September 9, 2010, 5:50 am
![Image]( "Obama wants Koran burning cancelled")
US President Barack Obama has urged a Florida pastor to "listen to those better angels" and call off his plan to engage in a Koran-burning protest this weekend.
Mr Obama called the plan a "stunt" and said he hoped the Rev Terry Jones listened to the pleas of people who have asked him to call it off, declaring: "This is a recruitment bonanza for al Qaida."
His words came as Downing Street also condemned the American clergyman's plan to burn copies of the Koran on September 11.
The Prime Minister's spokesman said he "strongly opposed" any attempt to offend members of a religious group.
As well as the White House and Downing Street, the Vatican, the commander of international forces in Afghanistan General David Petraeus and Tony Blair have also all urged pastor Terry Jones to call off his protest.
But Mr Jones, who leads a tiny Florida church, insisted he would stage "International Burn-a-Koran Day" on Saturday, despite receiving more than 100 death threats.
Anjem Choudary, former leader of the banned Islamist organisation Islam4UK, is reportedly calling on radical Muslim groups around the world to burn American flags outside US embassies in retaliation.
Explaining his plan, Mr Jones said: "Instead of us backing down, maybe it's time to stand up. Maybe it's time to send a message to radical Islam that we will not tolerate their behaviour."
The PM's spokesman said: "Primarily this is an issue for the US, but clearly the government's view is that we would not condone the burning of any book. We would strongly oppose any attempt to offend any member of any religious or ethnic group."
About 200 lawyers and civil society members marched and burned a US flag in the central Pakistani city of Multan, demanding that Washington halt the burning of the Muslim holy book.
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September 9, 2010, 5:55 am
![Image]( "Policing Pope visit may cost £1.5m")
The cost of policing the Pope's visit to Britain could reach £1.5 million, police chiefs have said.
South Yorkshire Police Chief Constable Meredydd Hughes, who is co-ordinating the unprecedented police operation that will see the Pontiff visit London, the West Midlands and Scotland, said the figure could rise further as changes were still being made to next week's four-day visit.
More than three-quarters of Britons do not agree that the taxpayer should help foot the bill for the visit, which could reach £20 million, including up to £12 million from taxpayers, but the Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols said it would be a "sad day" when the UK "closes its doors and says we can't afford state visits".
Mr Hughes said: "Quite frankly, we haven't estimated a total cost yet because plans change at the last minute.
"There will be changes to plans just through the hurly burly of running operations in London and Birmingham, two of our biggest cities."
No previous state visit has involved so many different sites around the country, dignitaries rarely "venture outside of London", and the Pope's visit will be both a civil and religious event, he said. Nobody wants "a giant security operation with a religious service bolted on the back", he said.
Speaking at a briefing held by the Association of Chief Police Officers in central London, he said that while officers would look after the "safety and dignity" of the Pope, they would also protect those wishing to see him and any protesters against his visit too.
Commander Bob Broadhurst, of the Metropolitan Police, who will be responsible for protecting the Pope, warned people not to underestimate the "passion and the fervour" that the visit would bring.
"People get very passionate and very, very emotional," he said. "We may at times be protecting the protesters from the faithful if one or two people get hot under the collar."
The police chiefs said they were planning for "tens of thousands" of people to be on the streets trying to catch a glimpse of the leader of 1.2 billion people worldwide, 17% of the world's population.
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September 9, 2010, 5:55 am
![Image]( "New death linked to Legionnaires'")
A second pensioner has died of suspected Legionnaires' disease, health officials have confirmed.
A 70-year-old man from South Wales died on Wednesday following the death of a 64-year-old woman from the region on Monday.
Neither case has yet been confirmed as being Legionnaires' disease.
There are now 14 cases identified as being linked to the outbreak of the disease, all of whom have required hospital treatment.
Health officials continue to investigate the source of the outbreak. All cases have occurred clustered around the South Wales Heads of the Valleys corridor.
Public Health Wales (PHW) is working closely with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and environmental health officers from seven South Wales local authorities.
"Investigations into the possible source of this outbreak are ongoing," a PHW spokesman said.
"Information has been circulated to GPs advising of the steps to be taken if patients have symptoms.
"Legionella bacterium has the potential to cause Legionnaires' disease which begins with flu-like symptoms and can lead to pneumonia.
"Most cases are sporadic and it generally occurs in adults."
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September 9, 2010, 1:13 pm
![Image]( "Welfare budget 'faces £4bn cuts'")
Chancellor George Osborne has signalled a renewed crackdown on the "out of control" welfare budget - announcing further cuts of £4 billion would be made in the spending review this autumn.
The move is on top of an £11 billion reduction made in June's Budget and Mr Osborne said he wanted to tackle those who saw claiming out-of-work benefits as a "lifestyle choice".
But he failed to rule out changes to more sensitive help such as the winter fuel allowance and came under immediate fire from two Liberal Democrat MPs who pledged to oppose the fresh assault. Bob Russell and Mike Hancock accused the Chancellor of failing to consult the Tories' coalition partners and criticised his decision to announce the fresh assault in a television interview.
Mr Osborne used a BBC interview to confirm that further reductions in benefits would form part of his package of severe cuts to public spending to be unveiled on October 20.
"There are five million people living on permanent out-of-work benefits. That is a tragedy for them and fiscally unsustainable for us as a country - we can't afford it any more," he added. "Of course, people who are disabled, people who are vulnerable, people who need protection will get our protection, and more. But people who think it's a lifestyle choice to just sit on out-of-work benefits - that lifestyle choice is going to come to an end. The money won't be there."
Mr Osborne would not be drawn on exactly where the axe would also fall amid concerns universal benefits such as the winter fuel payment and child benefit could be targeted. David Cameron repeatedly rejected Labour claims during the general election campaign that his party would cut benefits for older people as "lies" and the coalition agreement contained a pledge to "protect key benefits for older people such as the winter fuel payment" but did not rule out reforming them.
Pressed on whether they would be protected, Mr Osborne said: "We will honour the agreements we set out which said we were going to protect key benefits for elderly people. We will stick with what we've promised people,"
Mr Hancock said a further £4 billion cut would go "right to the heart" of the benefits system and hit the poorest - and joined Mr Russell in saying he would vote against any such measure.
"I didn't get elected to punish the poor and the less well off," he told BBC Radio 4's PM. "It is OK for George Osborne to talk about the unemployed lifestyle etc but that is not going to save £4 billion. This will go right to the heart of the benefits system. This is really going hard at it with a sledgehammer. He has got a lot of questions to answer. We need to know where the rest is coming from."
Their party leader, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, earlier sought to calm public fears over deep spending cuts but admitted the coalition was likely to suffer a bitter backlash.He appeared to soften the Government's rhetoric by stressing that departmental reductions of up to 25% would be staggered over four years and said that although people were understandably anxious, they should not feel there was a "sword of Damocles" that would fall overnight.
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September 9, 2010, 2:53 pm
![Image]( "Handshake 'key sign of longer life'")
A firm handshake and brisk walk could be indicators of a longer life expectancy, it has been claimed.
Scientists at the Medical Research Council analysed the results of 33 studies into the link between ability to carry out simple physical tasks and age of death.
They found people who performed better at tasks including gripping, walking, rising from a chair and balancing on one leg tended to live to a riper age.
Tens of thousands of men and women across the globe took part in the studies, some of which followed participants for 43 years.
Of the 14 studies dealing with grip strength, it was found that those with the strongest hand grasps tended to live longer than those with feeble ones.
This was the case even after age, sex and body size was taken into account.
Likewise, slow walkers were found to have a greater risk of an earlier death compared to those with a brisk stride.
Most of the studies were carried out on older people. But the authors of the paper, published on Friday in the British Medical Journal, insist the study goes further than simply linking physical fitness with life expectancy.
They suggest that a person's ability to perform everyday tasks could help predict their mortality.
Dr Rachel Cooper, of the Medical Research Council's Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing, said: "Simple non-invasive assessment measures like these, that are linked to current and future health, could help doctors identify those most vulnerable to poor health in later life and who may benefit from early intervention to keep them active for longer."
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September 9, 2010, 3:09 pm
![Image]( "9/11 Koran burning only 'suspended'")
The anti-Muslim leader of a tiny Florida church says he was lied to and is rethinking his decision to cancel burning Korans to mark 9/11.
Pastor Terry Jones had earlier backed off his threat to burn the Koran after he said he was promised that a planned Islamic centre and mosque would be moved away from New York's Ground Zero. Muslim leaders denied there was such a deal.
Later outside his church he said that the imam he thought he made the deal with "lied to us" about moving the mosque.
Mr Jones and Imam Muhammad Musri stood side by side in a news conference where the pastor said he would cancel Saturday's event.
Mr Musri later said there was only an agreement for him and Mr Jones to travel to New York and meet Saturday with the imam overseeing plans to build a mosque near Ground Zero.
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September 9, 2010, 3:09 pm
![Image]( "Scheme to reduce reoffending rates")
Private investors will be given a cash return of up to £8 million if they help cut reoffending rates among prisoners with short-term sentences, the Ministry of Justice has said.
The radical pilot scheme at HMP Peterborough is believed to be the first in the world to use funding from investors outside Government to help get offenders away from the "revolving door of crime and prison".
The Social Impact Bonds (SIB) will see investors put £5 million into projects designed to cut reoffending in a bid to get a return of up to £8 million if they are a success - or lose their investment.
Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke, speaking on a visit to the prison, said reoffending was the "weakest bit of the criminal justice system" and the scheme would help tackle problems without using taxpayers' cash.
He said: "It pays by results. We're going to pay what works and what works should therefore grow and what doesn't work will vanish. I like the innovative funding, the payment by results, the collaborative groups, and if it succeeds if will grow and if it doesn't, by that time we will be trying something else. But sooner or later, something has got to be done about re-offending. It's absurd that 60% of prisoners are re-offending within a year of leaving prison."
Mr Clarke continued: "The conundrum is how you develop a worthwhile policy in this area where you can't simply get the treasury to borrow a large sum of money to give you funding for it.
"There's a potential investment out there, it's an extension of ethical investment. There are people prepared to put money into things they see as providing a return to them and providing a worthwhile help."
He added: "Frankly, I couldn't care less whether it's a public or private sector initiative."
The scheme, run by social investment bank Social Finance, will involve 3,000 short-term prisoners who will be given intensive help throughout their sentence and when they leave prison.
If reoffending is not reduced by at least 7.5% by the end of the pilot, expected to be in around six years' time, investors will get no recompense.
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September 9, 2010, 5:04 pm
![Image]( "Housing benefit cap 'to cost £120m'")
Changes to housing benefit could lead to a surge in homelessness which would cost the Government £120 million a year, a housing charity has said.
The Government plans to cap the local housing allowance (LHA) at 30% of average local rents, with future increases linked to the Consumer Price Index, rather than the Retail Price Index, which tends to be higher.
But Shelter warned that an estimated 134,000 households would either be evicted or forced to move home when the cuts come in, because they would be unable to negotiate cheaper rents with their landlord.
Research commissioned by the group and carried out by the University of Cambridge found around 35,000 households would also be likely to approach their local authority for housing assistance.
It estimates that the annual bill for providing temporary accommodation for these people in hostels or bed and breakfasts would be around £120 million a year.
The group said councils would also face additional administrative costs from having to process the thousands of homelessness applications they are likely to receive.
Campbell Robb, chief executive of Shelter, said: "Shelter's research clearly shows that not only is the Government's budget regressive, it doesn't even add up.
"The devastating impact of cuts to local housing allowance on some of the poorest families in Britain will mean the Government will not save anywhere near as much as it has claimed.
"Now that the true cost of these proposals has come to light, the Government must urgently re-think these reforms and develop an alternative that protects the most vulnerable and delivers real savings to the housing benefit bill."
The group's warning comes just days after the British Property Federation said changes to the LHA could force some people to leave their jobs to move to cheaper areas because they were no longer able to afford their rent. It warned the cuts could be a "recipe for destitution" for up to 800,000 people.
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September 9, 2010, 5:04 pm
![Image]( "Academy schools 'achieving more'")
Most academy schools are achieving greater rates of academic improvement than the schools they replaced, a report has found.
But the National Audit Office warned that academies' performance to date cannot be assumed to be an accurate guide to how the model will perform when expanded to many more schools of different types, as the Government plans.
And it warned that the rapid expansion of the scheme planned by Education Secretary Michael Gove will increase the scale of risks to value for money and will stretch the ability of his department and the Young People's Learning Agency to monitor a growing number of academy schools.
Mr Gove rushed through legislation to allow all schools to convert to independent academies within the state system, and some 142 schools took advantage of it to take on academy status this year, along with 74 approved under the previous Labour administration.
Labour claims that many of the new academies opening under Mr Gove's scheme are more successful secondaries catering to relatively affluent communities, rather than the under-performing schools with disadvantaged pupils targeted under the previous government.
Since 2002, the Department for Education has spent £3.2 billion on the academies programme. This is mainly made up of core funding which would have gone to the schools whether they converted or not, but also includes £288 million in start-up grants to newly-opened academies.
The report found that many of the 203 secondaries which have already taken on the greater freedoms of academy status performed "impressively".
But it cautioned that future academies are "likely to include schools with a much wider range of attainment, and operating in very different community settings", and may not improve their performance in the same way.
Overall, academies increased the rate of improvement in GCSE results when compared with trends in their predecessor schools, found the National Audit Office.
While still below the national average, the proportion of pupils achieving five or more GCSEs at grade C or above was improving at a faster rate than in state schools with similar intakes.
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September 9, 2010, 5:04 pm
![Image]( "Jobs recovery 'will take 14 years'")
Employment will not return to pre-recession levels for 14 years and could take longer in some parts of the country hardest-hit by Government spending cuts, according to new research.
The TUC said if private firms continued to create jobs at the same rate as they have over the past decade, it will take more than 20 years in some regions to make up for work lost in the recession.
More than 1.3 million private sector jobs have been lost since official figures for workplace jobs peaked at 31 million in 2008, the study found.
Around 2.2 million jobs will have to be created to get the labour market back to pre-recession levels, which could take up to 14 years, but much longer in areas such as Yorkshire and the Humber and the North West, said the TUC.
Mining and quarrying have lost the most jobs since 2008, losing 15% of its workforce, followed by manufacturing (down 12%), construction (11%) and retail (7%), the analysis showed.
The loss of jobs would have been even greater but for increases in staff in the NHS, social care and education, although the TUC warned that public spending cuts due to be announced by the Government next month will lead to "heavy" job losses.
The number of workforce jobs could fall below 30 million for the first time since 2003, warned the TUC on the eve of its annual congress, which opens in Manchester on Monday.
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "We can all be grateful that unemployment did not rise as high as many feared during the recession, but that does not mean we should forget that more than a million people lost their jobs.
"We may now be out of recession but this has yet to work through to any significant job creation. When the spending cuts start to bite and public sector job losses begin in earnest, the Government tells us that the private sector can make up the difference, but there are already many people who have lost private sector jobs chasing every vacancy.
"Spending cuts will cause further private sector job losses, not just because the state will buy fewer goods and services, but those who lose their jobs will stop spending too. Even if the private sector does better than in the past, the spending cuts will condemn us to high unemployment for the foreseeable future."
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September 9, 2010, 10:12 pm
![Image]( "Deal saves 2,500 jobs at Connaught")
Around 2,500 jobs at collapsed firm Connaught have been saved after administrators struck a deal to sell the bulk of its social housing division.
The £28 million deal with construction firm Morgan Sindall comes two days after the appointment of KPMG as administrators for the main company, and its subsidiaries Connaught Partnerships and Connaught Technical Solutions.
Morgan Sindall said its affordable housing division, Lovell Partnerships, had reached an agreement to acquire "the majority" of the ongoing contracts and assets of Connaught's social housing business.
John Morgan, executive chairman of Morgan Sindall, said: "Our focus now will be to ensure a smooth handover of the contracts and to minimise disruption to essential maintenance services."
Leeds-based Connaught Partnerships, which was the largest division placed into administration, employs 4,400 staff across the UK, so while the deal will be a relief to many, some jobs remain at risk of redundancy.
Staffordshire-based Lovell said its newly-acquired contracts would generate around £200 million in additional annual revenues.
The firm, which posted operating profits of £14.9 million in 2009, said the type of contracts it had taken on involved both response and planned maintenance work.
Mr Morgan said: "This is a step change for Lovell. The acquisition significantly increases the scope and scale of our planned and reactive maintenance activities and further develops our market leading position."
Lovell could not specify exactly how many contracts will be added to its books, but a spokesman today said it was "the bulk" of the social housing business.
More than 4,500 staff work at Connaught's subsidiaries which have not been placed in administration - Connaught Compliance and Connaught Environment, which employ 1,800 and 2,700 respectively. KPMG said these businesses continue to trade as normal and possible buyers had shown interest.
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September 9, 2010, 10:38 pm
![Image]( "Osborne targets benefits lifestyle")
Chancellor George Osborne has signalled a renewed crackdown on the "out of control" welfare budget - announcing further cuts of £4 billion will be made in the spending review this autumn.
The move is on top of an £11 billion reduction made in June's Budget, and Mr Osborne said he wanted to tackle those who see claiming out-of-work benefits as a "lifestyle choice".
But he failed to rule out changes to more sensitive help such as the winter fuel allowance and came under immediate fire from two Liberal Democrat MPs who pledged to oppose the fresh assault.
Bob Russell and Mike Hancock accused the Chancellor of failing to consult the Tories' coalition partners, and criticised his decision to announce the fresh assault in a television interview.
Mr Osborne used a BBC interview to confirm that further reductions in benefits would form part of his package of severe cuts to public spending to be unveiled on October 20.
"This will be done in a way that encourages people into work but there will be further welfare cuts - they will amount to several billion pounds additional to what I announced in the Budget because I think the people of this country understand this choice and they have chosen for us as a Government to push further on welfare reform," he said.
"There are five million people living on permanent out-of-work benefits. That is a tragedy for them and fiscally unsustainable for us as a country - we can't afford it any more," he added.
"Of course, people who are disabled, people who are vulnerable, people who need protection will get our protection, and more.
"But people who think it's a lifestyle choice to just sit on out-of-work benefits - that lifestyle choice is going to come to an end. The money won't be there."
Mr Osborne would not be drawn on exactly where the axe would also fall amid concerns universal benefits such as the winter fuel payment and child benefit could be targeted.
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September 9, 2010, 10:38 pm
![Image]( "Minister defends spying on aides")
A Justice Minister has defended his decision to hire a firm of private detectives to carry out undercover investigations of his aides and colleagues.
Tory Jonathan Djanogly said he acted in a bid to find the source of "malicious allegations" made about him in the press, but conceded he may have overreacted.
He spoke out after the Daily Telegraph obtained a copy of the report prepared for the MP for Huntingdon by Morris Chase International last year when he was shadow solicitor general.
It showed he instructed them to conduct "discreet inquiries under the pretext of writing a newspaper article" to establish the views of people including a former council leader.
The firm said all the information was obtained legally and Mr Djanogly insisted he would "never have contemplated condoning anything unlawful or dishonest", but Downing Street said such behaviour "cannot be condoned".
And the newspaper said one of those targeted, Tory ex-leader of Huntingdon council Derek Holley, was considering lodging a formal complaint with the Office of the Information Commissioner.
The Telegraph said the MP brought in the firm amid claims - which he strongly denied - that he used more than £13,000 of taxpayer-funded expenses to pay for an au pair. It said the resulting report showed senior Tories suggested the MP was "dishonest", "lazy" and a "disaster" who should be deselected.
In a statement, Mr Djanogly said: "Following a series of malicious allegations made against me in newspapers last year, I felt I had to act to find out who was spreading these untrue stories. I instructed a firm of private investigators to try to find out the source of these stories because I was extremely upset that my private family life had been invaded. A report of their investigation was prepared and sent to me on a confidential basis and I am very disappointed to see the report released publicly without my consent.
"I would never have contemplated condoning anything unlawful or dishonest in the investigations, and the investigators have assured me that their inquiries were carried out in an entirely lawful manner. I am sorry if some people judge that I made a mistake. With hindsight I can see that I may have over-reacted, but I was being subjected to very malicious, anonymous attacks on my family. I paid for the cost of the investigation myself and did not claim it back on parliamentary expenses."
The newspaper said the report cost Mr Djanogly, who is a solicitor, more than £5,000. It was reported to show that election agent Sir Peter Brown resigned "over the expenses scandal" and not, as suggested at the time, ill health. Another senior Tory is said to have told the undercover investigator: "Sir Peter was very upset and unhappy about being lied to. He knew Jonathan's cleaner was his au pair. We all knew her because she used to hand out drinks at constituency social events."
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September 9, 2010, 10:38 pm
![Image]( "Pakistani cricketers to leave UK")
Three Pakistani cricketers questioned by police over match-fixing claims are set to leave the UK.
But Scotland Yard said the men - understood to be Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer - had agreed to return to assist the inquiry in "due course".
The men were questioned following claims of match-fixing published in the News of the World.
A police spokesman said on Friday: "We can confirm that we have been made aware that the three Pakistani cricketers interviewed under caution on Friday September 3 intend to leave the United Kingdom today and have given an undertaking through their solicitor to return to assist the Metropolitan Police Service inquiry in due course."
The corruption controversy has engulfed the Pakistan cricket team during its tour of England.
Businessman Mazhar Majeed is accused of accepting £150,000 to arrange for Butt, Asif and Aamer to deliberately bowl no-balls during the fourth Test at Lord's.
Butt, Asif and Aamer have been suspended by the International Cricket Council (ICC). All three deny any wrongdoing.
Majeed has also been arrested and released on bail without charge.
Addleshaw Goddard, the solicitors acting for Butt, Asif and Aamer, released a statement on behalf of the Pakistan Cricket Board and the three players.
The statement read: "The players are looking forward to being reunited with their families. They remain available to co-operate fully with the police investigation and have each given undertakings to return to the UK if required to do so."
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September 9, 2010, 10:59 pm
![Image]( "Charles baffled by climate sceptics")
The Prince of Wales has said he found the views of climate change sceptics "extraordinary".
He also made an impassioned plea for the country to adopt greener ways as he gave a breakfast television interview.
He warned that living on the planet would be "no fun at all" for future generations unless people took action to combat climate change.
Charles has spent the week touring eco-projects across the country and emphasised how some local people were taking up the challenge of adopting more sustainable lives.
The heir to the throne's comments were made in a pre-recorded interview with Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakley, the hosts of ITV's new breakfast show Daybreak.
The royal chatted to the presenters in the garden of his London home Clarence House on Thursday evening and even showed them his small vegetable garden with its neat rows of lettuces and leeks.
Speaking about his travels around the country to promote his START initiative - which aims to encourage the public to move towards a more sustainable lifestyle - Charles said: "What I've been trying to highlight is the fact that so much can be done by communities - it's a grassroots thing.
"Frequently people have taken it onto themselves to try and do all these things because they get frustrated I think, and they also realise there is a huge challenge that we're facing.
"And you know (we're) putting nature's systems under huge strain and we can't go on like that if we want to hand over something reasonably worthwhile to our children and grandchildren."
Asked by Bleakley what he thought of climate change doubters, the Prince responded: "I find it quite extraordinary, because to me it seems only sensible to take a precautionary approach. There is something going very wrong."
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September 9, 2010, 10:59 pm
![Image]( "Pressure mounts on Cameron's aide")
The pressure on David Cameron's communications chief Andy Coulson has intensified after MPs approved an investigation by a parliamentary sleaze watchdog.
Claims that MPs' mobiles were hacked by News of the World (NotW) reporters will be examined by the powerful Standards and Privileges Committee.
All parties backed the fresh probe - sparked by Labour frontbencher Chris Bryant who said he believed many MPs from all sides of the Commons had been targeted.
Ex-royal editor Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were jailed for intercepting voicemail messages left for public figures in 2007.
But the row was reignited last week when a former reporter claimed that then NotW editor Mr Coulson was aware such eavesdropping was happening - an allegation he strongly denies.
Mr Bryant told the Commons he was one of the MPs who contacted the Metropolitan Police and was told he was on a list of those allegedly targeted by Mulcaire. But he said he suspected that was the "tip of the iceberg" and hacking extended not just to Labour MPs but also to Liberal Democrats and Tories.
He said hacking into MPs' phones was "a contempt of Parliament, a severe breach of parliamentary privilege" which could compromise their right to speak freely, which "stems in essence from the 1689 Bill of Rights".
"I would urge the committee to use all of the powers at its disposal. That includes the power to summon any person it wishes and to require them to attend," he said.
The MPs should investigate whether other newspapers were involved and whether witnesses at the Culture, Media and Sport Committee's inquiry into the matter "lied to the House", he said.
Tory MP John Whittingdale, who chaired that inquiry, backed the fresh inquiry as some of the new claims "appear to contradict some of the evidence that we received".
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September 9, 2010, 10:59 pm
![Image]( "Massive explosion destroys US homes")
A massive fire has killed at least one person and destroyed dozens of homes as it roared through a residential neighbourhood in the hills south of San Francisco following a loud explosion that shot a fireball more than 1,000 feet into the air.
A gas line explosion is believed to have caused the blast that sent flames tearing through the streets of San Bruno, destroying at least 53 homes and damaging 120 others.
California Emergency Management Agency spokesman Jay Allen said the fire had so far affected 10 acres of land.
Pacific Gas and Electric confirmed one of its gas lines had ruptured in the area, although it added that the actual cause of the blast had yet to be determined.
The company added that it would "take accountability" if it was found to be responsible for the incident.
Following the initial blast, flames reached as high as 60 feet in the air as the fire fuelled itself on burning homes. Planes and helicopters flew over the area, dropping water in an effort to douse the flames.
Victims suffering from burns began arriving at San Francisco Bay area hospitals shortly after the blast, but it is not yet known how many people have been injured or the seriousness of their conditions. One fatality has been confirmed.
Witnesses said the blaze was preceded by a loud explosion and huge fireball. They described seeing residents fleeing for safety and rushing to get belongings out of their burning homes.
Stephanie Mullen was attending children's football practice with her two children and husband at Crestmoor High School when she saw the blast at 6.14pm local time.
"First, it was a low deep roar and everybody looked up, and we all knew something big was happening," she said. "Then there was a huge explosion with a ball of fire that went up behind the high school several thousand feet into the sky. Everybody grabbed their children and ran and put their children in their cars. It was very clear something awful had happened."
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September 10, 2010, 1:22 am
![Image]( "700 workers face axe at Connaught")
Around 700 employees at the social housing repairs firm Connaught have been made redundant, administrators KPMG confirmed.
The cuts were announced shortly after construction group Morgan Sindall unveiled a £28 million deal to take on the "majority" of the collapsed firm's social housing contracts, saving some 2,500 jobs.
The jobs upheaval comes two days after the appointment of KPMG as administrators for the main company, and its subsidiaries Connaught Partnerships and Connaught Technical Solutions.
KPMG said the redundancies were made at Connaught Partnerships, the Leeds-based social housing arm with contracts across the UK, but could not give further details on the locations of affected staff.
The division employed 4,400 staff across the country, so the future for some 1,000 jobs still remains uncertain.
Earlier on Friday, Morgan Sindall said its affordable housing division Lovell Partnerships had acquired the bulk of Connaught Partnerships' contracts.
John Morgan, executive chairman of Morgan Sindall, said: "Our focus now will be to ensure a smooth handover of the contracts and to minimise disruption to essential maintenance services."
Staffordshire-based Lovell said its newly-acquired contracts would generate around £200 million in additional annual revenues.
The firm, which posted operating profits of £14.9 million in 2009, said the type of contracts it had taken on involved both response and planned maintenance work.
Mr Morgan said: "This is a step change for Lovell. The acquisition significantly increases the scope and scale of our planned and reactive maintenance activities and further develops our market leading position."
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September 10, 2010, 2:08 am
![Image]( "Royal Mail privatisation backed")
The Government is to press ahead with controversial privatisation plans for the Royal Mail after a report it commissioned warned that "urgent action" was needed to protect the service, it has been announced.
An updated version of a study originally ordered by the Labour government called for private investment, which will revive huge controversy over ownership of the group.
Richard Hooper, a former deputy chairman of Ofcom, the communications regulator, said the Royal Mail's financial position had worsened since his earlier report and the group's £10 billion pension deficit was more unsustainable.
He called for an injection of private capital into the business, arguing that it would fund increased modernisation of the postal service.
Business Secretary Vince Cable said: "This update reaffirms the findings of Richard Hooper's original report and the views he has given me during the course of the summer.
"He paints a very clear picture - Royal Mail is facing a combination of potentially lethal challenges - falling mail volumes, low investment, not enough efficiency and a dire pension position.
"We are determined to safeguard Royal Mail for the future and help it tackle these challenges.
"We will come forward with new legislation in the autumn. It will draw heavily on Hooper's analysis and recommendations and the Government's wider objectives, including the need for employees to have a real stake in the future of the business."
A Postal Services Bill will be introduced during this session of Parliament, probably next month, enabling the modernisation of Royal Mail, in partnership with employees, and will ensure it "benefits" from private sector capital and disciplines, said the Business Department.
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September 10, 2010, 2:08 am
![Image]( "No 10 backs MP in detective row")
Downing Street has backed Justice Minister Jonathan Djanogly after it emerged he hired a firm of private detectives to carry out undercover investigations of his aides and colleagues.
The Prime Minister's spokesman conceded that the Tory MP may have "overreacted" after rumours appeared about him in the press, but said he still had David Cameron's "full confidence".
Mr Djanogly was forced to defend his actions after the Daily Telegraph obtained a copy of the report by Morris Chase International.
It showed the then-shadow solicitor general had instructed the firm to conduct "discreet inquiries under the pretext of writing a newspaper article" last year to establish the views of people including a former council leader.
The company said all the information was obtained legally and the Huntingdon MP insisted he would "never have contemplated condoning anything unlawful or dishonest".
But one of those targeted, Tory ex-leader of Huntingdon council Derek Holley, called on Mr Djanogly to "consider his position" in government.
"Quite frankly I was just appalled by it all," Mr Holley told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "I have been in local politics and associated with national politics for 34 years, and I have never, ever experienced anything like this in the whole of that time."
In a statement Mr Djanogly said: "Following a series of malicious allegations made against me in newspapers last year, I felt I had to act to find out who was spreading these untrue stories.
"I instructed a firm of private investigators to try to find out the source of these stories because I was extremely upset that my private family life had been invaded.
"A report of their investigation was prepared and sent to me on a confidential basis and I am very disappointed to see the report released publicly without my consent."
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US President Barack Obama has urged a Florida pastor to "listen to those better angels" and call off his plan to engage in a Koran-burning protest this weekend.
Mr Obama called the plan a "stunt" and said he hoped the Rev Terry Jones listened to the pleas of people who have asked him to call it off, declaring: "This is a recruitment bonanza for al Qaida."
His words came as Downing Street also condemned the American clergyman's plan to burn copies of the Koran on September 11.
The Prime Minister's spokesman said he "strongly opposed" any attempt to offend members of a religious group.
As well as the White House and Downing Street, the Vatican, the commander of international forces in Afghanistan General David Petraeus and Tony Blair have also all urged pastor Terry Jones to call off his protest.
But Mr Jones, who leads a tiny Florida church, insisted he would stage "International Burn-a-Koran Day" on Saturday, despite receiving more than 100 death threats.
Anjem Choudary, former leader of the banned Islamist organisation Islam4UK, is reportedly calling on radical Muslim groups around the world to burn American flags outside US embassies in retaliation.
Explaining his plan, Mr Jones said: "Instead of us backing down, maybe it's time to stand up. Maybe it's time to send a message to radical Islam that we will not tolerate their behaviour."
The PM's spokesman said: "Primarily this is an issue for the US, but clearly the government's view is that we would not condone the burning of any book. We would strongly oppose any attempt to offend any member of any religious or ethnic group."
About 200 lawyers and civil society members marched and burned a US flag in the central Pakistani city of Multan, demanding that Washington halt the burning of the Muslim holy book.
The cost of policing the Pope's visit to Britain could reach £1.5 million, police chiefs have said.
South Yorkshire Police Chief Constable Meredydd Hughes, who is co-ordinating the unprecedented police operation that will see the Pontiff visit London, the West Midlands and Scotland, said the figure could rise further as changes were still being made to next week's four-day visit.
More than three-quarters of Britons do not agree that the taxpayer should help foot the bill for the visit, which could reach £20 million, including up to £12 million from taxpayers, but the Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols said it would be a "sad day" when the UK "closes its doors and says we can't afford state visits".
Mr Hughes said: "Quite frankly, we haven't estimated a total cost yet because plans change at the last minute.
"There will be changes to plans just through the hurly burly of running operations in London and Birmingham, two of our biggest cities."
No previous state visit has involved so many different sites around the country, dignitaries rarely "venture outside of London", and the Pope's visit will be both a civil and religious event, he said. Nobody wants "a giant security operation with a religious service bolted on the back", he said.
Speaking at a briefing held by the Association of Chief Police Officers in central London, he said that while officers would look after the "safety and dignity" of the Pope, they would also protect those wishing to see him and any protesters against his visit too.
Commander Bob Broadhurst, of the Metropolitan Police, who will be responsible for protecting the Pope, warned people not to underestimate the "passion and the fervour" that the visit would bring.
"People get very passionate and very, very emotional," he said. "We may at times be protecting the protesters from the faithful if one or two people get hot under the collar."
The police chiefs said they were planning for "tens of thousands" of people to be on the streets trying to catch a glimpse of the leader of 1.2 billion people worldwide, 17% of the world's population.
A second pensioner has died of suspected Legionnaires' disease, health officials have confirmed.
A 70-year-old man from South Wales died on Wednesday following the death of a 64-year-old woman from the region on Monday.
Neither case has yet been confirmed as being Legionnaires' disease.
There are now 14 cases identified as being linked to the outbreak of the disease, all of whom have required hospital treatment.
Health officials continue to investigate the source of the outbreak. All cases have occurred clustered around the South Wales Heads of the Valleys corridor.
Public Health Wales (PHW) is working closely with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and environmental health officers from seven South Wales local authorities.
"Investigations into the possible source of this outbreak are ongoing," a PHW spokesman said.
"Information has been circulated to GPs advising of the steps to be taken if patients have symptoms.
"Legionella bacterium has the potential to cause Legionnaires' disease which begins with flu-like symptoms and can lead to pneumonia.
"Most cases are sporadic and it generally occurs in adults."
Chancellor George Osborne has signalled a renewed crackdown on the "out of control" welfare budget - announcing further cuts of £4 billion would be made in the spending review this autumn.
The move is on top of an £11 billion reduction made in June's Budget and Mr Osborne said he wanted to tackle those who saw claiming out-of-work benefits as a "lifestyle choice".
But he failed to rule out changes to more sensitive help such as the winter fuel allowance and came under immediate fire from two Liberal Democrat MPs who pledged to oppose the fresh assault. Bob Russell and Mike Hancock accused the Chancellor of failing to consult the Tories' coalition partners and criticised his decision to announce the fresh assault in a television interview.
Mr Osborne used a BBC interview to confirm that further reductions in benefits would form part of his package of severe cuts to public spending to be unveiled on October 20.
"There are five million people living on permanent out-of-work benefits. That is a tragedy for them and fiscally unsustainable for us as a country - we can't afford it any more," he added. "Of course, people who are disabled, people who are vulnerable, people who need protection will get our protection, and more. But people who think it's a lifestyle choice to just sit on out-of-work benefits - that lifestyle choice is going to come to an end. The money won't be there."
Mr Osborne would not be drawn on exactly where the axe would also fall amid concerns universal benefits such as the winter fuel payment and child benefit could be targeted. David Cameron repeatedly rejected Labour claims during the general election campaign that his party would cut benefits for older people as "lies" and the coalition agreement contained a pledge to "protect key benefits for older people such as the winter fuel payment" but did not rule out reforming them.
Pressed on whether they would be protected, Mr Osborne said: "We will honour the agreements we set out which said we were going to protect key benefits for elderly people. We will stick with what we've promised people,"
Mr Hancock said a further £4 billion cut would go "right to the heart" of the benefits system and hit the poorest - and joined Mr Russell in saying he would vote against any such measure.
"I didn't get elected to punish the poor and the less well off," he told BBC Radio 4's PM. "It is OK for George Osborne to talk about the unemployed lifestyle etc but that is not going to save £4 billion. This will go right to the heart of the benefits system. This is really going hard at it with a sledgehammer. He has got a lot of questions to answer. We need to know where the rest is coming from."
Their party leader, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, earlier sought to calm public fears over deep spending cuts but admitted the coalition was likely to suffer a bitter backlash.He appeared to soften the Government's rhetoric by stressing that departmental reductions of up to 25% would be staggered over four years and said that although people were understandably anxious, they should not feel there was a "sword of Damocles" that would fall overnight.
A firm handshake and brisk walk could be indicators of a longer life expectancy, it has been claimed.
Scientists at the Medical Research Council analysed the results of 33 studies into the link between ability to carry out simple physical tasks and age of death.
They found people who performed better at tasks including gripping, walking, rising from a chair and balancing on one leg tended to live to a riper age.
Tens of thousands of men and women across the globe took part in the studies, some of which followed participants for 43 years.
Of the 14 studies dealing with grip strength, it was found that those with the strongest hand grasps tended to live longer than those with feeble ones.
This was the case even after age, sex and body size was taken into account.
Likewise, slow walkers were found to have a greater risk of an earlier death compared to those with a brisk stride.
Most of the studies were carried out on older people. But the authors of the paper, published on Friday in the British Medical Journal, insist the study goes further than simply linking physical fitness with life expectancy.
They suggest that a person's ability to perform everyday tasks could help predict their mortality.
Dr Rachel Cooper, of the Medical Research Council's Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing, said: "Simple non-invasive assessment measures like these, that are linked to current and future health, could help doctors identify those most vulnerable to poor health in later life and who may benefit from early intervention to keep them active for longer."
The anti-Muslim leader of a tiny Florida church says he was lied to and is rethinking his decision to cancel burning Korans to mark 9/11.
Pastor Terry Jones had earlier backed off his threat to burn the Koran after he said he was promised that a planned Islamic centre and mosque would be moved away from New York's Ground Zero. Muslim leaders denied there was such a deal.
Later outside his church he said that the imam he thought he made the deal with "lied to us" about moving the mosque.
Mr Jones and Imam Muhammad Musri stood side by side in a news conference where the pastor said he would cancel Saturday's event.
Mr Musri later said there was only an agreement for him and Mr Jones to travel to New York and meet Saturday with the imam overseeing plans to build a mosque near Ground Zero.
Private investors will be given a cash return of up to £8 million if they help cut reoffending rates among prisoners with short-term sentences, the Ministry of Justice has said.
The radical pilot scheme at HMP Peterborough is believed to be the first in the world to use funding from investors outside Government to help get offenders away from the "revolving door of crime and prison".
The Social Impact Bonds (SIB) will see investors put £5 million into projects designed to cut reoffending in a bid to get a return of up to £8 million if they are a success - or lose their investment.
Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke, speaking on a visit to the prison, said reoffending was the "weakest bit of the criminal justice system" and the scheme would help tackle problems without using taxpayers' cash.
He said: "It pays by results. We're going to pay what works and what works should therefore grow and what doesn't work will vanish. I like the innovative funding, the payment by results, the collaborative groups, and if it succeeds if will grow and if it doesn't, by that time we will be trying something else. But sooner or later, something has got to be done about re-offending. It's absurd that 60% of prisoners are re-offending within a year of leaving prison."
Mr Clarke continued: "The conundrum is how you develop a worthwhile policy in this area where you can't simply get the treasury to borrow a large sum of money to give you funding for it.
"There's a potential investment out there, it's an extension of ethical investment. There are people prepared to put money into things they see as providing a return to them and providing a worthwhile help."
He added: "Frankly, I couldn't care less whether it's a public or private sector initiative."
The scheme, run by social investment bank Social Finance, will involve 3,000 short-term prisoners who will be given intensive help throughout their sentence and when they leave prison.
If reoffending is not reduced by at least 7.5% by the end of the pilot, expected to be in around six years' time, investors will get no recompense.
Changes to housing benefit could lead to a surge in homelessness which would cost the Government £120 million a year, a housing charity has said.
The Government plans to cap the local housing allowance (LHA) at 30% of average local rents, with future increases linked to the Consumer Price Index, rather than the Retail Price Index, which tends to be higher.
But Shelter warned that an estimated 134,000 households would either be evicted or forced to move home when the cuts come in, because they would be unable to negotiate cheaper rents with their landlord.
Research commissioned by the group and carried out by the University of Cambridge found around 35,000 households would also be likely to approach their local authority for housing assistance.
It estimates that the annual bill for providing temporary accommodation for these people in hostels or bed and breakfasts would be around £120 million a year.
The group said councils would also face additional administrative costs from having to process the thousands of homelessness applications they are likely to receive.
Campbell Robb, chief executive of Shelter, said: "Shelter's research clearly shows that not only is the Government's budget regressive, it doesn't even add up.
"The devastating impact of cuts to local housing allowance on some of the poorest families in Britain will mean the Government will not save anywhere near as much as it has claimed.
"Now that the true cost of these proposals has come to light, the Government must urgently re-think these reforms and develop an alternative that protects the most vulnerable and delivers real savings to the housing benefit bill."
The group's warning comes just days after the British Property Federation said changes to the LHA could force some people to leave their jobs to move to cheaper areas because they were no longer able to afford their rent. It warned the cuts could be a "recipe for destitution" for up to 800,000 people.
Most academy schools are achieving greater rates of academic improvement than the schools they replaced, a report has found.
But the National Audit Office warned that academies' performance to date cannot be assumed to be an accurate guide to how the model will perform when expanded to many more schools of different types, as the Government plans.
And it warned that the rapid expansion of the scheme planned by Education Secretary Michael Gove will increase the scale of risks to value for money and will stretch the ability of his department and the Young People's Learning Agency to monitor a growing number of academy schools.
Mr Gove rushed through legislation to allow all schools to convert to independent academies within the state system, and some 142 schools took advantage of it to take on academy status this year, along with 74 approved under the previous Labour administration.
Labour claims that many of the new academies opening under Mr Gove's scheme are more successful secondaries catering to relatively affluent communities, rather than the under-performing schools with disadvantaged pupils targeted under the previous government.
Since 2002, the Department for Education has spent £3.2 billion on the academies programme. This is mainly made up of core funding which would have gone to the schools whether they converted or not, but also includes £288 million in start-up grants to newly-opened academies.
The report found that many of the 203 secondaries which have already taken on the greater freedoms of academy status performed "impressively".
But it cautioned that future academies are "likely to include schools with a much wider range of attainment, and operating in very different community settings", and may not improve their performance in the same way.
Overall, academies increased the rate of improvement in GCSE results when compared with trends in their predecessor schools, found the National Audit Office.
While still below the national average, the proportion of pupils achieving five or more GCSEs at grade C or above was improving at a faster rate than in state schools with similar intakes.
Employment will not return to pre-recession levels for 14 years and could take longer in some parts of the country hardest-hit by Government spending cuts, according to new research.
The TUC said if private firms continued to create jobs at the same rate as they have over the past decade, it will take more than 20 years in some regions to make up for work lost in the recession.
More than 1.3 million private sector jobs have been lost since official figures for workplace jobs peaked at 31 million in 2008, the study found.
Around 2.2 million jobs will have to be created to get the labour market back to pre-recession levels, which could take up to 14 years, but much longer in areas such as Yorkshire and the Humber and the North West, said the TUC.
Mining and quarrying have lost the most jobs since 2008, losing 15% of its workforce, followed by manufacturing (down 12%), construction (11%) and retail (7%), the analysis showed.
The loss of jobs would have been even greater but for increases in staff in the NHS, social care and education, although the TUC warned that public spending cuts due to be announced by the Government next month will lead to "heavy" job losses.
The number of workforce jobs could fall below 30 million for the first time since 2003, warned the TUC on the eve of its annual congress, which opens in Manchester on Monday.
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "We can all be grateful that unemployment did not rise as high as many feared during the recession, but that does not mean we should forget that more than a million people lost their jobs.
"We may now be out of recession but this has yet to work through to any significant job creation. When the spending cuts start to bite and public sector job losses begin in earnest, the Government tells us that the private sector can make up the difference, but there are already many people who have lost private sector jobs chasing every vacancy.
"Spending cuts will cause further private sector job losses, not just because the state will buy fewer goods and services, but those who lose their jobs will stop spending too. Even if the private sector does better than in the past, the spending cuts will condemn us to high unemployment for the foreseeable future."
Around 2,500 jobs at collapsed firm Connaught have been saved after administrators struck a deal to sell the bulk of its social housing division.
The £28 million deal with construction firm Morgan Sindall comes two days after the appointment of KPMG as administrators for the main company, and its subsidiaries Connaught Partnerships and Connaught Technical Solutions.
Morgan Sindall said its affordable housing division, Lovell Partnerships, had reached an agreement to acquire "the majority" of the ongoing contracts and assets of Connaught's social housing business.
John Morgan, executive chairman of Morgan Sindall, said: "Our focus now will be to ensure a smooth handover of the contracts and to minimise disruption to essential maintenance services."
Leeds-based Connaught Partnerships, which was the largest division placed into administration, employs 4,400 staff across the UK, so while the deal will be a relief to many, some jobs remain at risk of redundancy.
Staffordshire-based Lovell said its newly-acquired contracts would generate around £200 million in additional annual revenues.
The firm, which posted operating profits of £14.9 million in 2009, said the type of contracts it had taken on involved both response and planned maintenance work.
Mr Morgan said: "This is a step change for Lovell. The acquisition significantly increases the scope and scale of our planned and reactive maintenance activities and further develops our market leading position."
Lovell could not specify exactly how many contracts will be added to its books, but a spokesman today said it was "the bulk" of the social housing business.
More than 4,500 staff work at Connaught's subsidiaries which have not been placed in administration - Connaught Compliance and Connaught Environment, which employ 1,800 and 2,700 respectively. KPMG said these businesses continue to trade as normal and possible buyers had shown interest.
Chancellor George Osborne has signalled a renewed crackdown on the "out of control" welfare budget - announcing further cuts of £4 billion will be made in the spending review this autumn.
The move is on top of an £11 billion reduction made in June's Budget, and Mr Osborne said he wanted to tackle those who see claiming out-of-work benefits as a "lifestyle choice".
But he failed to rule out changes to more sensitive help such as the winter fuel allowance and came under immediate fire from two Liberal Democrat MPs who pledged to oppose the fresh assault.
Bob Russell and Mike Hancock accused the Chancellor of failing to consult the Tories' coalition partners, and criticised his decision to announce the fresh assault in a television interview.
Mr Osborne used a BBC interview to confirm that further reductions in benefits would form part of his package of severe cuts to public spending to be unveiled on October 20.
"This will be done in a way that encourages people into work but there will be further welfare cuts - they will amount to several billion pounds additional to what I announced in the Budget because I think the people of this country understand this choice and they have chosen for us as a Government to push further on welfare reform," he said.
"There are five million people living on permanent out-of-work benefits. That is a tragedy for them and fiscally unsustainable for us as a country - we can't afford it any more," he added.
"Of course, people who are disabled, people who are vulnerable, people who need protection will get our protection, and more.
"But people who think it's a lifestyle choice to just sit on out-of-work benefits - that lifestyle choice is going to come to an end. The money won't be there."
Mr Osborne would not be drawn on exactly where the axe would also fall amid concerns universal benefits such as the winter fuel payment and child benefit could be targeted.
A Justice Minister has defended his decision to hire a firm of private detectives to carry out undercover investigations of his aides and colleagues.
Tory Jonathan Djanogly said he acted in a bid to find the source of "malicious allegations" made about him in the press, but conceded he may have overreacted.
He spoke out after the Daily Telegraph obtained a copy of the report prepared for the MP for Huntingdon by Morris Chase International last year when he was shadow solicitor general.
It showed he instructed them to conduct "discreet inquiries under the pretext of writing a newspaper article" to establish the views of people including a former council leader.
The firm said all the information was obtained legally and Mr Djanogly insisted he would "never have contemplated condoning anything unlawful or dishonest", but Downing Street said such behaviour "cannot be condoned".
And the newspaper said one of those targeted, Tory ex-leader of Huntingdon council Derek Holley, was considering lodging a formal complaint with the Office of the Information Commissioner.
The Telegraph said the MP brought in the firm amid claims - which he strongly denied - that he used more than £13,000 of taxpayer-funded expenses to pay for an au pair. It said the resulting report showed senior Tories suggested the MP was "dishonest", "lazy" and a "disaster" who should be deselected.
In a statement, Mr Djanogly said: "Following a series of malicious allegations made against me in newspapers last year, I felt I had to act to find out who was spreading these untrue stories. I instructed a firm of private investigators to try to find out the source of these stories because I was extremely upset that my private family life had been invaded. A report of their investigation was prepared and sent to me on a confidential basis and I am very disappointed to see the report released publicly without my consent.
"I would never have contemplated condoning anything unlawful or dishonest in the investigations, and the investigators have assured me that their inquiries were carried out in an entirely lawful manner. I am sorry if some people judge that I made a mistake. With hindsight I can see that I may have over-reacted, but I was being subjected to very malicious, anonymous attacks on my family. I paid for the cost of the investigation myself and did not claim it back on parliamentary expenses."
The newspaper said the report cost Mr Djanogly, who is a solicitor, more than £5,000. It was reported to show that election agent Sir Peter Brown resigned "over the expenses scandal" and not, as suggested at the time, ill health. Another senior Tory is said to have told the undercover investigator: "Sir Peter was very upset and unhappy about being lied to. He knew Jonathan's cleaner was his au pair. We all knew her because she used to hand out drinks at constituency social events."
Three Pakistani cricketers questioned by police over match-fixing claims are set to leave the UK.
But Scotland Yard said the men - understood to be Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer - had agreed to return to assist the inquiry in "due course".
The men were questioned following claims of match-fixing published in the News of the World.
A police spokesman said on Friday: "We can confirm that we have been made aware that the three Pakistani cricketers interviewed under caution on Friday September 3 intend to leave the United Kingdom today and have given an undertaking through their solicitor to return to assist the Metropolitan Police Service inquiry in due course."
The corruption controversy has engulfed the Pakistan cricket team during its tour of England.
Businessman Mazhar Majeed is accused of accepting £150,000 to arrange for Butt, Asif and Aamer to deliberately bowl no-balls during the fourth Test at Lord's.
Butt, Asif and Aamer have been suspended by the International Cricket Council (ICC). All three deny any wrongdoing.
Majeed has also been arrested and released on bail without charge.
Addleshaw Goddard, the solicitors acting for Butt, Asif and Aamer, released a statement on behalf of the Pakistan Cricket Board and the three players.
The statement read: "The players are looking forward to being reunited with their families. They remain available to co-operate fully with the police investigation and have each given undertakings to return to the UK if required to do so."
The Prince of Wales has said he found the views of climate change sceptics "extraordinary".
He also made an impassioned plea for the country to adopt greener ways as he gave a breakfast television interview.
He warned that living on the planet would be "no fun at all" for future generations unless people took action to combat climate change.
Charles has spent the week touring eco-projects across the country and emphasised how some local people were taking up the challenge of adopting more sustainable lives.
The heir to the throne's comments were made in a pre-recorded interview with Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakley, the hosts of ITV's new breakfast show Daybreak.
The royal chatted to the presenters in the garden of his London home Clarence House on Thursday evening and even showed them his small vegetable garden with its neat rows of lettuces and leeks.
Speaking about his travels around the country to promote his START initiative - which aims to encourage the public to move towards a more sustainable lifestyle - Charles said: "What I've been trying to highlight is the fact that so much can be done by communities - it's a grassroots thing.
"Frequently people have taken it onto themselves to try and do all these things because they get frustrated I think, and they also realise there is a huge challenge that we're facing.
"And you know (we're) putting nature's systems under huge strain and we can't go on like that if we want to hand over something reasonably worthwhile to our children and grandchildren."
Asked by Bleakley what he thought of climate change doubters, the Prince responded: "I find it quite extraordinary, because to me it seems only sensible to take a precautionary approach. There is something going very wrong."
The pressure on David Cameron's communications chief Andy Coulson has intensified after MPs approved an investigation by a parliamentary sleaze watchdog.
Claims that MPs' mobiles were hacked by News of the World (NotW) reporters will be examined by the powerful Standards and Privileges Committee.
All parties backed the fresh probe - sparked by Labour frontbencher Chris Bryant who said he believed many MPs from all sides of the Commons had been targeted.
Ex-royal editor Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were jailed for intercepting voicemail messages left for public figures in 2007.
But the row was reignited last week when a former reporter claimed that then NotW editor Mr Coulson was aware such eavesdropping was happening - an allegation he strongly denies.
Mr Bryant told the Commons he was one of the MPs who contacted the Metropolitan Police and was told he was on a list of those allegedly targeted by Mulcaire. But he said he suspected that was the "tip of the iceberg" and hacking extended not just to Labour MPs but also to Liberal Democrats and Tories.
He said hacking into MPs' phones was "a contempt of Parliament, a severe breach of parliamentary privilege" which could compromise their right to speak freely, which "stems in essence from the 1689 Bill of Rights".
"I would urge the committee to use all of the powers at its disposal. That includes the power to summon any person it wishes and to require them to attend," he said.
The MPs should investigate whether other newspapers were involved and whether witnesses at the Culture, Media and Sport Committee's inquiry into the matter "lied to the House", he said.
Tory MP John Whittingdale, who chaired that inquiry, backed the fresh inquiry as some of the new claims "appear to contradict some of the evidence that we received".
A massive fire has killed at least one person and destroyed dozens of homes as it roared through a residential neighbourhood in the hills south of San Francisco following a loud explosion that shot a fireball more than 1,000 feet into the air.
A gas line explosion is believed to have caused the blast that sent flames tearing through the streets of San Bruno, destroying at least 53 homes and damaging 120 others.
California Emergency Management Agency spokesman Jay Allen said the fire had so far affected 10 acres of land.
Pacific Gas and Electric confirmed one of its gas lines had ruptured in the area, although it added that the actual cause of the blast had yet to be determined.
The company added that it would "take accountability" if it was found to be responsible for the incident.
Following the initial blast, flames reached as high as 60 feet in the air as the fire fuelled itself on burning homes. Planes and helicopters flew over the area, dropping water in an effort to douse the flames.
Victims suffering from burns began arriving at San Francisco Bay area hospitals shortly after the blast, but it is not yet known how many people have been injured or the seriousness of their conditions. One fatality has been confirmed.
Witnesses said the blaze was preceded by a loud explosion and huge fireball. They described seeing residents fleeing for safety and rushing to get belongings out of their burning homes.
Stephanie Mullen was attending children's football practice with her two children and husband at Crestmoor High School when she saw the blast at 6.14pm local time.
"First, it was a low deep roar and everybody looked up, and we all knew something big was happening," she said. "Then there was a huge explosion with a ball of fire that went up behind the high school several thousand feet into the sky. Everybody grabbed their children and ran and put their children in their cars. It was very clear something awful had happened."
The Government is to press ahead with controversial privatisation plans for the Royal Mail after a report it commissioned warned that "urgent action" was needed to protect the service, it has been announced.
An updated version of a study originally ordered by the Labour government called for private investment, which will revive huge controversy over ownership of the group.
Richard Hooper, a former deputy chairman of Ofcom, the communications regulator, said the Royal Mail's financial position had worsened since his earlier report and the group's £10 billion pension deficit was more unsustainable.
He called for an injection of private capital into the business, arguing that it would fund increased modernisation of the postal service.
Business Secretary Vince Cable said: "This update reaffirms the findings of Richard Hooper's original report and the views he has given me during the course of the summer.
"He paints a very clear picture - Royal Mail is facing a combination of potentially lethal challenges - falling mail volumes, low investment, not enough efficiency and a dire pension position.
"We are determined to safeguard Royal Mail for the future and help it tackle these challenges.
"We will come forward with new legislation in the autumn. It will draw heavily on Hooper's analysis and recommendations and the Government's wider objectives, including the need for employees to have a real stake in the future of the business."
A Postal Services Bill will be introduced during this session of Parliament, probably next month, enabling the modernisation of Royal Mail, in partnership with employees, and will ensure it "benefits" from private sector capital and disciplines, said the Business Department.
