high-risk strategy and the white paper increased the level of risk considerably without setting out a credible plan for mitigating that risk," the MPs said.
The report comes ahead of Wednesday's publication of the Health and Social Care Bill which details a radical overhaul of the NHS, with most of the NHS budget passing to GPs, who will take control of commissioning services for patients.
Tory MP Stephen Dorrell, chairman of the health committee, said it was vital that a wide range of health professionals was involved in the reforms, not just GPs.
He said: "The Government proposals clearly engage GPs in commissioning and that's a key step forward ... but in the view of the committee it can't just be GPs, it has to be GPs as a catalyst for the wider community."
He said the committee was acting as a "critical friend" to the Government, and shared the objectives of improving patient care. "We are not grandstanding but we are not patsies," he added.
The heartbroken parents of murdered landscape architect Jo Yeates have made a desperate plea for help, saying their daughter probably knew her killer.
David and Theresa Yeates urged anybody who knew somebody who had reacted strangely to the murder to come forward.
They said: "It would appear that the nation is shocked and appalled by what has happened to our daughter.
"Do you know someone who has been, somehow, justifying her being killed? Please help us identify the killer. Jo was probably acquainted with her killer."
Mr Yeates, 63, and his wife, 58, said they spent much of their time thinking how their daughter could have ended up dead by the side of a country lane.
Miss Yeates's snow-covered body was found on Christmas morning by a couple walking their dogs in Longwood Lane in Failand, North Somerset. She had been strangled.
The 25-year-old went missing on the night of December 17 after leaving friends in the Ram pub in Park Street, Bristol.
Reading a statement at the Thistle Hotel in Bristol, they said: "Nearly the whole country has been moved by the tragic events surrounding Jo's murder. Many of us are 'armchair detectives', but if this activity triggers anything please come forward.
"If you do know something and you do not come forward you are consciously hampering the apprehension of Jo's killer(s) and the perpetrator(s) is still free. You will also be prolonging the torment of Jo's family and friends."
Mr and Mrs Yeates were joined by Miss Yeates's brother Chris, 28, and boyfriend Greg Reardon, 27.
Official figures are expected to show inflation rising further beyond its target as economists warn cash-strapped consumers of more price hikes in 2011.
Economists predict the latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) will reveal that consumer prices index (CPI) inflation rose to 3.4% in December from 3.3% the previous month.
The Bank of England, which is tasked with keeping CPI below its 2% target, has already warned CPI may reach 3.5% in early 2011 as the price of commodities continues to build and following the rise in VAT from 17.5% to 20%.
Inflation has been above target since November 2009 driven by the devaluation of the pound, last year's rise in VAT and the growing cost of commodities such as oil, coffee, sugar, cotton and wheat.
Further rises are expected to have been caused in December by increases in the price of petrol and utility bills.
Philip Shaw, an economist at Investec, expects CPI to have risen to 3.5% in December. He said: "It seems likely that inflation will exceed the 4% level later in the year and there seems a growing risk that the targeted measure will remain in excess of 2% through 2012."
Economists at Barclays Capital forecast a 3.6% rise in inflation last month. A note from the bank said: "We expect CPI inflation to rise to around twice the target rate during the first quarter. We expect inflation to remain well above target throughout 2011 before dropping slightly below target at the start of 2012."
JP Morgan experts predict CPI will peak at 4.2% in February.
Figures released by the British Retail Consortium and Nielsen this month revealed that shop price inflation rose to 2.1% in December from 2% in November following increases in the cost of non-food. Shop price inflation remains below CPI as retailers discount to keep prices down, but the report showed commodity prices are being kept high by the global economic recovery and growing demand from emerging markets such as China, Brazil, India and Russia.
Prime Minister David Cameron recently said inflation was a "concern" because it was "well outside what the Bank is supposed to deliver".
Labour leader Ed Miliband has warned his MPs that Nick Clegg is taking too much of the flak for the coalition Government.
He urged the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) to "go after" David Cameron and ensure the Prime Minister was held to account for his "broken promises".
Addressing the first gathering of the PLP since Labour's victory in the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election, he said voters there had sent a "very clear message" to the Government.
But he cautioned that Mr Cameron was getting a relatively easy ride while Mr Clegg, the Liberal Democrat Deputy Prime Minister, has borne the brunt of criticism of the coalition.
Mr Miliband accused Mr Cameron of breaking election pledges to introduce a fuel duty stabiliser and jail sentences for knife crime, and with the Government's reorganisation of the NHS.
"While Nick Clegg has been given a hard time, not enough of a spotlight has been shone on the broken promises of David Cameron," Mr Miliband told Labour MPs and peers.
"We have to go after him on his broken promises."
The Labour leader asserted he wanted to reclaim the idea of the Big Society from Mr Cameron, saying that all it meant to the Prime Minister was shrinking the state - while Labour saw it in terms of communities and relationships, he said.
He also accused what he called the "Conservative-led Government" of failing to occupy the centre ground of politics.
Acknowledging that that was where elections were won from, Mr Miliband added: "This is not a centre-ground government. It's important we start making that very clear."
