Tributes have been paid to a "trailblazing" lawyer at a top immigration law firm who died after falling under a Tube train.
Sonia Burgess, 63, known professionally by her legal name David, was struck by a train at King's Cross station during the Monday evening rush hour.
Nina Kanagasingham, 34, of Chichele Road, Cricklewood, north-west London, has been charged with murder and appeared at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court. She was remanded in custody to appear at the Old Bailey on Monday.
The family of the solicitor, who have asked for her to be referred to as Sonia, said in a statement: "Sonia (David) was a loving and wonderful person and will be missed deeply. We would appreciate being given space to come to terms with our loss."
Ms Burgess, who had worked in immigration law since the 1970s, leaves three adult children, two daughters and a son.
A spokesman for Luqmani Thompson and Partners in Wood Green, north London, the law firm where she worked as David Burgess, said: "We are immensely saddened by the death of David Burgess, an enormously talented practitioner, an inspiration to a generation of lawyers practising in this field, and a great friend."
Investigating officer Detective Superintendent Ashley Croft said: "We would like to express our condolences to Sonia's (David's) family following this tragedy.
"Family liaison officers are working closely with Sonia's family, providing them support and assistance during this difficult time."
A British Transport Police spokesman said: "Sonia, a solicitor, had two identities, David and Sonia, that were both well-known to her family, friends and work colleagues."
Ms Burgess's family, including her children and former wife, said they did not wish to make any further comment.
Woman faces court over Tube death
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Norgroves tell of 'worst nightmare'
The parents of aid worker Linda Norgrove have spoken of their "nightmare" at learning of their daughter's death in Afghanistan.
But John and Lorna Norgrove said they do not want to enter a "blame game" after their kidnapped daughter was killed in a failed rescue attempt on October 8.
A foundation has been set up in 36-year-old Linda's name to promote the causes she supported.
Mr Norgrove said Linda was a "very adventurous girl" and was determined to go to Afghanistan four years ago when she worked for the United Nations.
"At the time I said to her that our worst nightmare was that she might be kidnapped," he said.
"But at the end we had to accept that she'd been adventurous, she'd done risky things before."
The aid worker died during a US-led rescue attempt and it has since emerged a US grenade may have been to blame. A joint US/UK military inquiry into her death is currently under way.
Her death came a fortnight after her parents, from Lewis on the Western Isles, learned of her kidnapping in Kunar province on September 26.
Mr Norgrove said he and his wife had been climbing a mountain on the day they discovered Linda had been taken.
He added: "We came back to be met by the police who told us Linda had been kidnapped, and from then on it was an absolute emotional roller-coaster. It's very difficult to explain to anybody who has not been through it, but it felt like sometimes when you are busy and talking to people the pain almost seemed to go away and then it would just come in in floods of emotion."
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Further energy bill hikes expected
Households are braced for a fresh round of energy bill hikes after Scottish & Southern Energy raised its gas prices by 9.4%.
SSE, which owns Southern Electric, Scottish Hydro and Swalec, blamed the price hike, which will come into effect on December 1, on a 25% increase in the wholesale price of gas this year.
It means the average annual household gas bill for an SSE customer will increase by £5.60 a month to £782. A dual fuel customer's annual bill will rise to £1,226 from £1,159 a year ago.
The timing of the hike could hardly be worse for consumers as it will come at the start of winter when gas consumption soars, and just weeks before Christmas and a planned hike in VAT to 20%.
Mark Todd, director of Energy Helpline, said SSE is the first major supplier to hike gas prices for two years but others are likely to follow suit.
"This is a grim Christmas present for millions of customers before what's predicted to be a very harsh winter," he said.
"We expect there to be a response from the other suppliers, and it's likely there will be at least a few that move before Christmas. UK consumers are in the last chance saloon for cheap energy deals and must act now if they want to keep their costs down."
He also warned the price hikes may not be restricted to gas after EDF became the first major player to put electricity prices up, when it implemented a 2.6% rise on October 1.
Watchdog Consumer Focus said wholesale gas prices are still 40% below their peak in 2008, whereas SSE's prices are just 2% below their 2008 peak.
Audrey Gallacher, head of energy at Consumer Focus, said: "We are worried this could be the start of some serious bad news for all consumers."
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Countries 'can get rid of malaria'
The deadliest form of malaria could be eliminated in most parts of the world in 10 to 15 years, a new study has predicted.
Malaria affects half the global population and kills an estimated 1.2 million people around the world each year.
A majority of those deaths are caused by the mosquito-transmitted organism Plasmodium falciparum.
The parasite is at its most deadly in sub-Saharan Africa, where 90% of malaria fatalities occur.
Now scientists who spent five years collecting data on P. falciparum from around the world have come up with a forecast for when the strain is likely to be defeated.
They say if transmission rates can be reduced beyond a threshold of 90%, the organism could be eradicated from most areas where it is still prevalent in 10 to 15 years.
More developed countries such as Brazil and Saudi Arabia, or those with small accessible populations, are most likely to succeed in ridding themselves of the scourge, according to the researchers.
Those plagued by systemic poverty and unstable governments, such as Angola, Chad and Somalia, were expected to find the task much more difficult.
The same is true of Pakistan and Afghanistan, which suffer from the twin burdens of political instability and weak health systems.
"In general, elimination from countries in the Americas is most feasible using current tools, and least feasible for most sub-Saharan countries," said Dr Andrew Tatem, from the University of Florida in Gainesville, US and a team of international experts writing in a special edition of The Lancet medical journal.
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Community service for Zutons singer
The lead singer of rock band The Zutons, who broke a man's nose after his girlfriend was insulted, has been ordered to do 150 hours of unpaid work and compensate his victim.
Dave McCabe, 29, headbutted Peter Appleby during an alcohol-fuelled row outside a nightclub in Liverpool.
McCabe, who wrote the hit song Valerie which was covered by Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson, reacted with violence after one of Mr Appleby's friends mocked his girlfriend's fur-collared coat, saying it looked like she had a beard.
The rock star claimed he had acted in self-defence but was convicted of assault by a jury following a trial at Liverpool Crown Court in September. He was given a community order and told to pay the victim £1,500 plus court costs of £3,500.
McCabe, dressed in a blue shirt and grey suit and tie, agreed to pay the money within seven days.
Trouble began in the early hours of Sunday February 21 this year. The star - whose songs include Calm Me Down and Havana Gang Brawl - had attended his mother's 60th birthday party earlier in the evening.
He then went with his girlfriend Sheree Grist to Korova nightclub in Liverpool city centre with his brothers and friends.
The pair left the club at 3.30am as did Mr Appleby, 23, and four of his friends. One of them, student Ciaran Donnelly, said Miss Grist's fur-collared coat made it look like she had a beard. She overheard and said to the group: "Why don't you grow up?"
The singer-songwriter, of Vale Road, Liverpool, apologised for her outburst but told the group not to pick on them. He headbutted Mr Appleby, who had downed six pints of Guinness, thinking he was about to be attacked, he said.
The jury of six men and five women unanimously convicted him of assault during a three-day trial in September.
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Exchange fault hits broadband users
More than 20,000 UK homes have been affected by a phone exchange fault.
BT said customers in northern England and part of Scotland were experiencing disruption to their broadband service following a power cut.
Engineers were working to resolve the problem that hit an exchange covering the Edinburgh and Tynecastle area.
A BT spokesman said: "There's an issue with a node in Edinburgh and we've sent our engineers to deal with it.
"It's affecting a significant part of the UK.
"We've diverted engineers to Edinburgh to fix it as quickly as we can."
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Take That sell one million tickets
Take That have sold one million tickets for their latest tour in less than 24 hours.
Tickets agencies struggled to cope with fans reporting websites crashing and phone lines being constantly engaged under the weight of the massive demand.
New dates were also added to the tour which will be the first time all five members of the band - Gary Barlow, Robbie Williams, Mark Owen, Jason Orange and Howard Donald - have performed together since 1995.
A statement issued by the band said: "We are speechless, truly and utterly shocked. This is the most amazing news for all of us. To sell one million tickets in a day is mind blowing and we think we'll be in shock for a few days! We want to thank everyone who has bought tickets today and look forward to seeing them next year."
Tickets went on sale at 9am on Friday morning and by 2pm new dates had been added to the tour in Sunderland, Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester, Cardiff and London.
Fans queued overnight outside many of the venues to get their hands on tickets.
Tanya Kayne, 28, began her vigil outside the ground on Tuesday. Dressed in a hoody and Take That T-shirt, and speaking from the door of her blue two-man tent, she said: "I can't believe Robbie's back. It's going to be great seeing them all together again."
A spokeswoman for Ticketmaster said "totally unprecedented demand" had left them struggling to cope.
Fans logged on to social networking sites to complain about the situation. One fan, Laura Docherty, wrote on the band's Facebook page: "I got tickets. But I've never experienced every website down. Got tickets in the end. Good luck to you all who are trying."
The band announced details of the long-awaited tour on Tuesday and promised a "feast for the imagination" when it starts in May.
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Stewart 'has lost count of lovers'
Veteran rocker Rod Stewart has slept with so many women he admits he has lost count - but he insists he is not "a guy for one night stands".
The former Faces frontman said the break-up of his marriage to Rachel Hunter left him heartbroken, though he added that his new wife Penny Lancaster is the love of his life.
Asked by Piers Morgan if he could remember every women he slept with, he said: "No, no, and I'm not proud of that either."
During the interview, for Saturday's episode of ITV1's Piers Morgan's Life Stories, Stewart said: "I was never a guy for one night stands, I enjoyed the courtship and a little bit of romance and the chase, I enjoyed the chase."
The singer paid tribute to Lancaster, describing her as "just fabulous looking and brilliant", and said he reacted with disbelief when he was told he had thyroid cancer.
He said: "I thought, 'Not me? I'm fit, I play football, I'm Jack The Lad'. But cancer knows no bounds, it cuts everybody down to size."
Last month, Stewart revealed he and Lancaster turned to IVF after a long battle to have another child.
Stewart has fathered seven children - he had a son and a daughter with first wife Alana Hamilton, and a daughter in 1987 with Kelly Emberg.
He had two children during his marriage to Hunter and he also had a daughter in the early 1960s who was adopted.
He and Lancaster have a son, Alastair, and their new baby is due in mid-March.
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Cameron hails 'spectacular' EU win
David Cameron has claimed a "spectacular success" in pegging a euro-budget rise next year to just 2.9%.
A dozen other countries backed the prime minister's EU summit initiative to declare the rise the maximum acceptable to the member states.
The alliance of 13 European countries, including France and Germany, is enough to block other EU leaders negotiating a bigger rise in forthcoming talks with the European Commission and European Parliament, both of which want a 6% increase for 2011 to fund the EU.
Mr Cameron originally wanted a budget freeze, in line with belt-tightening in national budgets.
But that was never a runner and the Prime Minister insisted that preventing a negotiation above 2.9% "made a real difference".
He shrugged off claims that his "breakthrough" was a rehash of a proposal by EU finance ministers three months ago to offer 2.9% as a negotiating compromise.
Far from it, claimed Mr Cameron, pointing out that the 13-way summit declaration went further by declaring: "These proposals (for a 6% rise) are especially unacceptable at a time when we are having to take difficult decisions at national level to control public expenditure. We are clear that we cannot accept any more than (2.9%)".
In other words, the 6% plan was now "dead", Mr Cameron told a summit press conference.
He went on: "Just as at home we inherited finances that were a complete mess, so too in Brussels we have inherited a budget deal completely out of touch with the situation we face across Europe. I believe that as a result of Britain's intervention the spotlight has now shifted to reining in the excesses of the EU budget.
"At a time when we are making painful decisions at home to put our economy back on track I will not allow Brussels to derail us."
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Firefighter defends July 7 delay
A firefighter has defended his decision to delay entering a Tube tunnel to rescue 7/7 victims until he was sure the power to the tracks was off.
The inquest for those killed in the attacks has heard that a senior policeman and a passenger on the bombed train expressed frustration at seeing fire crews waiting on the platform at Aldgate station on July 7 2005.
But London Fire Brigade sub officer Michael Curnick said he and his men were held up by less than three minutes, and insisted he had to be certain it was safe.
He said after reaching the wrecked train he requested extra first aid kits, resuscitators and equipment for removing the injured. But his radio did not work and he had to send a colleague back to the station to pass on the message.
The firefighter told the inquest he made his men wait before going onto the tracks while he checked that the electricity had been switched off.
He said: "I asked a member of LUL (London Underground Limited) staff who was standing at the end of the platform as it dipped down onto the line itself. I asked him could he confirm that the power to the lines was off and he said, 'I'm not sure'."
Police inspector Robert Munn told the inquest this week of his frustration that a group of firefighters would not enter the tunnel even after he stood on the power rail to demonstrate it was safe. Mr Curnick said he could not recall Insp Munn being there.
"But even if I did see him there, I wouldn't take his word for it, jumping up and down on the lines. I would go through a LUL member of staff," he said. "We need to get confirmation of power off and train stopped because moving trains can bridge gaps on the lines and transfer the power back on."
The inquest has also heard that Michael Henning, one of the passengers on the bombed train, told three groups of firefighters waiting around in the station: "Why aren't you down there? There are people dying." Mr Curnick said he could not remember being approached by any passengers who asked why he and his crew were waiting. He said the delay before he and his men went onto the tracks lasted less than three minutes, adding: "It felt like a lifetime but it wasn't."
Kirstin Boyd, counsel for London Fire Brigade, asked him: "If you were faced with those circumstances again, would you have done anything differently?" He replied: "No, I wouldn't. I would do exactly the same."
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Obama: airport threat was credible
Packages found at a British airport and in Dubai contained explosives and represented a "credible terrorist threat", US president Barack Obama has said.
The president said the US-bound packages, which originated in Yemen and were found aboard cargo jets, appeared to be targeted at two synagogues in Chicago.
The president's comment contradicts earlier suggestions that the package found in Britain did not contain explosives.
A transatlantic terror alert was sparked after the discovery of one of the packages at East Midlands Airport on Friday morning. Police were called to a freight distribution centre at the airport after officials raised concerns during a routine search.
Workers found a toner cartridge which had been manipulated with wires attached to it, and a white powder, according to sources in the US.
The cargo was removed from an American-registered plane that arrived from Yemen and was en route to Chicago via Philadelphia, the Metropolitan Police said.
The cargo plane had landed at East Midlands Airport as part of a routine stop-over.
A number of items were sent for additional scientific examination, a Met spokesman said.
An official UAE security source said the Dubai device meanwhile was found in a courier company's regional hub.
The source said an investigation was under way, and added there had been "close cooperation between several intelligence and security agencies around the world following the discovery of shipments containing an explosive device originating in Yemen".
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Talks planned on fire crews dispute
Fresh talks aimed at averting strikes by firefighters in London will be held on Sunday.
The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) said it will meet with the capital's brigade in a bid to avoid an eight-hour strike on Monday and a two-day strike from November 5 which will include Bonfire Night.
Thousands of union members went on strike last Saturday in protest against plans for a new shift system.
News of the latest talks came as the leader of firefighters involved in a dispute over new contracts complained of media intrusion into his private life and appealed for his family to be left alone.
Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary, said his former wife and student son had been "pestered" by reporters, with one "rooting about" in dustbins.
His ex-wife, who he separated from 20 years ago, was visited by a female journalist at her home and asked to talk about Mr Wrack.
"My former wife shut the door on her. Another reporter came to my student son's flat when he was not there, asked the neighbours about him, showed them a picture of my son and rooted about in the dustbins. This is happening because I am the general secretary of a trade union involved in a high-profile strike. I appeal to reporters to leave my family alone."
Mr Wrack has warned that the relationship between firefighters and their managers has been damaged in the wake of the dispute and could take decades to put right. The FBU said firefighters in London have been subjected to unfounded "smears".
Mr Wrack said stories claiming that contract staff covering for strikers last Saturday had been subjected to bullying and harassment were "totally untrue" and he flatly denied reports that the union had demanded pay rises of £10,000.
A spokesman for the London Fire Brigade said: "All the evidence that was collected during the dispute last Saturday of intimidation, violence or harassment of the emergency fire crews is currently being reviewed by the Met Police. Contingency plans will again be put in place on Monday, with private firm AssetCo using 27 fire appliances. It is important to report that while the contingency fire service has been put in place to provide a fire and rescue service in the capital, it is not intended to fully replicate normal business."
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British woman killed in Philippines
A police investigation is under way after a British woman was stabbed to death in the Philippines, sources have said.
The body of Jennifer Isherwood, 63, was discovered on Saturday morning at her home in Las Pinas City, according to reports.
A Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesman said: "We can confirm the death of a British national in the Philippines. Next of kin have been informed and we are providing consular assistance."
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Cancer victim hits out over release
A terminally ill cancer sufferer beaten up by a teenage thug has expressed his dismay and disbelief after his attacker walked free from court.
Reece Kent, 19, punched grandfather Ken Oliver, 62, in the face and then kicked him repeatedly as he lay on the floor, before walking away laughing.
The brutal attack at Mr Oliver's house in Park Lane, Broxbourne, Herts, is believed to be a case of mistaken identity. It left Mr Oliver bruised from head to toe and needing hospital treatment, he said.
But Kent was spared jail at St Albans Crown Court in Hertfordshire after pleading guilty to wounding or inflicting grievous bodily harm, a court official said.
Instead, he was handed a six-month sentence at a young offenders institution, suspended for 12 months, ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work and told to pay £1,000 in compensation.
Mr Oliver, who has been told he will die from his kidney cancer, said: "I'm more than gutted. I just don't believe that can happen in this country, that they can walk out.
"I think he should have been locked up straight away. I would have liked to see him get a nice long prison sentence."
He described watching numbly in court with his wife Pauline, 64, and son Tony as the sentence was passed on October 18.
"I had no reaction, I was just dead," he said.
He has written to the Crown Prosecution Service to request a retrial and is waiting to hear from them, he added.
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UK soldier shot dead in Afghanistan
A British soldier has been shot dead in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence said.
The soldier, from 101 (City of London) Engineer Regiment (Explosive Ordnance Disposal), was killed by small arms fire on Saturday in the Nahr-e Saraj North District of Helmand Province.
He was serving with the Counter-Improvised Explosive Device Task Force and was attending the scene of a suspect device when he was killed.
Next of kin have been informed.
His death takes the total number of UK military personnel fatalities since operations began in Afghanistan in 2001 to 342.
Spokesman for Task Force Helmand, Lieutenant Colonel David Eastman, said: "It is my sad task to inform you that a soldier from the Counter-Improvised Explosive Device Task Force has died this morning.
"The soldier was part of a team responsible for clearing ground of explosive ordnance for coalition and Afghan forces, as well as ensuring the safety of the local Afghan people, when he was killed by small arms fire in the Nahr-e Saraj North District of Helmand Province.
"He sacrificed his life in the service of others, carrying out a hazardous but crucial task; he will live on in the memories of all who had the pleasure of knowing him."
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Tax protests target Vodafone stores
Activists have staged a series of protests outside Vodafone stores over claims the firm had an unpaid tax bill of £6 billion.
Around 150 "anti-cuts" campaigners gathered outside three Vodafone shops in Oxford Street and one in Tottenham Court Road, blockading them with banners and bicycles after a campaign on social networking sites.
Vodafone dismissed the claim and said it had paid its taxes.
A spokesman said: "We've seen protests outside a small number of our UK stores. We temporarily closed some of them and diverted customers to other locations so they were not inconvenienced. Most have since reopened.
"We pay our taxes in the UK and all of the other countries in which we operate. Reports suggesting that we have an outstanding tax bill for £6 billion are incorrect, as this was never the case. In a statement from HMRC, the figure of £6 billion was referred to as an 'urban myth'."
Protesters said other stores around the country were temporarily closed by demonstrations, including branches in: Brighton, Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hastings, Liverpool, Manchester, Oxford and York.
Campaigner Ben Olabayi said: "We will not pay for their crisis. The public need to join together and hit the streets to take concerted action to fight these cuts."
Deborah Lee added: "The cuts are not fair, we're not all in this together, and there are alternatives. Why not start by collecting the tens of billions owed in taxes by wealthy corporations? The Government is writing off the taxes from big business while treating normal people on benefits like criminals."
A spokesman for HM Revenue and Customs said: "We can't comment on the details of the settlement, but we can confirm that it was reached by HMRC following a rigorous examination of the facts and an intensive process of negotiation which tested the arguments of both parties.
"As a result it was agreed that Vodafone's liability was £1.25 billion and at no point was the liability greater than that. There is no question of Vodafone having an outstanding tax liability of £6 billion, that number is an urban myth."
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Contest to choose Jubilee emblem
The Queen's official 2012 Diamond Jubilee emblem will be chosen by a nationwide children's competition, Buckingham Palace has announced.
The search to find the design will be launched on Blue Peter and thousands of drawings are expected to flood into the BBC programme which is running the event.
The winning logo will be used on a range of items from London buses to crockery in the run up to the milestone and during the year.
The competition is the first announcement by Buckingham Palace of a project to mark the Queen's 60 years on the throne.
The Government has already said there will be an extra bank holiday to help create an extended weekend in June 2012, which will provide a focal point for celebrations, while Greenwich will become a royal borough to mark its association with the monarchy.
The Diamond Jubilee weekend will take place just weeks before the start of the London Olympics and a host of other events are expected to take place in the monarch's honour that year.
In June it was announced Prince William will become patron of the Queen Elizabeth II Fields challenge - an initiative to create and protect hundreds of playing fields - in tribute to his grandmother.
The Queen began her reign on February 6, 1952, after the death of her father George VI.
The emblem design will be chosen from the winners of three age categories six to eight-year-olds, nine to 11-year-olds and 12 to 14-year-olds.
Entries cannot feature an image of the Queen but must include a crown and have to be submitted on an A4 sheet of paper by December 8.
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Christian couple in fostering fight
A Christian couple who say they have been barred from fostering because of their "traditional" views on homosexuality are to take their case to the High Court.
Eunice and Owen Johns said their local council's fostering panel rejected them as carers because they could not tell a child a homosexual lifestyle was acceptable.
The Johns will go before the High Court on Monday to ask for clarification on the council's position on the suitability of foster carers who have traditional beliefs regarding sexual ethics.
The case, thought to be the first of its kind, has been described by Christian lawyers as vital for Christian freedoms.
The Pentecostal Christian couple from Derby, who have fostered almost 20 children in the past, are not homophobic, according to a legal representative.
But they are against sex before marriage - and by marriage, they do not recognise civil partnerships between gay couples.
Their beliefs are at odds with Derby City Council's equality policy, which was drawn up under the terms of the Sexual Orientation Act.
The case has been taken up by the Christian Legal Centre, who said it was the first time a court had been asked to decide how local authorities should deal with foster carers who have traditional views on sexual ethics.
It said in a statement: "The council has an obligation to respect the Johns' religious beliefs, but also to comply with equality law, which prohibits discrimination because of sexual orientation. The case will decide whether the Johns will be able to foster without compromising their beliefs."
But Stonewall, the lesbian, gay and bisexual rights charity, backed the council's stance. Chief executive Ben Summerskill said: "Too often in fostering cases nowadays it's forgotten that it is the interests of a child, and not the prejudices of a parent, that matter."
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Unions seek MoD staff 'covenant'
Ministry of Defence workers are to launch a campaign for fair treatment this week in the face of looming job losses following the strategic defence and security review (SDSR).
Representatives from the Prospect, GMB, PCS and Unite unions will deliver a proposal for a "civilian covenant" to Ursula Brennan on Monday, as she starts her first day as the MoD's permanent secretary.
The unions want the agreement to be similar to the military covenant, the informal understanding of loyalty between the nation and the armed forces.
Prime Minister David Cameron announced in the SDSR that the MoD's civilian workforce will be cut from 85,000 to 60,000 by 2015.
Prospect national secretary Steve Jary said: "MoD civil servants face numerous pressures created by the intensity of military operations and pressures on the defence budget and on civilian numbers.
"They have been reviewed and restructured to the point of exhaustion and the strategic defence and security review and further Treasury-inspired cuts now confront them with a pay freeze, attacks on their terms and conditions and the loss of one in three jobs, coupled with the spectre of compulsory redundancies."
Mr Jary said the civilian covenant would set out the "higher level principles" of fair treatment and help limit the impact of the cuts on morale.
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PM: Bomb designed to blow up plane
An explosive device found hidden in a printer cartridge on a cargo plane at a UK airport was apparently designed to blow the aircraft out of the sky, David Cameron said.
Mr Cameron was speaking as Yemeni officials arrested a woman on suspicion of sending the two mail bombs, found on Friday in cargo hubs at East Midlands Airport and in Dubai, sparking an international terror alert.
The packages originated in Yemen, a key front in the fight against terrorism, and are believed to have contained the powerful explosive PETN.
Mr Cameron said: "We believe that the device was designed to go off on the aeroplane. We cannot be sure about the timing when that was mean to take place. There is no early evidence it was designed to take place over British soil, but of course we cannot rule that out."
Speaking at Chequers ahead of a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, he confirmed he had spoken to US president Barack Obama, adding: "I have also spoken to President Saleh of the Yemen making the point that we have to do even more to crack down and cut out the cancer of al Qaida in Yemen and the Arabian Peninsula.
"We have immediately banned packages coming to or through Britain from the Yemen and we will be looking extremely carefully at any further steps we have to take.
"In the end these terrorists think that our interconnectedness, our openness as modern countries is what makes us weak. They are wrong - it is a source of our strength, and we will use that strength, that determination, that power and that solidarity to defeat them."
He said the package started in Yemen, landed in Germany and was then transported to Britain en route to America, adding: "It just shows how united and determined we have to be to defeat terrorism."
Yemeni officials said they were hunting a number of suspects who are believed to have been using forged documents and ID cards and to be linked to group al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said security forces surrounded a house where the woman was hiding after receiving intelligence from the US and United Arab Emirates.
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