October 13, 2010, 8:26 am
![Image]( "Families celebrate as miners emerge")
One by one, the miners trapped for 69 days in a dungeon that could have been their tomb far beneath the Chilean desert climbed into a rescue capsule and made a smooth ascent to the surface.
The effort was free of any significant problems, and on track to finish before sunrise local time on Thursday.
The anxiety that had accompanied the careful final days of preparation broke at 12:11am, when the stoutest of the men, Florencio Avalos, emerged from the missile-like chamber and smiled broadly after his half-mile journey to fresh air.
He hugged his sobbing seven-year-old son and wife and then President Sebastian Pinera, who has been deeply involved in an effort that had become a matter of national pride.
No one in recorded history has survived as long trapped underground as the 33 men. For the first 17 days after 700,000 tons of rock collapsed around them on August 5, no one even knew whether they were alive. In the weeks that followed, the world was transfixed by their endurance and unity.
Chile exploded in joy and relief at the first, breakthrough rescue in the coastal Atacama desert.
In the capital, Santiago, a cacophony of car horns sounded. In the nearby regional capital of Copiapo, from which 24 of the miners hail, the mayor cancelled school so parents and children could "watch the rescue in the warmth of the home."
All-news channels from North America to Europe and the Middle East carried live coverage. Pope Benedict XVI said in Spanish that he "continues with hope to entrust to God's goodness" the fate of the men. Iran's state English-language Press TV followed events live until President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad touched down in Lebanon on his first state visit there. The images beamed worldwide were extraordinary: Grainy footage from beneath the earth showed each miner climbing into the 13-foot-tall capsule, then disappearing upward through an opening. Then a camera showed the pod steadily rising through the dark, smooth-walled tunnel.
Most of the men emerged clean-shaven. Crews had lowered packages dubbed "palomas," Spanish for carrier pigeons, to get food and medicine to the men during their weeks underground, and in the days before rescue they were sent razors and shaving cream.
Mining is Chile's lifeblood, providing 40 % of state earnings, and Pinera put his mining minister and the operations chief of state-owned Codelco, the country's biggest company, in charge of the rescue.
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October 13, 2010, 8:26 am
![Image]( "Liverpool decision 'moves closer'")
The sale of Liverpool FC could be decided soon after a High Court ruling went against its American owners.
Tom Hicks and George Gillett had challenged an application by creditor Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) for mandatory orders to reinstate the English directors they sacked to frustrate the sale.
Mr Justice Floyd, sitting at the High Court in London, granted the orders and it was immediately announced there would be a board meeting.
Martin Broughton, brought in as chairman of Liverpool to oversee any sale after RBS agreed to extend its loan facility until Friday, said: "I think the court has argued in favour of the sale.
"There will be a board meeting this evening to determine whether or not the sale will go ahead."
He said he thought they had found the right buyer in New England Sports Ventures (NESV) and Liverpool could look forward to a great future.
NESV has offered £300 million in a takeover deal which will mean that RBS will be repaid the £200 million-plus it lent Mr Hicks and Mr Gillett when they bought the club in 2007.
The pair were ordered by the judge to restore the original constitutions of the companies and directors.
This will give the necessary majority vote to allow the takeover.
The owners were refused permission to appeal and there has been no word from their lawyers that they would go to the Court of Appeal directly.
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October 13, 2010, 8:26 am
![Image]( "PM to consider new trespass offence")
David Cameron has vowed to consider calls to create a new offence designed to make it easier to remove travellers camped illegally on private land.
The Prime Minister told MPs there should be "one law that everybody obeys" and this is the same for the traveller community as well.
He was responding in the Commons to Tory MP Sajid Javid, who said he wanted to see a new offence of intentional trespass which would allow police to arrest anyone refusing to move when asked to do so.
Mr Cameron said it came down to the issue of "fairness", and told the traveller community they had to conform to planning laws just as everyone else does.
At Prime Minister's Questions, Mr Javid said: "This past summer, constituents in my constituency of Bromsgrove have had to endure travellers trespassing on their land, vandalising it and causing thousands of pounds worth of damage.
"Will you consider bringing forward new legislation that will create a new offence of intentional trespass so that people who go on to land without the owner's permission can be prosecuted without the need for a court order?"
Mr Cameron replied: "We will certainly look at this issue and I think the basic point here is an issue of fairness.
"If everyone else in the country has to obey planning laws, that should be the same for the traveller community as well.
"We should have one law that everybody obeys. That is what we will aim for and we will look at the proposal that you make."
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October 13, 2010, 8:26 am
![Image]( "Job fears over Royal Mail sell-off")
Postal unions have warned of job losses after the Government unveiled its controversial plans to privatise the Royal Mail, revealing there would be no upper limit on how much of the business will be sold to a company.
Overseas firms will be among those allowed to buy 90% of the Royal Mail, with 10% going in shares to postal workers, which ministers said would be the largest of its kind of any privatisation.
Business Secretary Vince Cable, publishing the Postal Services Bill, said there would be no objection to a foreign-owned group buying the postal organisation because the Government was not going on a "nationalist jihad" against foreign companies.
He revealed that the Government was considering converting the Post Office arm of the business into a mutual structure in a similar manner to the John Lewis Partnership or the Co-operative Group.
Handing ownership and running of post offices to employees, sub-postmasters and the local community would "empower" the people who knew the business best, he said.
Ministers declined to say how much money the Government hoped to raise through the sale, how much the employee shares will be worth, or how quickly the privatisation will go ahead, although it will not be before next summer.
The Government faced an immediate backlash from unions, which raised fears of job cuts and poorer services.
Billy Hayes, general secretary of the Communication Workers Union said: "The Government has wasted no time in flogging off the country's state assets without exploring other options. This obsession with privatisation is deeply worrying."
Unite, which represents managers, said it was already experiencing job cuts, which it warned would get worse under privatisation.
The Government said the Royal Mail, which employs postal staff and owns the delivery vehicles, and the Post Office, which runs the branch network, were two "cornerstones" of British life.
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October 13, 2010, 11:58 pm
![Image]( "'£13m a day' to educate immigrants")
Educating the children of immigrants in the UK cost almost £13 million a day last year and more than half a million school places will be needed over the next five years to meet future demand, a campaign group has said.
Migrationwatch said the cost of the 550,000 extra school places will reach £40 billion over the five-year period and rise to £100 billion between now and 2020.
Sir Andrew Green, the campaign group's chairman, said: "These are some of the consequences of one of the most reckless and unpopular policies of any government in generations and they are now coming home to roost."
He continued: "The public are waking up to the speed and scale at which fundamental changes are being forced upon them, thanks to the policies of the previous administration, and our schools are but just one example.
"It will be replicated in many areas of our national life such as health, housing, natural resources and infrastructure and the costs will continue to increase for many years to come - all against a background of severe financial stringency."
The total costs of educating children of immigrants in state schools would be around £195 billion over a 25-year period, he added.
"Almost every family in England is being affected by the growing crisis over school places but no one will talk about its causes.
"While there are many benefits from controlled and managed immigration, our paper graphically demonstrates how families throughout the country suffer when governments duck the issue and fail to plan for the consequences."
The figures include the net number of migrants of school age entering the UK and children born in the UK whose parents were both born abroad.
They also include half the number of children born in the UK whose mother was born abroad, but whose father was UK-born.
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October 13, 2010, 11:58 pm
![Image]( "'Soldier blunder killed aid worker'")
British aid worker Linda Norgrove was killed after a US special forces soldier failed to see that she had broken away from her captors, it has been claimed.
Ms Norgrove was already lying in a foetal position to keep safe when an American grenade was thrown during the attempt to rescue her on Friday night, The Guardian said.
The newspaper said that it had established, from sources in Kabul and London, that the soldier responsible was facing disciplinary action after failing to immediately inform his commanding officers that he had tossed the grenade.
The Guardian also claimed that the entire operation was watched on widescreen televisions at the command centre - a detail which raises further questions about why US officials initially claimed she had been killed by a bomb vest detonated by one of her captors.
The claims came as Prime Minister David Cameron was to hold Downing Street talks with General David Petraeus, the commander of international forces in Afghanistan.
A US-UK investigation is under way to establish what happened.
General Petraeus had already been due to meet Mr Cameron before the incident, but will now have the opportunity to discuss it in person.
The Prime Minister, who has already spoken with the general and US president Barack Obama about the incident by telephone, said on Tuesday that the picture was still "unclear" about how Ms Norgrove, 36, had died.
He added: "It is an impossibly difficult decision to make about whether to launch a raid and try to free a hostage. In the end we must all be clear - the responsibility for Linda's death lies with those cowardly, ruthless people who took her hostage in the first place."
Originally from Sutherland in the Scottish Highlands, Ms Norgrove was working for the US firm Development Alternatives Inc (DAI) in the east of Afghanistan when she was seized by militants in Kunar province on September 26.
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October 14, 2010, 12:50 am
![Image]( "Osborne urged to be 'more radical'")
Bosses have called on Chancellor George Osborne to take a "more radical" approach to next week's comprehensive spending review, in which he aims to slice £83 billion from public spending.
The Institute of Directors (IoD) urged the Chancellor to ditch the protection which the Government has promised to the NHS and overseas aid budgets, in order to preserve investment in transport, energy and IT infrastructure.
The IoD voiced "concern" that ministers are not using the spending review to carry out root-and-branch reform of public spending and direct the limited cash available towards measures which would boost long-term growth.
Shadow chancellor Alan Johnson warned earlier this week that Mr Osborne's review will lead to cuts deeper than those imposed by Margaret Thatcher's administration in the early 1980s.
But the IoD said even if Mr Osborne's planned reductions - amounting to an average 25% of Whitehall departments' budgets over the next four years - are implemented in full, the state will still be spending 40% of national income in 2015/16, about the same as in 2008.
In cash terms, total public spending will be £90 billion higher at the end of the process than it is now, said the organisation, which represents business leaders.
IoD director general Miles Templeman said: "The Government's overall objective of reducing the deficit with a heavy emphasis on spending cuts rather than tax hikes is absolutely right.
"However, there are good and bad ways to lower public spending, and we're concerned that our already creaking infrastructure is going to suffer further because of the coalition's salami-slicing approach to cutting the deficit.
"The coalition has committed to ring-fencing NHS and international development spending. This is a political calculation and an economic mistake.
"The way to help both short-term aggregate demand and long-term aggregate supply is to protect infrastructure spending. Unfortunately, the June Budget proposes to halve public sector investment over the course of the CSR."
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October 14, 2010, 12:50 am
![Image]( "Joy as Chile miners' ordeal ends")
The last of the Chilean miners has been raised from deep beneath the earth, ending the amazing rescue at the San Jose mine in just under 22 hours.
All 33 men have now been delivered from the longest underground entrapment in history.
The foreman who held the group together when they were feared lost was the last man out. Luis Alberto Urzua was hoisted to safety in a joyous climax to a flawless rescue that captivated the world
The intricately-planned rescue moved with remarkable speed - and flawless execution, hauling up miner after miner in a cramped cage through a narrow hole drilled through 2,000 feet of rock. The 33 men spent more than 69 days trapped in the lower reaches of the mine after a huge collapse of rock blocked their way out on August 5.
When Mr Urzua stepped out of the capsule, he hugged and shook hands with Chilean president Sebastian Pinera and said they had prevailed over difficult circumstances. With the last miner by his side, the president led the crowd in singing the national anthem.
One by one throughout the day, the men had emerged to the cheers of exuberant Chileans and before the eyes of a transfixed world. The operation picked up speed as the day went on, but each miner was greeted with the same boisterous applause from rescuers.
They rejoined a world intensely curious about their ordeal and certain to offer fame and jobs. Previously unimaginable riches awaited men who had risked their lives going into the unstable gold and copper mine for just over £1,000 a month.
The miners made the smooth ascent inside a capsule called Phoenix - 13ft tall, barely wider than their shoulders and painted in the white, blue and red of the Chilean flag. It had a door that stuck occasionally, and some wheels had to be replaced, but it worked exactly as planned.
Beginning at midnight Tuesday local time and sometimes as quickly as every 25 minutes, the pod was lowered nearly half a mile to where 700,000 tons of rock had collapsed and entombed the men 69 days before. The six rescuers who descended into the mine were also later hoisted to safety.
No-one in recorded history has survived as long trapped underground. For the first 17 days, no-one even knew whether they were alive. In the weeks that followed, the world was captivated by their endurance and unity.
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October 14, 2010, 12:50 am
![Image]( "Liverpool board resolute over sale")
The directors of Liverpool Football Club have vowed to press ahead with its sale despite a legal bid to stop it going ahead.
They won a resounding victory in the High Court when Mr Justice Floyd on Wednesday ruled current owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks did not have the power to reconstitute the board and block its sale to New England Sports Ventures (NESV).
But events later took a dramatic turn when a Texas district court obtained a temporary restraining order to prevent the deal going ahead.
It had been hoped that a meeting between Liverpool's board and NESV's John Henry in London could end in a finalised sale. The boards of Kop Football and Kop Holdings have now said they will fight to have the restraining order lifted.
A statement posted on Liverpool's official website read: "Following the successful conclusion of High Court proceedings today, the boards of directors of Kop Football and Kop Holdings met tonight and resolved to complete the sale of Liverpool FC to New England Sports Ventures.
"Regrettably, Thomas Hicks and George Gillett have obtained a Temporary Restraining Order from a Texas District Court against the independent directors, Royal Bank of Scotland PLC and NESV to prevent the transaction being completed. The independent directors consider the restraining order to be unwarranted and damaging and will move as swiftly as possible to seek to have it removed."
The news of the restraining order was published on the website of American law firm Fish & Richardson, which also claimed damages of 1.6 billion dollars (£1billion) being sought by Hicks and Gillett. The lawsuit announced by Fish & Richardson is against Liverpool creditors Royal Bank of Scotland, chairman Martin Broughton, board member Ian Ayre, financial director Philip Nash and NESV and claims Hicks and Gillett are victims of an "epic swindle" and "grand conspiracy".
The NESV agreement, worth £300 million, is characterised by them as "a scheme to sell LFC to NESV at a price they know to be hundreds of millions of dollars below true market value". The post went on to claim that RBS would only sign off a deal if it did not provide financial benefits for the outgoing owners.
NESV's offer, as well as Peter Lim's rival deal worth £320 million, are in the public domain but the legal notice claims another party made contact through a third party on October 4 and was offering up to £400 million.
In addition, it is now claimed Broughton twice refused to respond to yet another offer worth between £350 million and £400 million.
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October 14, 2010, 12:50 am
![Image]( "Pension tax relief cut to save cash")
The amount of pension savings on which people receive a tax break is to be slashed to less than a fifth of its current level to save £4 billion a year, it has been announced.
The tax-free amount is being cut from £255,000 a year to just £50,000 from April next year.
It also plans to reduce the lifetime pensions savings allowance that benefits from tax relief from £1.8 million to £1.5 million from April 2012.
But high earners will continue to be paid tax relief on pension savings at the highest rate at which they pay income tax.
The reforms replace the complex changes to the regime proposed by the previous government, under which people earning more than £150,000 would have had the level of tax relief they received gradually reduced to 20%, despite the fact that they paid income tax at 50%.
The previous proposals sparked outrage from the pensions industry, with commentators warning that the rules would be complex to administer and may put people off saving through a pension. The latest changes will be far easier for pension schemes to manage, although they are a further blow for high earners.
The Government said the measures would affect only around 100,000 people, 80% of whom earned more than £100,000 a year. It added that it would protect workers on low and moderate incomes "as far as possible" by allowing people who exceeded the annual allowance due to one-off spikes in pension accrual to offset them against their unused allowance from previous years.
The annual saving of £4 billion from the changes is slightly higher than the £3.5 billion that it was estimated would be saved through the previous government's reforms.
The new regime will also increase the rate at which increases to the pensions accrued in defined benefit schemes will be valued, meaning some workers, particularly high earners who receive significant salary increases, may face tax charges.
The Government plans to launch a consultation next month on allowing people to meet any tax charges they face out of their pensions.
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October 14, 2010, 12:50 am
![Image]( "Queen cancels staff Christmas party")
The Queen has cancelled this year's Christmas party for her staff because of the "difficult financial circumstances" facing the country.
The 600 members of the Royal Household had been expecting to attend a festive celebration, with a guest, which the Queen usually pays for every two years, at Buckingham Palace.
A Palace spokesman said: "The Queen is acutely aware of the difficult economic circumstances facing the country. It was decided it was appropriate for the Royal Household to show restraint and therefore not hold the party this year."
Staff had been expecting the party to be held in December.
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October 14, 2010, 12:50 am
![Image]( "192 quangos set to be scrapped")
A total of 192 quangos are to be scrapped under new plans set out by the Government.
Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude said a further 118 bodies would be merged and another 171 "substantially" reformed in the long-awaited "bonfire of the quangos".
Mr Maude said the changes would usher in a "new era of accountability" in government. In all, the total number of quangos will be cut from 901 to 648, with the future of 40 bodies still under consideration.
"We know that for a long time there has been a huge hunger for change," Mr Maude said. "People have been fed-up with the old way of doing business, where the ministers they voted for could often avoid taking responsibility for difficult and tough decisions by creating or hiding behind one of these quangos. Today's announcement means that many important and essential functions will be brought back into departments, meaning the line of accountability will run right up to the very top, where it always should have been."
Among the bodies to be axed are the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission, the Renewable Fuels Agency and the Appointments Commission, which will all have their functions taken on by Government departments.
Enabling organisations such as the Design Council and the National Endowment for Science, Technology and Arts will be turned into charities, while the work of the development corporations will be turned over to local government.
The mergers - which will see 118 bodies reduced to 57 - include the amalgamation of the Office of Fair Trading and the Competition Commission into a single competition and market authority.
Bodies facing major reform include the Environment Agency and the Homes and Communities Agency, which will have their work "streamlined".
Mr Maude said he would be introducing a Public Bodies Bill to implement the changes.
The figures include the abolition of a number of quangos which had already been announced, the regional development agencies and the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency.
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October 14, 2010, 12:50 am
![Image]( "Ex-partner jailed for nurse murder")
A man who murdered his ex-girlfriend while on bail for her rape has been jailed for a minimum of 30 years.
Ambulance technician and bouncer Jonathan Vass, 30, launched a frenzied knife attack on nurse and mother-of-one Jane Clough, 26, as she arrived for work at Blackpool Victoria Hospital in July.
She was admitted to the hospital's accident and emergency unit where she worked as colleagues tried in vain to save her.
Vass, described as "manipulative and controlling", was freed to kill after being given bail while awaiting trial over allegations that he had repeatedly raped her. The rape charges were dropped after the murder.
John and Penny Clough, her parents, were angered by both decisions - first to free him and then to let the rape charges lie on file.
They sat in the public gallery just yards from Vass in the dock as he was jailed for life at Preston Crown Court after pleading guilty to murder at an earlier hearing.
Judge Anthony Russell QC handed down the mandatory life sentence before telling Vass he will serve a minimum of 30 years before he can be considered for release.
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October 14, 2010, 12:50 am
![Image]( "More households in fuel poverty")
The number of UK households living in fuel poverty has risen again in the face of rising energy prices, to stand at 4.5 million in 2008, latest figures show.
An extra half a million households had to spend more than 10% of their income on heating their homes to a decent standard in 2008, the Department of Energy and Climate Change statistics showed.
And the number of fuel-poor households in England increased from 2.8 million in 2007 to 3.3 million in 2008, the latest year for which figures are available.
The figures showed "vulnerable" households - around three-quarters of homes in the UK - are being hit by fuel price rises.
The number of homes with elderly people, children or someone who has long-term illness or disability suffering from fuel poverty rose by half a million in 2008, to 3.75 million across the UK.
There were 2.7 million households struggling with disproportionately high fuel bills in England that year.
Projections for England alone suggest there are likely to be around 4.1 million fuel poor homes in the country in 2009, but there would be a slight fall in 2010 to leave a total of four million households in fuel poverty.
The decrease is likely to occur because of falling energy prices and improvements in home insulation and energy efficiency.
The figures have been climbing since 2004, despite Government pledges to halt the problem, in the face of spiralling fuel bills which have risen on average by 80% between 2004 and 2008, the Decc figures revealed.
But the department said rising incomes and improvements in energy efficiency in houses were preventing households becoming fuel-poor and in some cases had lifted them out of fuel poverty.
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October 14, 2010, 6:33 am
![Image]( "Norgrove case 'personal priority'")
US General David Petraeus has pledged that finding out how British aid worker Linda Norgrove died was his "personal priority".
The commander of the Nato-led campaign in Afghanistan discussed the tragic case with David Cameron when the men held talks in Downing Street.
It emerged earlier this week that Ms Norgrove may have been killed by a grenade detonated by US special forces as they tried to free her from Taliban holding her captive.
Speaking after the meeting, a Number 10 spokesman said Mr Cameron had raised Ms Norgrove's case.
"General Petraeus said that the investigation was a personal priority for him and emphasised that there would be full co-operation between the US and UK," the spokesman said.
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October 14, 2010, 7:04 am
![Image]( "Ill Thatcher to miss birthday party")
Baroness Thatcher has been forced to pull out of a Downing Street party to mark her 85th birthday after being taken ill with flu, Downing Street said.
The former prime minister had been due to attend a gathering of around 150 friends and former colleagues hosted by David Cameron to mark the milestone.
It will still go ahead at her insistence, No 10 said, with a fresh event to be put on when she has recovered.
A spokesman said: "Lady Thatcher is unable to attend tonight's birthday party at No 10 after being taken ill with flu at home earlier today.
"At Lady Thatcher's insistence, the gathering will take place as planned in her absence and the Prime Minister will attend.
"Guests, who include previous members of her Cabinet, colleagues and friends, will be invited to return to celebrate her 85th birthday at No 10 once she has recovered."
Lady Thatcher's planned return to Downing Street was announced by the Prime Minister at the Conservative Party conference last week, when he was cheered by delegates for hailing Lady Thatcher "the greatest peacetime prime minister of the 20th century".
He first invited her to Number 10, from where she governed Britain from 1979 to 1990, soon after he became Prime Minister earlier this year.
The one-time "Iron Lady", whose birthday was on Wednesday, also returned to see Mr Cameron's two Labour predecessors, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
On the advice of doctors, Lady Thatcher very rarely speaks in public now, but does still attend a number of high-profile functions.
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October 14, 2010, 7:32 am
![Image]( "Inquest sees bomber rummage in bag")
Footage of one of the July 7 attackers calmly rummaging around in his rucksack bomb as commuters walk nearby has been played at the inquests into their victims' deaths.
Hasib Hussain, 18, was captured on film walking around London's King's Cross station before boarding a number 30 bus and killing himself and 13 others in Tavistock Square.
Investigators compiled footage tracking him emerging from the Tube, joining others attempting to escape the travel chaos and wandering around the busy concourse.
Coroner Lady Justice Hallett watched as he attempted to telephone fellow bombers Mohammed Sidique Khan, 30, Shehzad Tanweer, 22, and Jermaine Lindsay, 19.
But he gets no answer as they have already detonated their home-made bombs on Tube trains near Russell Square, Aldgate and Edgware Road stations.
In extraordinary footage, Hussain can then be seen pausing in the doorway of a branch of WH Smith for two-and-a-half minutes to apparently remove a battery from his device.
He buys a £4.49 9-volt replacement and heads to a nearby branch of McDonald's, where police believe he spent eight minutes inserting the new battery into the bomb.
Hugo Keith QC, for the inquest, said: "He spends a very significant amount of time rooting around in a rucksack containing a highly unstable, cooled explosive mixture."
Detective Inspector Ewan Kindness, of Scotland Yard's Counter Terrorism Command, said when Hussain stands up again, something is in his hand. He said: "We believe it to be the batteries from the device, but it is difficult to be 100% sure from the image."
A total of 52 innocent people were killed and more than 700 injured in the attacks, the worst single terrorist atrocity on British soil. The inquests were adjourned until Monday.
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October 14, 2010, 7:32 am
![Image]( "Liverpool owners condemned in court")
Liverpool FC's American owners have been strongly condemned in the High Court in London for taking action in the US courts to try to block the sale of the club.
Mr Justice Floyd criticised Tom Hicks and George Gillett as he granted anti-suit injunctions in a bid to nullify decisions taken in the court in Dallas.
The judge said he had given a ruling in London on Wednesday that meant the English directors of Liverpool could agree a £300 million takeover by John W Henry's New England Sports Ventures (NESV).
But before the board could make any decision on Wednesday night, Tom Hicks, one of the American owners, secured a temporary restraining order from the Texas court.
Mr Justice Floyd said that, on the face of it, that amounted to "unconscionable conduct on the part of Mr Hicks and Mr Gillett".
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October 14, 2010, 7:32 am
![Image]( "Labour peer says 'take me to court'")
A Labour peer has challenged the Commons authorities to take her to court over a demand for repayment of expenses claimed when she was an MP.
Baroness Adams - who was MP for Paisley North until 2005 - was told in February to repay £4,110 in disputed mortgage payments after a review by Sir Thomas Legg.
She is among six former Labour MPs who are yet to meet his repayment demands according to figures released by officials on Thursday - and one of four who insist they do not owe any money.
Sir Thomas ordered hundreds of politicians to hand back a total of £1.3 million following a review of claims from 2004-8 commissioned at the height of the Westminster pay and perks scandal.
As at the beginning of last month however, nearly £50,000 of that was still outstanding, a reply to a freedom of information request by BBC Radio 4's The World at One showed. It said two of the ex-MPs, Helen Clark and John Lyons, had now agreed to return the sums required by the review - £2.808 and £10,894 respectively.
Three other cases - all involving claims for mortgage interest - were listed as "under dispute": Lady Adams, former defence minister Ivor Caplin (£17,865) and Diana Organ (£12,803).
Lady Adams complained that the inquiry team was unwilling to accept the evidence she had to show her claim was a valid one - and vowed to fight the demand. "They said they were no longer interested and they were not prepared to go over Sir Thomas' report again and couldn't accept the evidence," she told The World at One.
"I wrote back to them again saying 'you seem to be more interested in upholding the report than finding the truth and for that reason I will not be paying back what I don't owe. If they want to take me to court I will be quite happy to go."
Legal action is being considered as an option by the authorities, a spokeswoman said.
The sixth former MP involved, Lorna Fitzsimons, who was told to repay £500 of the cost of a £2,700 suite because it "exceeded the guideline price", said: "Mine is a point of principle. I will settle any bill that anybody says I owe on receipt of evidence that the rule existed and I broke it."
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October 14, 2010, 7:32 am
![Image]( "Family's 'justice for Jane' protest")
The angry family of murdered nurse Jane Clough held a protest against the legal system they believe freed a killer and failed their daughter.
Her parents, John and Penny, along with 20 supporters, stood on Preston Crown Court steps wearing "Justice for Jane" T-shirts and badges, emblazoned with a smiling photo of their loved one, and holding aloft home-made banners.
One had a photo of murderer Jonathan Vass with the words: "I was freed on bail by Judge Simon Newell," followed by a photo of Miss Clough with the words: "And killed." Another banner read: "Reported rapes got no justice."
Ambulance technician and bouncer Vass, 30, launched a frenzied knife attack on Ms Clough, 26, as she arrived for work at Blackpool Victoria Hospital in July.
Vass, described as "manipulative and controlling", was freed to kill after being given bail while awaiting trial over allegations that he had repeatedly raped her. The rape charges were dropped after the murder.
Judge Anthony Russell QC handed down the mandatory life sentence before telling a weeping Vass he will serve a minimum of 30 years before he can be considered for release.
Miss Clough's family say she has been doubly failed - first by giving Vass bail and secondly by not putting him on trial for the rapes.
A further banner referred to Judge Russell's comments at an earlier hearing where he said the rape charge "pales into insignificance" compared to the murder - "the most serious crime in the criminal calendar," he told the court. A banner read: "Insignificant rapes? I could turn in my grave."
Miss Clough first called police on November 29 last year and officers acted quickly. He was arrested the same day and locked up. Charged with nine counts of rape, one of sexual assault and three counts of common assault he was remanded in custody at his first court appearance.
But 12 days after he was held, the 17-stone bouncer and bodybuilder appeared at Burnley Crown Court where his defence applied for bail.
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One by one, the miners trapped for 69 days in a dungeon that could have been their tomb far beneath the Chilean desert climbed into a rescue capsule and made a smooth ascent to the surface.
The effort was free of any significant problems, and on track to finish before sunrise local time on Thursday.
The anxiety that had accompanied the careful final days of preparation broke at 12:11am, when the stoutest of the men, Florencio Avalos, emerged from the missile-like chamber and smiled broadly after his half-mile journey to fresh air.
He hugged his sobbing seven-year-old son and wife and then President Sebastian Pinera, who has been deeply involved in an effort that had become a matter of national pride.
No one in recorded history has survived as long trapped underground as the 33 men. For the first 17 days after 700,000 tons of rock collapsed around them on August 5, no one even knew whether they were alive. In the weeks that followed, the world was transfixed by their endurance and unity.
Chile exploded in joy and relief at the first, breakthrough rescue in the coastal Atacama desert.
In the capital, Santiago, a cacophony of car horns sounded. In the nearby regional capital of Copiapo, from which 24 of the miners hail, the mayor cancelled school so parents and children could "watch the rescue in the warmth of the home."
All-news channels from North America to Europe and the Middle East carried live coverage. Pope Benedict XVI said in Spanish that he "continues with hope to entrust to God's goodness" the fate of the men. Iran's state English-language Press TV followed events live until President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad touched down in Lebanon on his first state visit there. The images beamed worldwide were extraordinary: Grainy footage from beneath the earth showed each miner climbing into the 13-foot-tall capsule, then disappearing upward through an opening. Then a camera showed the pod steadily rising through the dark, smooth-walled tunnel.
Most of the men emerged clean-shaven. Crews had lowered packages dubbed "palomas," Spanish for carrier pigeons, to get food and medicine to the men during their weeks underground, and in the days before rescue they were sent razors and shaving cream.
Mining is Chile's lifeblood, providing 40 % of state earnings, and Pinera put his mining minister and the operations chief of state-owned Codelco, the country's biggest company, in charge of the rescue.
The sale of Liverpool FC could be decided soon after a High Court ruling went against its American owners.
Tom Hicks and George Gillett had challenged an application by creditor Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) for mandatory orders to reinstate the English directors they sacked to frustrate the sale.
Mr Justice Floyd, sitting at the High Court in London, granted the orders and it was immediately announced there would be a board meeting.
Martin Broughton, brought in as chairman of Liverpool to oversee any sale after RBS agreed to extend its loan facility until Friday, said: "I think the court has argued in favour of the sale.
"There will be a board meeting this evening to determine whether or not the sale will go ahead."
He said he thought they had found the right buyer in New England Sports Ventures (NESV) and Liverpool could look forward to a great future.
NESV has offered £300 million in a takeover deal which will mean that RBS will be repaid the £200 million-plus it lent Mr Hicks and Mr Gillett when they bought the club in 2007.
The pair were ordered by the judge to restore the original constitutions of the companies and directors.
This will give the necessary majority vote to allow the takeover.
The owners were refused permission to appeal and there has been no word from their lawyers that they would go to the Court of Appeal directly.
David Cameron has vowed to consider calls to create a new offence designed to make it easier to remove travellers camped illegally on private land.
The Prime Minister told MPs there should be "one law that everybody obeys" and this is the same for the traveller community as well.
He was responding in the Commons to Tory MP Sajid Javid, who said he wanted to see a new offence of intentional trespass which would allow police to arrest anyone refusing to move when asked to do so.
Mr Cameron said it came down to the issue of "fairness", and told the traveller community they had to conform to planning laws just as everyone else does.
At Prime Minister's Questions, Mr Javid said: "This past summer, constituents in my constituency of Bromsgrove have had to endure travellers trespassing on their land, vandalising it and causing thousands of pounds worth of damage.
"Will you consider bringing forward new legislation that will create a new offence of intentional trespass so that people who go on to land without the owner's permission can be prosecuted without the need for a court order?"
Mr Cameron replied: "We will certainly look at this issue and I think the basic point here is an issue of fairness.
"If everyone else in the country has to obey planning laws, that should be the same for the traveller community as well.
"We should have one law that everybody obeys. That is what we will aim for and we will look at the proposal that you make."
Postal unions have warned of job losses after the Government unveiled its controversial plans to privatise the Royal Mail, revealing there would be no upper limit on how much of the business will be sold to a company.
Overseas firms will be among those allowed to buy 90% of the Royal Mail, with 10% going in shares to postal workers, which ministers said would be the largest of its kind of any privatisation.
Business Secretary Vince Cable, publishing the Postal Services Bill, said there would be no objection to a foreign-owned group buying the postal organisation because the Government was not going on a "nationalist jihad" against foreign companies.
He revealed that the Government was considering converting the Post Office arm of the business into a mutual structure in a similar manner to the John Lewis Partnership or the Co-operative Group.
Handing ownership and running of post offices to employees, sub-postmasters and the local community would "empower" the people who knew the business best, he said.
Ministers declined to say how much money the Government hoped to raise through the sale, how much the employee shares will be worth, or how quickly the privatisation will go ahead, although it will not be before next summer.
The Government faced an immediate backlash from unions, which raised fears of job cuts and poorer services.
Billy Hayes, general secretary of the Communication Workers Union said: "The Government has wasted no time in flogging off the country's state assets without exploring other options. This obsession with privatisation is deeply worrying."
Unite, which represents managers, said it was already experiencing job cuts, which it warned would get worse under privatisation.
The Government said the Royal Mail, which employs postal staff and owns the delivery vehicles, and the Post Office, which runs the branch network, were two "cornerstones" of British life.
Educating the children of immigrants in the UK cost almost £13 million a day last year and more than half a million school places will be needed over the next five years to meet future demand, a campaign group has said.
Migrationwatch said the cost of the 550,000 extra school places will reach £40 billion over the five-year period and rise to £100 billion between now and 2020.
Sir Andrew Green, the campaign group's chairman, said: "These are some of the consequences of one of the most reckless and unpopular policies of any government in generations and they are now coming home to roost."
He continued: "The public are waking up to the speed and scale at which fundamental changes are being forced upon them, thanks to the policies of the previous administration, and our schools are but just one example.
"It will be replicated in many areas of our national life such as health, housing, natural resources and infrastructure and the costs will continue to increase for many years to come - all against a background of severe financial stringency."
The total costs of educating children of immigrants in state schools would be around £195 billion over a 25-year period, he added.
"Almost every family in England is being affected by the growing crisis over school places but no one will talk about its causes.
"While there are many benefits from controlled and managed immigration, our paper graphically demonstrates how families throughout the country suffer when governments duck the issue and fail to plan for the consequences."
The figures include the net number of migrants of school age entering the UK and children born in the UK whose parents were both born abroad.
They also include half the number of children born in the UK whose mother was born abroad, but whose father was UK-born.
British aid worker Linda Norgrove was killed after a US special forces soldier failed to see that she had broken away from her captors, it has been claimed.
Ms Norgrove was already lying in a foetal position to keep safe when an American grenade was thrown during the attempt to rescue her on Friday night, The Guardian said.
The newspaper said that it had established, from sources in Kabul and London, that the soldier responsible was facing disciplinary action after failing to immediately inform his commanding officers that he had tossed the grenade.
The Guardian also claimed that the entire operation was watched on widescreen televisions at the command centre - a detail which raises further questions about why US officials initially claimed she had been killed by a bomb vest detonated by one of her captors.
The claims came as Prime Minister David Cameron was to hold Downing Street talks with General David Petraeus, the commander of international forces in Afghanistan.
A US-UK investigation is under way to establish what happened.
General Petraeus had already been due to meet Mr Cameron before the incident, but will now have the opportunity to discuss it in person.
The Prime Minister, who has already spoken with the general and US president Barack Obama about the incident by telephone, said on Tuesday that the picture was still "unclear" about how Ms Norgrove, 36, had died.
He added: "It is an impossibly difficult decision to make about whether to launch a raid and try to free a hostage. In the end we must all be clear - the responsibility for Linda's death lies with those cowardly, ruthless people who took her hostage in the first place."
Originally from Sutherland in the Scottish Highlands, Ms Norgrove was working for the US firm Development Alternatives Inc (DAI) in the east of Afghanistan when she was seized by militants in Kunar province on September 26.
Bosses have called on Chancellor George Osborne to take a "more radical" approach to next week's comprehensive spending review, in which he aims to slice £83 billion from public spending.
The Institute of Directors (IoD) urged the Chancellor to ditch the protection which the Government has promised to the NHS and overseas aid budgets, in order to preserve investment in transport, energy and IT infrastructure.
The IoD voiced "concern" that ministers are not using the spending review to carry out root-and-branch reform of public spending and direct the limited cash available towards measures which would boost long-term growth.
Shadow chancellor Alan Johnson warned earlier this week that Mr Osborne's review will lead to cuts deeper than those imposed by Margaret Thatcher's administration in the early 1980s.
But the IoD said even if Mr Osborne's planned reductions - amounting to an average 25% of Whitehall departments' budgets over the next four years - are implemented in full, the state will still be spending 40% of national income in 2015/16, about the same as in 2008.
In cash terms, total public spending will be £90 billion higher at the end of the process than it is now, said the organisation, which represents business leaders.
IoD director general Miles Templeman said: "The Government's overall objective of reducing the deficit with a heavy emphasis on spending cuts rather than tax hikes is absolutely right.
"However, there are good and bad ways to lower public spending, and we're concerned that our already creaking infrastructure is going to suffer further because of the coalition's salami-slicing approach to cutting the deficit.
"The coalition has committed to ring-fencing NHS and international development spending. This is a political calculation and an economic mistake.
"The way to help both short-term aggregate demand and long-term aggregate supply is to protect infrastructure spending. Unfortunately, the June Budget proposes to halve public sector investment over the course of the CSR."
The last of the Chilean miners has been raised from deep beneath the earth, ending the amazing rescue at the San Jose mine in just under 22 hours.
All 33 men have now been delivered from the longest underground entrapment in history.
The foreman who held the group together when they were feared lost was the last man out. Luis Alberto Urzua was hoisted to safety in a joyous climax to a flawless rescue that captivated the world
The intricately-planned rescue moved with remarkable speed - and flawless execution, hauling up miner after miner in a cramped cage through a narrow hole drilled through 2,000 feet of rock. The 33 men spent more than 69 days trapped in the lower reaches of the mine after a huge collapse of rock blocked their way out on August 5.
When Mr Urzua stepped out of the capsule, he hugged and shook hands with Chilean president Sebastian Pinera and said they had prevailed over difficult circumstances. With the last miner by his side, the president led the crowd in singing the national anthem.
One by one throughout the day, the men had emerged to the cheers of exuberant Chileans and before the eyes of a transfixed world. The operation picked up speed as the day went on, but each miner was greeted with the same boisterous applause from rescuers.
They rejoined a world intensely curious about their ordeal and certain to offer fame and jobs. Previously unimaginable riches awaited men who had risked their lives going into the unstable gold and copper mine for just over £1,000 a month.
The miners made the smooth ascent inside a capsule called Phoenix - 13ft tall, barely wider than their shoulders and painted in the white, blue and red of the Chilean flag. It had a door that stuck occasionally, and some wheels had to be replaced, but it worked exactly as planned.
Beginning at midnight Tuesday local time and sometimes as quickly as every 25 minutes, the pod was lowered nearly half a mile to where 700,000 tons of rock had collapsed and entombed the men 69 days before. The six rescuers who descended into the mine were also later hoisted to safety.
No-one in recorded history has survived as long trapped underground. For the first 17 days, no-one even knew whether they were alive. In the weeks that followed, the world was captivated by their endurance and unity.
The directors of Liverpool Football Club have vowed to press ahead with its sale despite a legal bid to stop it going ahead.
They won a resounding victory in the High Court when Mr Justice Floyd on Wednesday ruled current owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks did not have the power to reconstitute the board and block its sale to New England Sports Ventures (NESV).
But events later took a dramatic turn when a Texas district court obtained a temporary restraining order to prevent the deal going ahead.
It had been hoped that a meeting between Liverpool's board and NESV's John Henry in London could end in a finalised sale. The boards of Kop Football and Kop Holdings have now said they will fight to have the restraining order lifted.
A statement posted on Liverpool's official website read: "Following the successful conclusion of High Court proceedings today, the boards of directors of Kop Football and Kop Holdings met tonight and resolved to complete the sale of Liverpool FC to New England Sports Ventures.
"Regrettably, Thomas Hicks and George Gillett have obtained a Temporary Restraining Order from a Texas District Court against the independent directors, Royal Bank of Scotland PLC and NESV to prevent the transaction being completed. The independent directors consider the restraining order to be unwarranted and damaging and will move as swiftly as possible to seek to have it removed."
The news of the restraining order was published on the website of American law firm Fish & Richardson, which also claimed damages of 1.6 billion dollars (£1billion) being sought by Hicks and Gillett. The lawsuit announced by Fish & Richardson is against Liverpool creditors Royal Bank of Scotland, chairman Martin Broughton, board member Ian Ayre, financial director Philip Nash and NESV and claims Hicks and Gillett are victims of an "epic swindle" and "grand conspiracy".
The NESV agreement, worth £300 million, is characterised by them as "a scheme to sell LFC to NESV at a price they know to be hundreds of millions of dollars below true market value". The post went on to claim that RBS would only sign off a deal if it did not provide financial benefits for the outgoing owners.
NESV's offer, as well as Peter Lim's rival deal worth £320 million, are in the public domain but the legal notice claims another party made contact through a third party on October 4 and was offering up to £400 million.
In addition, it is now claimed Broughton twice refused to respond to yet another offer worth between £350 million and £400 million.
The amount of pension savings on which people receive a tax break is to be slashed to less than a fifth of its current level to save £4 billion a year, it has been announced.
The tax-free amount is being cut from £255,000 a year to just £50,000 from April next year.
It also plans to reduce the lifetime pensions savings allowance that benefits from tax relief from £1.8 million to £1.5 million from April 2012.
But high earners will continue to be paid tax relief on pension savings at the highest rate at which they pay income tax.
The reforms replace the complex changes to the regime proposed by the previous government, under which people earning more than £150,000 would have had the level of tax relief they received gradually reduced to 20%, despite the fact that they paid income tax at 50%.
The previous proposals sparked outrage from the pensions industry, with commentators warning that the rules would be complex to administer and may put people off saving through a pension. The latest changes will be far easier for pension schemes to manage, although they are a further blow for high earners.
The Government said the measures would affect only around 100,000 people, 80% of whom earned more than £100,000 a year. It added that it would protect workers on low and moderate incomes "as far as possible" by allowing people who exceeded the annual allowance due to one-off spikes in pension accrual to offset them against their unused allowance from previous years.
The annual saving of £4 billion from the changes is slightly higher than the £3.5 billion that it was estimated would be saved through the previous government's reforms.
The new regime will also increase the rate at which increases to the pensions accrued in defined benefit schemes will be valued, meaning some workers, particularly high earners who receive significant salary increases, may face tax charges.
The Government plans to launch a consultation next month on allowing people to meet any tax charges they face out of their pensions.
The Queen has cancelled this year's Christmas party for her staff because of the "difficult financial circumstances" facing the country.
The 600 members of the Royal Household had been expecting to attend a festive celebration, with a guest, which the Queen usually pays for every two years, at Buckingham Palace.
A Palace spokesman said: "The Queen is acutely aware of the difficult economic circumstances facing the country. It was decided it was appropriate for the Royal Household to show restraint and therefore not hold the party this year."
Staff had been expecting the party to be held in December.
A total of 192 quangos are to be scrapped under new plans set out by the Government.
Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude said a further 118 bodies would be merged and another 171 "substantially" reformed in the long-awaited "bonfire of the quangos".
Mr Maude said the changes would usher in a "new era of accountability" in government. In all, the total number of quangos will be cut from 901 to 648, with the future of 40 bodies still under consideration.
"We know that for a long time there has been a huge hunger for change," Mr Maude said. "People have been fed-up with the old way of doing business, where the ministers they voted for could often avoid taking responsibility for difficult and tough decisions by creating or hiding behind one of these quangos. Today's announcement means that many important and essential functions will be brought back into departments, meaning the line of accountability will run right up to the very top, where it always should have been."
Among the bodies to be axed are the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission, the Renewable Fuels Agency and the Appointments Commission, which will all have their functions taken on by Government departments.
Enabling organisations such as the Design Council and the National Endowment for Science, Technology and Arts will be turned into charities, while the work of the development corporations will be turned over to local government.
The mergers - which will see 118 bodies reduced to 57 - include the amalgamation of the Office of Fair Trading and the Competition Commission into a single competition and market authority.
Bodies facing major reform include the Environment Agency and the Homes and Communities Agency, which will have their work "streamlined".
Mr Maude said he would be introducing a Public Bodies Bill to implement the changes.
The figures include the abolition of a number of quangos which had already been announced, the regional development agencies and the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency.
A man who murdered his ex-girlfriend while on bail for her rape has been jailed for a minimum of 30 years.
Ambulance technician and bouncer Jonathan Vass, 30, launched a frenzied knife attack on nurse and mother-of-one Jane Clough, 26, as she arrived for work at Blackpool Victoria Hospital in July.
She was admitted to the hospital's accident and emergency unit where she worked as colleagues tried in vain to save her.
Vass, described as "manipulative and controlling", was freed to kill after being given bail while awaiting trial over allegations that he had repeatedly raped her. The rape charges were dropped after the murder.
John and Penny Clough, her parents, were angered by both decisions - first to free him and then to let the rape charges lie on file.
They sat in the public gallery just yards from Vass in the dock as he was jailed for life at Preston Crown Court after pleading guilty to murder at an earlier hearing.
Judge Anthony Russell QC handed down the mandatory life sentence before telling Vass he will serve a minimum of 30 years before he can be considered for release.
The number of UK households living in fuel poverty has risen again in the face of rising energy prices, to stand at 4.5 million in 2008, latest figures show.
An extra half a million households had to spend more than 10% of their income on heating their homes to a decent standard in 2008, the Department of Energy and Climate Change statistics showed.
And the number of fuel-poor households in England increased from 2.8 million in 2007 to 3.3 million in 2008, the latest year for which figures are available.
The figures showed "vulnerable" households - around three-quarters of homes in the UK - are being hit by fuel price rises.
The number of homes with elderly people, children or someone who has long-term illness or disability suffering from fuel poverty rose by half a million in 2008, to 3.75 million across the UK.
There were 2.7 million households struggling with disproportionately high fuel bills in England that year.
Projections for England alone suggest there are likely to be around 4.1 million fuel poor homes in the country in 2009, but there would be a slight fall in 2010 to leave a total of four million households in fuel poverty.
The decrease is likely to occur because of falling energy prices and improvements in home insulation and energy efficiency.
The figures have been climbing since 2004, despite Government pledges to halt the problem, in the face of spiralling fuel bills which have risen on average by 80% between 2004 and 2008, the Decc figures revealed.
But the department said rising incomes and improvements in energy efficiency in houses were preventing households becoming fuel-poor and in some cases had lifted them out of fuel poverty.
Baroness Thatcher has been forced to pull out of a Downing Street party to mark her 85th birthday after being taken ill with flu, Downing Street said.
The former prime minister had been due to attend a gathering of around 150 friends and former colleagues hosted by David Cameron to mark the milestone.
It will still go ahead at her insistence, No 10 said, with a fresh event to be put on when she has recovered.
A spokesman said: "Lady Thatcher is unable to attend tonight's birthday party at No 10 after being taken ill with flu at home earlier today.
"At Lady Thatcher's insistence, the gathering will take place as planned in her absence and the Prime Minister will attend.
"Guests, who include previous members of her Cabinet, colleagues and friends, will be invited to return to celebrate her 85th birthday at No 10 once she has recovered."
Lady Thatcher's planned return to Downing Street was announced by the Prime Minister at the Conservative Party conference last week, when he was cheered by delegates for hailing Lady Thatcher "the greatest peacetime prime minister of the 20th century".
He first invited her to Number 10, from where she governed Britain from 1979 to 1990, soon after he became Prime Minister earlier this year.
The one-time "Iron Lady", whose birthday was on Wednesday, also returned to see Mr Cameron's two Labour predecessors, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
On the advice of doctors, Lady Thatcher very rarely speaks in public now, but does still attend a number of high-profile functions.
Footage of one of the July 7 attackers calmly rummaging around in his rucksack bomb as commuters walk nearby has been played at the inquests into their victims' deaths.
Hasib Hussain, 18, was captured on film walking around London's King's Cross station before boarding a number 30 bus and killing himself and 13 others in Tavistock Square.
Investigators compiled footage tracking him emerging from the Tube, joining others attempting to escape the travel chaos and wandering around the busy concourse.
Coroner Lady Justice Hallett watched as he attempted to telephone fellow bombers Mohammed Sidique Khan, 30, Shehzad Tanweer, 22, and Jermaine Lindsay, 19.
But he gets no answer as they have already detonated their home-made bombs on Tube trains near Russell Square, Aldgate and Edgware Road stations.
In extraordinary footage, Hussain can then be seen pausing in the doorway of a branch of WH Smith for two-and-a-half minutes to apparently remove a battery from his device.
He buys a £4.49 9-volt replacement and heads to a nearby branch of McDonald's, where police believe he spent eight minutes inserting the new battery into the bomb.
Hugo Keith QC, for the inquest, said: "He spends a very significant amount of time rooting around in a rucksack containing a highly unstable, cooled explosive mixture."
Detective Inspector Ewan Kindness, of Scotland Yard's Counter Terrorism Command, said when Hussain stands up again, something is in his hand. He said: "We believe it to be the batteries from the device, but it is difficult to be 100% sure from the image."
A total of 52 innocent people were killed and more than 700 injured in the attacks, the worst single terrorist atrocity on British soil. The inquests were adjourned until Monday.
Liverpool FC's American owners have been strongly condemned in the High Court in London for taking action in the US courts to try to block the sale of the club.
Mr Justice Floyd criticised Tom Hicks and George Gillett as he granted anti-suit injunctions in a bid to nullify decisions taken in the court in Dallas.
The judge said he had given a ruling in London on Wednesday that meant the English directors of Liverpool could agree a £300 million takeover by John W Henry's New England Sports Ventures (NESV).
But before the board could make any decision on Wednesday night, Tom Hicks, one of the American owners, secured a temporary restraining order from the Texas court.
Mr Justice Floyd said that, on the face of it, that amounted to "unconscionable conduct on the part of Mr Hicks and Mr Gillett".
A Labour peer has challenged the Commons authorities to take her to court over a demand for repayment of expenses claimed when she was an MP.
Baroness Adams - who was MP for Paisley North until 2005 - was told in February to repay £4,110 in disputed mortgage payments after a review by Sir Thomas Legg.
She is among six former Labour MPs who are yet to meet his repayment demands according to figures released by officials on Thursday - and one of four who insist they do not owe any money.
Sir Thomas ordered hundreds of politicians to hand back a total of £1.3 million following a review of claims from 2004-8 commissioned at the height of the Westminster pay and perks scandal.
As at the beginning of last month however, nearly £50,000 of that was still outstanding, a reply to a freedom of information request by BBC Radio 4's The World at One showed. It said two of the ex-MPs, Helen Clark and John Lyons, had now agreed to return the sums required by the review - £2.808 and £10,894 respectively.
Three other cases - all involving claims for mortgage interest - were listed as "under dispute": Lady Adams, former defence minister Ivor Caplin (£17,865) and Diana Organ (£12,803).
Lady Adams complained that the inquiry team was unwilling to accept the evidence she had to show her claim was a valid one - and vowed to fight the demand. "They said they were no longer interested and they were not prepared to go over Sir Thomas' report again and couldn't accept the evidence," she told The World at One.
"I wrote back to them again saying 'you seem to be more interested in upholding the report than finding the truth and for that reason I will not be paying back what I don't owe. If they want to take me to court I will be quite happy to go."
Legal action is being considered as an option by the authorities, a spokeswoman said.
The sixth former MP involved, Lorna Fitzsimons, who was told to repay £500 of the cost of a £2,700 suite because it "exceeded the guideline price", said: "Mine is a point of principle. I will settle any bill that anybody says I owe on receipt of evidence that the rule existed and I broke it."
The angry family of murdered nurse Jane Clough held a protest against the legal system they believe freed a killer and failed their daughter.
Her parents, John and Penny, along with 20 supporters, stood on Preston Crown Court steps wearing "Justice for Jane" T-shirts and badges, emblazoned with a smiling photo of their loved one, and holding aloft home-made banners.
One had a photo of murderer Jonathan Vass with the words: "I was freed on bail by Judge Simon Newell," followed by a photo of Miss Clough with the words: "And killed." Another banner read: "Reported rapes got no justice."
Ambulance technician and bouncer Vass, 30, launched a frenzied knife attack on Ms Clough, 26, as she arrived for work at Blackpool Victoria Hospital in July.
Vass, described as "manipulative and controlling", was freed to kill after being given bail while awaiting trial over allegations that he had repeatedly raped her. The rape charges were dropped after the murder.
Judge Anthony Russell QC handed down the mandatory life sentence before telling a weeping Vass he will serve a minimum of 30 years before he can be considered for release.
Miss Clough's family say she has been doubly failed - first by giving Vass bail and secondly by not putting him on trial for the rapes.
A further banner referred to Judge Russell's comments at an earlier hearing where he said the rape charge "pales into insignificance" compared to the murder - "the most serious crime in the criminal calendar," he told the court. A banner read: "Insignificant rapes? I could turn in my grave."
Miss Clough first called police on November 29 last year and officers acted quickly. He was arrested the same day and locked up. Charged with nine counts of rape, one of sexual assault and three counts of common assault he was remanded in custody at his first court appearance.
But 12 days after he was held, the 17-stone bouncer and bodybuilder appeared at Burnley Crown Court where his defence applied for bail.
