Young people face wildly different prospects depending on their home town, with up to one in four out of school, work or training in some UK cities, a study has suggested.
A new report reveals the nation's NEET (not in education, employment or training) "blackspots", and suggests youngsters living in the north are more likely to suffer from fewer opportunities.
Time spent as a NEET can damage youngsters' work skills, make them more likely to turn to crime, leave them facing lower wages in the future and reduce life expectancy, according to a paper by the Work Foundation for the Private Equity Foundation.
Just under an estimated one million 16 to 24-year-olds (979,000 in total) are considered NEET, according to official figures published in August. Of these, around 186,000 are aged 16-18. But less is known about where these young people live, the study said.
Using existing figures on the labour market, it analysed NEET levels among 16 to 24-year-olds in 53 of the largest towns and cities in Great Britain.
The findings showed that cities and towns in the area from Liverpool across to Hull were more likely to have high or very high NEET levels. In comparison, those with low or very low NEET levels were more likely to be further south.
Grimsby, Doncaster, Warrington and Wigan were all found to have very high NEET levels of almost 25%. Others, such as Blackpool, Rochdale and Oldham, were likely to have more than one in five youngsters that were NEET. At the other end of the scale, Oxford, Aberdeen, York, Plymouth and Cambridge all had very low NEET levels of less than 10%.
Separate figures for London, which were not broken down by borough, showed that the north-east of London had very high NEET levels of more than 20%, while in east London, between 18 of youngsters were NEET. The south-west of London was found to have the lowest levels, of less than 14%.
The report warned that a failure to address the NEET problem would not just damage individuals, but lead to growing costs for "the Government, our economy and society".
Cities with high NEET levels tended to have "wider problems, with weak economies, low skills profiles and often dependent on the public sector for employment", the study said.
Young people face wildly different prospects depending on their home town, with up to one in four out of school, work or training in some UK cities, a study has suggested.
A new report reveals the nation's NEET (not in education, employment or training) "blackspots", and suggests youngsters living in the north are more likely to suffer from fewer opportunities.
Time spent as a NEET can damage youngsters' work skills, make them more likely to turn to crime, leave them facing lower wages in the future and reduce life expectancy, according to a paper by the Work Foundation for the Private Equity Foundation.
Just under an estimated one million 16 to 24-year-olds (979,000 in total) are considered NEET, according to official figures published in August. Of these, around 186,000 are aged 16-18. But less is known about where these young people live, the study said.
Using existing figures on the labour market, it analysed NEET levels among 16 to 24-year-olds in 53 of the largest towns and cities in Great Britain.
The findings showed that cities and towns in the area from Liverpool across to Hull were more likely to have high or very high NEET levels. In comparison, those with low or very low NEET levels were more likely to be further south.
Grimsby, Doncaster, Warrington and Wigan were all found to have very high NEET levels of almost 25%. Others, such as Blackpool, Rochdale and Oldham, were likely to have more than one in five youngsters that were NEET. At the other end of the scale, Oxford, Aberdeen, York, Plymouth and Cambridge all had very low NEET levels of less than 10%.
Separate figures for London, which were not broken down by borough, showed that the north-east of London had very high NEET levels of more than 20%, while in east London, between 18 of youngsters were NEET. The south-west of London was found to have the lowest levels, of less than 14%.
The report warned that a failure to address the NEET problem would not just damage individuals, but lead to growing costs for "the Government, our economy and society".
Cities with high NEET levels tended to have "wider problems, with weak economies, low skills profiles and often dependent on the public sector for employment", the study said.
A suspected terrorist granted refugee status by Britain has been banned from flying back into the country over fears he could be plotting a terror attack, it has been revealed.
It is understood that security officials have ordered airlines around the world to stop Reda Taher Nasouf boarding planes bound for the UK.
The Daily Mirror said steps are also being taken by officials to strip the Algerian, who is believed to be in the North African country, of his refugee status.
It is the first time such a ban has been used to prevent a suspect flying into Britain because of terror fears, according to the newspaper.
The Home Office said it does not comment on individual cases, but a spokesman told the Mirror: "We make no apologies for refusing people access to the UK if we believe they represent a threat.
"Coming here is a privilege we refuse to extend to those who seek to subvert our values."
Under the Aviation Security Act 1982, the Secretary of State is able to direct any airline operating in the UK to take any measure necessary to counter any threat to aviation.
Intelligence officers have been tracking Nasouf for months and suspect he could be in the early stages of plotting a terror attack against UK civilians, according to The Mirror.
It is thought he may have already spent some time in Britain as a refugee but returned to Algeria to plot his atrocity and was hoping to return soon.
The UK Border Agency will begin proceeding to revoke Nasouf's refugee status, the Mirror said.
Plans to curb council snooping do not go far enough and the UK's surveillance laws should be overhauled to stop "unnecessary, unwarranted and unchecked state intrusion", campaigners said.
More than 20,000 warrants for the interception of phone calls, emails and internet use have been issued since the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa) came into force in 2000, the human rights group Justice said.
It called for a root-and-branch reform of Britain's surveillance powers to provide "genuinely effective safeguards against abuse".
Justice said so-called directed surveillance, where someone can be followed or have their house watched, had been authorised on at least 30,000 occasions in the past decade.
A further 2.7 million requests have been made for information such as phone bills or location data, along with more than 4,000 authorisations for intrusive surveillance, where bugs are planted, the group said.
In all, nearly three million surveillance decisions have been taken by public bodies under Ripa since 2000, but fewer than 5,000 were approved by a judge, the report found. And it said the main complaints body, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, has only upheld 10 of 1,100 complaints since Ripa began.
Justice said the proposals to curb the excessive use of surveillance powers in the Protection of Freedoms Bill do not go far enough. "Ripa has not only failed to check a great deal of plainly excessive surveillance by public bodies over the last decade but, in many cases, inadvertently encouraged it," the report said.
"Its poor drafting has allowed councils to snoop, phone hacking to flourish, privileged conversations to be illegally recorded, and CCTV to spread. It is also badly out of date."
A Home Office spokesman said: "The first duty of the state is the protection of its citizens, but this should never be an excuse for the Government to intrude into people's private lives. This is why we are changing the law to restore common sense and prevent local authorities using surveillance for trivial offences.
"The Protection of Freedoms Bill will ensure local authorities cannot use Ripa without approval of a magistrate. This is an important further safeguard to ensure that information is not misused."
Border officials have lost track of a population of asylum seekers and migrants the size of Cambridge, a critical report by MPs has said.
UK Border Agency figures showed the number of "lost" cases had tripled in six months from 40,500 in March to 124,000 in September.
The so-called controlled archive had become a "dumping ground for cases where the UK Border Agency has lost track of the applicant", MPs on the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee said.
The "controlled archive", the MPs said, was "a bureaucratic term which hides the true nature of a Government department's activity and is designed to deflect attention away from it". It would more appropriately be called "an archive of lost applicants", they said.
The archive includes cases in which around 98,000 asylum seekers cannot be found and the agency has no idea whether or not the applicant even remains in the UK, legally or otherwise. It also includes around 26,000 migrants following a review of cases, most of which are more than eight years old, and involve those who have overstayed their visas or who have been refused an extension of leave, such as students.
The MPs said: "Whilst we appreciate the difficulties involved in tracing people with whom the agency have lost contact, usually for a period of several years, it is clear that the controlled archive has become a dumping ground for cases on which the agency has given up.
"The controlled archive has increased significantly as the deadlines for the legacy backlog and the migration case review have approached. From 18,000 files in November 2010, the archive now contains 124,000 files, roughly equivalent to the population of Cambridge."
Immigration minister Damian Green said: "The immigration system we inherited was chaotic and this Government is working to fix the mistakes of the past by making better decisions, ensuring cases are properly tracked, improving intelligence and speeding up removals.
"I am determined to deal with the historic asylum cases left by the last government and we are making real progress tackling the archive to trace these individuals.
"Since taking office we have nearly doubled the number of failed asylum seekers removed within one year of their application and now conclude cases quicker, with almost two-thirds decided within a month."
The case against the doctor accused of killing Michael Jackson has been handed over to the jury, with deliberations set to begin on Friday.
The seven-man, five-woman panel were given the case after spirited, day-long closing arguments by a prosecutor and defence lawyer.
Prosecutor David Walgren urged the group to convict Dr Conrad Murray, arguing the Houston-based cardiologist was reckless with Jackson's life and left his children without a father when he gave the singer an overdose of the powerful anaesthetic propofol.
Defence lawyer Ed Chernoff countered that Jackson injected himself with the fatal dose and prosecutors were trying to convict Murray for the actions of Jackson.
Murray, who denies involuntary manslaughter, faces up to four years in jail and the loss of his medical licence if he is convicted.
Mr Chernoff cast Murray as a victim of Jackson's celebrity, saying he would never have been charged with wrongdoing if his patient was someone other than Jackson. "If it was anybody else, would this doctor be here today?" Mr Chernoff asked during his closing argument.
Mr Chernoff said prosecutors had not proven that Murray committed a crime by giving Jackson doses of the anaesthetic propofol as a sleep aid in the singer's bedroom. "They want you to convict Dr Murray for the actions of Michael Jackson," he said.
Earlier, during his closing argument, Mr Walgren projected images of Jackson's grief-stricken children on a giant screen and told jurors that Murray took away their father.
With Jackson's mother and siblings watching from the courtroom gallery, Mr Walgren showed a photo of Jackson at his last rehearsal before the picture of the three Jackson children - Prince, Paris and Blanket - at their father's memorial. He also reminded jurors of the scene in Jackson's bedroom when Paris came upon Murray frantically trying to revive her lifeless father and screamed, "Daddy!"
"For Michael Jackson's children this case goes on forever because they do not have a father," Mr Walgren said. "They do not have a father because of the actions of Conrad Murray."
Prime Minister David Cameron has called on world leaders gathered at the G20 summit in France to show the "political will" needed to restore the health of the global economy.
His call came ahead of an expected agreement later to increase the resources available to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the hope of bolstering economic confidence.
The meeting in the Riviera resort of Cannes has been dominated by efforts to resolve the sovereign debt crisis in the eurozone, with attention focused on dramatic developments in Greece.
But Mr Cameron has also argued for a boost to the funds available to the IMF for loans to support countries at risk of economic collapse - something that is likely to see an increase in the UK's £29 billion commitment.
Officials have stressed that IMF resources were available to member nations around the world, but Mr Cameron is likely to face political controversy at home if the first countries to stake a claim on the money are beleaguered eurozone states such as Italy or Spain.
Greek prime minister George Papandreou has submitted to intense political pressure from eurozone leaders and senior members of his own party by ditching plans for a referendum and seeking consensus from the opposition on the way forward. Mr Papandreou will face a confidence vote which could topple his government in Athens, but the apparent cancellation of the mooted national ballot eased the task of eurozone leaders in finalising the rescue package agreed last week.
French president Nicolas Sarkozy, the host of this week's two-day G20 summit, had hoped to use the gathering to persuade cash-rich states such as China to contribute towards a one trillion euro (£870 billion) fund designed to create a "firewall" against future crises.
But the chaos sparked by Mr Papandreou's surprise referendum call raised fresh questions over whether the leaders of the European Union and the G20 would be able to come together in the way they did in the wake of the financial crash in 2009.
In a report to the summit, Mr Cameron said what was needed was not fundamental reform to international institutions, but willingness to act in a united way. "We have the machinery that we need already," he said. "What we need above all is the most precious and intangible commodity - political will.
"Political will to act together, and to build the consensus we need to confront squarely the problems before us so that we can return our economies to health and vigour. Political will to keep tackling poor regulation, barriers to growth and global disparities in wealth. That is what our citizens are entitled to expect of us. And that is what we must deliver."
Diet programmes such as Weight Watchers, Slimming World and Rosemary Conley are cheaper and far more effective than those run by the NHS, according to new research.
Offering patients counselling in diet and fitness via GP surgeries or pharmacies is "ineffective", as are programmes run by NHS food advisers and dieticians.
Experts said this cash would be better spent on encouraging people to attend classes run by commercial companies. The study, published online in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), involved 740 obese or overweight men and women recruited from one NHS trust in Birmingham.
They were divided into six groups and attended either Weight Watchers, Slimming World, Rosemary Conley, a group-based NHS programme run by advisers and dieticians called Size Down, one-to-one counselling sessions in GP surgeries, or one-to-one counselling in pharmacies.
A comparator group was provided with 12 vouchers for free entrance to a local fitness centre. All the participants were assessed after 12 weeks and again at the one year mark. At 12 weeks, data was available for 658 of the participants and 522 after one year.
All programmes achieved weight loss at 12 weeks - from an average of 1.37kg in the GP group to 4.43kg in the Weight Watchers group. But the NHS programmes were found to be no better than the control group (people exercising at a local fitness centre) at this point.
At the one year mark, all the programmes except the GP and pharmacy groups had resulted in "significant weight loss".
However, Weight Watchers was the only programme to achieve significantly greater weight loss than the control group - and was the best attended group. Compared with the NHS programmes, commercially run ones meant people typically lost an extra 2.3kg.
The authors, from the University of Birmingham, the Nursing and Midwifery Council and NHS South Birmingham, concluded: "Commercially provided weight management services are more effective and cheaper than primary care-based services led by specially trained staff, which are ineffective."
A spokesman for the Department of Health said: "Weight management programmes can be very cost-effective and make losing weight easier for some people, but the best way to lose weight will be different for everyone. The local NHS must think about which weight management service will work best based on an individual patient's needs."
A UK-bound superjumbo carrying more than 250 passengers was forced to make an unscheduled landing after suffering mid-air engine problems, airline officials said.
The Qantas Airbus A380 was four hours into a flight from Singapore to London when oil problems caused the flight crew to shut down one of the plane's four engines.
Flight QF31 was diverted to Dubai and flew with three engines for about two-and-a-half hours before landing safely. None of the 258 passengers or 25 crew were hurt, a Qantas spokeswoman said.
The incident comes a year to the day since the engine of another Qantas A380 blew up over Singapore.
It is believed one of the passengers on board the London-bound plane was British actor, writer and comedian Stephen Fry. He tweeted: "Bugger. Forced to land in Dubai. An engine has decided not to play."
Qantas said the superjumbo had suffered a problem with oil pressure in its number four engine, describing the incident as a "one off".
The airline spokeswoman confirmed it was not the same A380 that was involved in last year's incident, adding that the timing of today's problem was a "coincidence". "Obviously, it will be a priority of ours to work out what the particular problem is in this engine," she added.
The airline said it is working to arrange alternative flights to take the passengers on to London.
Qantas grounded its Airbus fleet for more than a fortnight last year after the mid-air explosion over Singapore, caused by a faulty pipe in the Rolls Royce engines.
Last weekend the airline grounded its entire fleet as a result of an ongoing battle with the unions.
Ballot papers are being issued to more than 200,000 teachers as part of growing union plans for a strike on November 30 in the bitter row over public sector pensions.
Members of the NASUWT in England and Wales will take part in the union's first national industrial action ballot for a decade, with the result due on November 17.
The NASUWT is the latest union to hold a strike ballot, threatening the biggest outbreak of industrial unrest since the 1979 Winter of Discontent.
The move follows a vote by members of Unison, the biggest public sector union, to take industrial action.
Unison said its members, ranging from school dinner ladies and refuse collectors to social workers and NHS staff, backed a campaign of industrial action by 245,358 votes to 70,253, in a 29% turnout.
The Government said Unison's voting figures showed there was "extremely limited support" for strikes, adding that the NHS had contingency plans in place to ensure quality of patient care was not compromised.
Downing Street said the strike vote was "disappointing, unnecessary and potentially damaging" and a No 10 spokeswoman said: "We have a good deal on the table - one that is fair and affordable - and we would urge the trade unions to reconsider and look at the deal on the table."
Unison's ballot was the biggest in union history, with 1.1 million voting papers sent to its members, including nurses, teaching assistants, social workers, care assistants, paramedics, police staff, school dinner ladies, probation officers, cleaners and other public sector employees.
General secretary Dave Prentis said: "The decisive 'yes' vote in the ballot reflects the deep concern that our members have over Government ministers' proposals for their pensions."
Mr Prentis said a new offer from the Government on Wednesday was a "marked improvement" on earlier proposals, adding: "But it is important to understand that the statement has to be translated into offers in the scheme specific talks. We still have had no offer in those negotiations, where such an offer can legitimately be made. We support the TUC day of action on November 30, but will be negotiating right up to then and beyond to get a fair deal for our members."
Failure to register to vote should become an offence to stop the "real risk" of "large numbers" of people falling off the electoral roll under a planned shake-up of the system, the Government has been told.
The coalition plans to introduce individual registration following the 2015 general election, ending the current household method for submissions.
In a new report, MPs warned it would be too easy to "opt out" and voter numbers would drop. That inaccuracy in the register could "have a marked and potentially partisan effect" on boundary changes, they added.
The Political and Constitutional Reform Select Committee called for the Government to follow Northern Ireland's lead by making it an offence to fail to complete a voter registration form. It suggested the penalty could be phased out after five years once the new system had bedded down.
The committee also urged the Government to reconsider its plans not to hold a full household canvass in the year before the election, warning an "unacceptably large number of potential electors", such as those who had moved home, would be affected.
Committee chairman Graham Allen said: "Getting individuals to take responsibility for their own votes is the right thing to do, but it needs to be done in the right way. There are real risks in moving to a new system, not least that people with the right to vote could fall off the electoral roll in large numbers. The amendments which we propose - especially on the 2014 canvass and on not opting out - are essential if individual electoral registration is to command public confidence and not to be seen as unfair and politically partisan."
Katie Ghose, chief executive of the Electoral Reform Society, said: "This report is welcome reading for anyone interested in our democracy. Westminster was sleepwalking towards a catastrophic drop in voter registration. We're pleased politicians have finally woken up to the problem. These missing millions are avoidable, and the Government must now take heed."
A Cabinet Office spokeswoman said: "The move to individual electoral registration will modernise the electoral system and help to combat fraud. We welcome the committee's support for its introduction.
"We are putting safeguards in place to stop people 'dropping off' the register, as well as looking at ways we can increase registration levels.The Deputy Prime Minister has made it clear that the Government will carefully consider concerns that have been raised about the proposal to allow people to 'opt out' of being invited to register to vote for a limited period."
"We want it to be as easy as possible to register, while keeping the register more accurate and up to date. Under the new system, everyone will be invited to register in 2014 and will receive a number of reminders. If they do not respond they will then be visited at their home by an electoral registration officer to ask them to register."
Taxpayer-backed Royal Bank of Scotland has reported a return to profit in the third quarter as it slashed its bad debts and offset a plunge in income at its under-pressure investment arm.
RBS, which is 83% state-owned, posted pre-tax profits of £2 billion in the three months to September 30, compared to a £678 million loss in the previous quarter and a £1.6 billion loss the previous year.
Stock market turbulence, driven by increased global recession fears, saw income at investment arm Global Banking and Markets fall 29% to £1.1 billion in the period, RBS said.
However retail banking revenues held at £4.1 billion and bad debt charges were cut to £1,5 billion, down £728 million on the previous quarter, which was hit by Irish land values.
Stephen Hester, RBS chief executive, said the results "highlight the external pressures facing banks, and economies more broadly, which are making the road to recovery longer and bumpier than hoped for".
The family of a woman killed in the Grayrigg train crash said they held Network Rail responsible for their mother's death as a jury ruled that a set of badly maintained points were the cause.
Margaret Masson, 84, died after a Virgin Pendolino London to Glasgow express train derailed on the West Coast Main Line near the remote village of Grayrigg in Cumbria at 8.12pm on February 23 2007.
All eight carriages of the Class 390 tilting train were derailed and 86 passengers and two crew of the 105 people aboard were injured as the 95mph locomotive came off the rails and carriages scattered down an earth embankment.
During a two-week inquest into Mrs Masson's death the jury heard of a "missed opportunity" to check the points five days before the crash. David Lewis, at the time a track supervisor for Network Rail, broke down in tears as he told the inquest he simply forgot to check the faulty points.
The inquest heard he had been overworked and his team under-staffed, with men not given the right tools or enough time to carry out checks. Mr Lewis, who has since left Network Rail (NR), had warned his bosses about the "shambles".
For legal reasons the jury were directed to give a verdict only on the "immediate causes" of Mrs Masson's death, not any "underlying causes" which a Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) report had cited as a catalogue of failures by NR.
Outside the coroner's court, the victim's son, George Masson, 62, an engineer from Castlemilk, Glasgow, said: "In my eyes it is negligence on Network Rail's part, not him (Mr Lewis). The one that tried to make changes lost his job, his pension, he was not listened to from above.
"Before I knew anything about this I wanted to take his head off his shoulders. Now I totally respect him. He's got my utmost respect for what he tried to do. It's been swept under the carpet. They have not learned from Potter's Bar."
Soyab Patel, solicitor for Margaret Langley, Mrs Masson's daughter who was injured in the train crash which killed her mother, said: "In Mrs Langley's opinion these and other matters lie at the door of Network Rail. Following in the wake of the Potters Bar tragedy and the recommendations arising out of that incident, this is an incident that could and should have been avoided."
Network Rail managing director Robin Gisby said: "Network Rail has not hidden from its responsibilities - the company quickly accepted that it was a fault with the infrastructure that caused the accident. We again apologise to Mrs Masson's family."
David Cameron has urged eurozone countries to act urgently to resolve the economic crisis as he confirmed that the UK was ready to increase its contribution to the International Monetary Fund.
The Prime Minister said the IMF boost would be within the "extra head room" agreed by Parliament this year as he spoke at the conclusion of the G20 summit in France, but he said the "primary responsibility" remained with the 17 states which use the European single currency to help Greece and prevent the contagion spreading elsewhere.
Mr Cameron also raised the prospect of Athens quitting the single currency altogether, saying the country had to make a decision "one way or the other" whether to remain in the euro.
Little concrete advance appeared to have been made at the meeting of major nations in Cannes beyond an agreement by Italy for outside monitoring of its own emergency economic measures.
There was agreement in principle for boosting the IMF's coffers but no firm decisions on that pending the implementation of the proposed bailout package for Athens.
Attention of the world leaders has been focused on the Greek capital, where a vote of confidence in George Papandreou's government is due later. Mr Papandreou's announcement of a referendum on the bailout package agreed last week threw the G20 summit into chaos. The national vote has been officially abandoned.
Speaking at a press conference at the conclusion of the meeting, Mr Cameron said: "The primary responsibility for sorting out the problems in the eurozone lies with eurozone countries themselves.
"Britain will not contribute to the eurozone bailout fund. And we are clear that the IMF will not contribute to the eurozone bailout fund either.
"The IMF does however have a vital role to play in supporting countries, right across the world, that are in serious economic distress. It is essential for confidence and economic stability that the IMF has the resources it needs so the G20 has made clear that it is willing to increase IMF resources as necessary to provide a boost to global confidence.
"Alongside other countries, Britain stands ready to contribute to the effort, within the limits that have already been agreed by Parliament. But let's be clear: global action cannot be a substitute for concrete action by the eurozone to stand behind their currency by implementing what they have agreed and resolving the uncertainty that remains in Greece and elsewhere."
Expenses cheats Lord Taylor of Warwick and Lord Hanningfield face being suspended from the House of Lords for the same period as their prison sentences.
The disgraced former Conservative peers were freed from jail in September after serving only a quarter of their terms for fiddling their parliamentary expenses.
The House of Lords Privileges and Conduct Committee has recommended that Lord Taylor of Warwick was suspended from the House for 12 months while Lord Hanningfield should face a nine month ban.
If approved by peers, the suspensions would run from the date they were sentenced. Lord Taylor, 58, was jailed for 12 months in May for fraudulently claiming more than £11,000 in taxpayers' money.
An investigation by the independent Lords Commissioner for Standards found that he wrongly claimed £24,311.70. He has repaid the amount in full. Under the recommendations, he would return to the upper chamber at the end of next May.
He told the House of Lords members' expenses office that his main residence was a house in Oxford, when he really lived in west London, Southwark Crown Court heard.
When he passed sentence, Mr Justice Saunders said Lord Taylor had thrown away his many positive achievements in public life "not by one stupid action but by a protracted course of dishonesty".
Lord Taylor said he was "full of remorse" but would use what had happened to "help others" in the future. He said: "I regret that my actions have brought the House into disrepute and for that I apologise."
Lord Hanningfield, 70, received a nine-month sentence in July after falsely claiming £13,379 in parliamentary expenses for overnight stays in London when he was not in the capital, including one occasion when he was on board a flight to India.
The Lords commissioner's inquiry found he wrongly claimed £30,254.50. So far, the former pig farmer has repaid £1,800 but told the conduct committee he planned to repay the full amount and would not return to the House until he had done so. Under the proposals he would be allowed to take his seat in April next year.
A man shot dead close to a funeral has been named by Scotland Yard as Azezur Khan.
The 21-year-old, known as Ronnie, is believed to have attended the service in East Dulwich, south-east London, on Thursday before being gunned down near the junction of Forest Hill Road and Rockells Place, police said.
He was declared dead at the scene.
A 17-year-old boy was taken to hospital with a gunshot wound to his ankle.
Police arrested and bailed two 17-year-old girls and two 20-year-old men over the incident. The four were bailed to late November.
Mr Khan's next of kin have been informed and though no formal identification has taken place, police are "confident" he is the victim.
A post-mortem examination will take place at Greenwich mortuary.
The shootings happened in broad daylight with scores of people about.
Detectives said at least 50 mourners had attended the funeral of 17-year-old road crash victim Joel James Lee Morgan at the nearby cemetery.
Extra officers were drafted into the area and surrounding boroughs to reassure the public and "make it clear to anyone even considering being involved in violence that it will not be tolerated", police said later.
The prison population in England and Wales has hit an all-time high of 87,749 - 76 higher than the previous record set at the start of last month.
The number of prisoners being held rose by 176 in a week, taking it past the previous record of 87,673, set on October 7.
The record high, fuelled by the summer's riots, takes the prison population to 1,656 short of the usable operational capacity, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said.
The Government has insisted there will be enough prison places for anyone jailed over the riots and contingency measures are being explored should the prison population start to increase again.
No places are currently activated under Operation Safeguard, which would see police cells used to hold prisoners, a spokesman said. Other plans could involve bringing on new accommodation early, using extra places in the public and private estate, or reopening mothballed accommodation.
The riots will see prisons swell by up to 1,000 extra inmates over the next year, figures released last month showed. Official MoJ estimates showed the effect of the riots will continue to be seen in prisons for two years.
The peak is expected this month, and will last until February next year, when the monthly prison population will be 1,000 higher than it would have been without the riots, the estimates showed. But the effects will continue until August 2013.
A higher proportion of defendants accused of being involved in the looting and violence which swept through England's cities in August are being held on remand and those convicted are being jailed for longer, MoJ figures show.
Those involved in the riots have been jailed for an average of 10.4 months for violent disorder, compared with an average of 5.3 months last year, while for burglary, the average sentence for those involved in the riots was 14.1 months, compared with 8.8 months last year.
The Prison Officers' Association said the all-time high showed the Government's prison policies were not working and several recently closed prisons should be reopened.
Police investigating allegations of illegal payments to officers by News International (NI) staff have arrested a 48-year-old journalist.
Sources named the arrested man as Sun journalist Jamie Pyatt. The tabloid's district reporter covered the murder of teenager Milly Dowler whose own phone was hacked by the News of the World.
The revelation that her voicemail was targeted triggered a storm of outrage which led to the Sunday tabloid's closure in July.
The journalist was arrested at about 10.30am on Friday at an address outside London in connection with allegations of corruption and was taken to a south-west London police station.
Police said in a statement: "Officers from Operation Elveden arrested a man in connection with allegations of corruption.
"He was arrested at an address outside London on suspicion of corruption allegations in contravention of Section 1 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1906, and is being brought to a south-west London police station."
The newspaper publisher declined to comment.
The arrest is the sixth to be made in connection with Operation Elveden, the probe into allegations that NI journalists made "inappropriate" payments to police.
The inquiry was launched as Scotland Yard also investigated allegations of phone hacking by journalists at the News of the World.
Police revealed on Thursday that the number of possible hacking victims now stands at close to 5,800. The current total of 5,795 is just under 2,000 more than the previous figure of 3,870 given at July's Home Affairs Committee meeting.
Travellers are threatening to return to an "infamous" illegal settlement once workers have finished clearing the site, a High Court judge has been told.
Lawyers representing a local authority overseeing a clearance operation want a court order preventing travellers from re-occupying green-belt land at Dale Farm near Basildon, Essex.
Reuben Taylor, for Basildon Council, told a judge sitting in London that travellers had told contractors clearing the site that they aimed to return.
Mr Justice Langstaff said he wanted more detailed evidence of threats of re-occupation before granting any injunction and adjourned the hearing until Monday.
The council began clearing the illegal six-acre Dale Farm settlement last month following a decade-long row over unauthorised traveller plots on the site.
Contractors started clearing caravans and hard-standing after a major police operation to remove protesters.
Mr Taylor told the judge the council was seeking an injunction, under planning legislation, prohibiting residential use of the site and the siting of caravans or formation of hard-standing.
He said travellers evicted from Dale Farm - which had become "infamous" - had moved to a nearby legal traveller site and told staff involved in the clearance that they would return once workers had gone.
"It is simply that the contractors are coming towards the end of their operation. They will leave the site very shortly," Mr Taylor told the judge. "Officers have been informed by the former residents of the site that they intend to come back on the land."
Mr Taylor said the council wanted a court injunction to prevent that happening.
A leading supermarket has cut the price of petrol to its lowest level since February.
Asda said that drivers filling up at its 192 filling stations would pay a maximum of 128.7p a litre for petrol and no more than 136.7p a litre for diesel.
The company said its income tracker showed transport costs continued to be the main cost pressure on households, with UK families £15 a week worse off than they were this time last year.
Jeremy Walton, Asda's head of petrol trading, said: "We're committed to doing everything we can to help lower the cost of living for our customers, and this move shows that Asda is once again leading the way in reducing the price at the pump."
Later, Sainsbury's said: "From (Saturday) we will be cutting fuel prices in many of our stores by up to 2p per litre.
"We are doing everything we can to help our customers save money. We regularly check our prices against those of competitors to ensure we always provide customers with great value."
Another supermarket, Tesco, announced it was reducing prices by up to 2p a litre on petrol from Friday evening.
In addition, the company is introducing promotions which can save Tesco customers a further 15p a litre on fuel.
Two birds gently kissing, a swirling blue mass and a nude study of a Paralympic cyclist including words such as "steel buttocks" and "absurdly muscly" are among the 12 official poster images for the London 2012 Games.
The images, designed by 12 top British artists, including four Turner Prize winners and five who have represented the UK at the Venice Biennale, are now part of a tradition dating back to 1912. David Hockney, Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein have created posters for previous Games.
A set of the images has been given to the Queen for the Royal Collection and to other important British art collections. They will be displayed in 10 Downing Street in 2012 as part of the Government Art Collection and the British Council is planning to exhibit the images in 2012 as part of UK Now, the largest festival of British arts yet to be shown in China.
Tracey Emin, Martin Creed, Bridget Riley, Fiona Banner, Michael Craig-Martin, Anthea Hamilton, Howard Hodgkin, Gary Hume, Sarah Morris, Chris Ofili, Bob and Roberta Smith and Rachel Whiteread make up the dozen artists who designed an image. Their brief was to celebrate the Games coming to London and to look at the Olympic and Paralympic values.
Each created an image for either the Olympics or Paralympics which will go on sale to the public as £7 posters and limited edition prints.
Emin sees her London 2012 sketch of two small birds as a "love letter" or dedication to the Paralympic Games and its athletes. They sit on a branch beneath the words "You inspire me with Your determination And I love you." The Agitos, the Paralympic emblem, floats below them like feathers or leaves falling from the tree.
Emin used the Paralympic values of inspiration and determination as her starting point and then harked back to a familiar feature of her drawings. She uses birds to symbolise freedom and strength.
But the poster, called Superhuman Nude, created by Banner, is not an X-rated image. The descriptions about the strength and physical prowess of a top Paralympian help to make it more a more sculptural than a human form, the artist said.
The London 2012 artists beat more than 100 rivals for the assignment. The shortlist was selected by a committee chaired by Tate director Nicholas Serota, Cultural Olympiad and London 2012 executives plus officials from Art on the Underground, Tate and Counter Editions.
The images will also be shown in a free exhibition at Tate Britain as part of the London 2012 Festival.
