![Image]( "Councils 'spending £315m on CCTV'")
Councils spent at least £315 million on installing and operating CCTV cameras over the last three years, according to campaigners.
Birmingham City Council, home of the controversial Project Champion scheme which saw more than 200 surveillance cameras installed in two largely Muslim neighbourhoods, topped the list of local authority big spenders with £10.5 million on CCTV alone, Big Brother Watch said.
The figures, provided to the campaigners following requests under the Freedom of Information Act, showed the total £314,835,170.39 spent by 336 local councils on installing and operating cameras between 2007/08 and 2009/10 could have paid the salaries of more than 15,000 nurses.
Alex Deane, the campaign group's director, said: "This is a shocking figure. Public money is being wasted on snooping surveillance that does next to nothing to prevent or solve crime. We are being watched more than ever before, and we're being ripped off into the bargain. British taxpayers will be scandalised to see their money being thrown away like this in the current economic climate."
More than 80 councils failed to respond and 15 said they did not operate any public-facing CCTV cameras.
West Midlands Police apologised over the Project Champion scheme and Chief Constable Chris Sims admitted the force got the balance between counter-terrorism and excessive intrusion into people's lives "so wrong".
The cameras, some of which were hidden, sparked anger from civil liberties campaigners and residents in Sparkbrook and Washwood Heath in Birmingham, where they were predominantly installed.
The scheme was organised by the Safer Birmingham Partnership, an initiative including West Midlands Police, Birmingham City Council and other agencies. The partnership has acknowledged it should have been more explicit about the role of the city's Counter Terrorism Unit in setting up the network of 218 cameras.
The number plate recognition and CCTV cameras were financed under a counter-terrorism initiative but were marketed to locals as a general crime prevention measure.
The report showed the 10 authorities that spent the most on CCTV between 2007/08 and 2009/10 were:1 Birmingham £10,476,874.00, 2 Sandwell £5,355,744.00, 3 Leeds £3,839,675.00, 4 City of Edinburgh £3,600,560.00, 5 Hounslow £3,573,186.45, 6 Lambeth £3,431,301.00, 7 Manchester £3,347,310.00, 8 Enfield £3,141,295.00, 9 Barnet £3,119,020.00, 10 Barking and Dagenham £3,090,000.00.
Chancellor George Osborne's austerity drive will make the return to pre-recession levels of employment "slower and more painful" than many people expect, shadow work and pensions secretary Douglas Alexander will warn in a speech.
With the UK's dole queue shrinking by just 15,000 since the coalition Government came to power, it could take 15 years before numbers claiming out-of-work benefits drop below one million if present trends continue, he will say on Tuesday.
And he will accuse the coalition Government of complacency over the prospects of a swift increase in private sector employment to compensate for hundreds of thousands of job losses expected in the public services.
Job vacancies have fallen every month since June and stand below the levels of the start of this year, when Britain was only just emerging from recession, Mr Alexander will say.
Speaking to the Demos think-tank, Mr Alexander is expected to warn of the danger of a "jobless recovery" and to say that it will take time for workers laid off from public sector jobs to adjust to private sector work, which might require new skills or a move to a different part of the country.
And he will say that the Government's reliance on a shift from public to private sector jobs risks creating "socially damaging" long-term unemployment in areas where the state has traditionally been a major employer.
Mr Alexander will say: "In the sometimes overblown media claims about double-dips and rapid recovery, I think there is a risk that the real and present danger in the jobs market goes almost unnoticed. I'm worried that the Government is too complacent about the risk of a slower and more painful return than many yet realise to the levels of employment and unemployment we have become used to.
"The wider jobs gap is an issue that the Government doesn't seem to have recognised.
"We are seeing in the US, and in many other industrialised countries, a painfully slow return to pre-crisis levels of employment.
"For the UK, my fear is that George Osborne's agenda, even with some amelioration from (Work and Pensions Secretary) Iain Duncan Smith, will make that return slower and more painful than is yet widely understood. As in their whole approach to welfare reform, without work it won't work."
Two police forces have been warned they could face enforcement action over their "disproportionate" use of stop and search powers.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has written to Thames Valley Police and Leicestershire Constabulary, claiming neither could justify their tactics.
John Wadham, legal director at EHRC, said: "Stop and search needs to be used fairly. The evidence is that it isn't and the commission is acting to try to change this."
The move follows the publication of the commission's report Stop and Think earlier this year, which claimed some police forces were being discriminatory in their use of stop and search powers.
The review, looking at the use of stop and search powers across England and Wales over the past decade, showed black people are six times as likely to be stopped and searched as white people, with Asian people twice as likely to be stopped as white people.
Thames Valley Police and Leicestershire Constabulary were among five forces contacted by the EHRC in May and asked for detailed information after showing "significant and persistent race differences in their use of stop and search", a spokesman for the commission said.
Of the other forces, the Metropolitan Police and Dorset Police have now embarked on the National Police Improvement Agency's Next Steps programme on stop and search powers and are still being monitored by the EHRC. The commission is seeking more information from West Midlands Police before deciding whether to take further action.
The EHRC can exercise powers under the Equality Act 2006 to enforce equality and human rights legislation.
A Thames Valley Police spokesman said: "Thames Valley Police takes this matter very seriously as we are aware of the impact that stop and search can have on diverse communities."
Assistant Chief Constable Steph Morgan, of Leicestershire Constabulary, said: "We are absolutely committed to working towards the elimination of discrimination in the exercise of any of our powers and will work with the EHRC."
A quarter of farming households live below the poverty line, the Government's rural watchdog said as it urged ministers to help farmers access benefits and develop their businesses.
The poorest 25% of farms have a household income of less than £20,000 a year, and a third of those failed to make a profit over the past three years, the Commission for Rural Communities (CRC) said.
The CRC said many farmers in the UK had diversified or found ways to earn money away from the farm to survive, with 17% of farms making more money from their additional enterprises than from traditional farming activities. But some do not have the skills or opportunity to branch into new businesses such as farm shops, producing food or letting out farm buildings.
Struggling farmers are more likely to be older people grazing livestock in upland areas including the South Pennines, the South West moors such as Exmoor and Dartmoor, the North Pennines, the Borders and the Lake District.
The problems are particularly acute for tenant farmers, because they do not own their land, can be prevented from diversifying under the terms of their tenancy or find it difficult to access the capital to set up new ventures as the banks view them as having no collateral.
A report by the CRC also said that while farmers are able - like anyone else - to claim benefits when times are tough, the take-up of welfare payments was lower in rural areas than in towns. Around 11% of working-age adults in rural districts claim out-of-work benefits, compared with 16% in towns, the report said.
Just 23 of the 601 Jobcentre Plus offices are in rural areas and the lack of information, transport and internet access makes it hard for people in the countryside to make the most of welfare services. Many farmers feel reluctant to take benefits because they are independent and there is a social stigma attached, the report said.
In addition, some households find it hard to provide up-to-date accounts and tenant farmers struggle to access housing benefit because their tenancy agreements do not separate the rental costs of their home from the land.
The CRC called for the Department for Work and Pensions to actively promote the take-up of benefits for farming households and for the Department for Business Innovation and Skills to support farmers to develop their businesses.
CRC chairman Dr Stuart Burgess said: "While many farming households have successfully increased production, resilience and farm incomes, one in four are living in poverty. These struggling farms are likely to have grazing livestock and be located in upland areas. Many are left trapped in poverty without the resources or support to earn a living wage. Tackling poverty among farming households is long overdue. The Government should actively promote farm business support and the take-up of income-related benefits to eligible farming households."
All the hostages have been released from a US high school classroom where an armed student had held them, officials said.
The Marinette County Emergency Management office in Wisconsin said all 23 students and a teacher were freed.
They were held for five hours by the student.
England's 2018 World Cup bid will not be affected by the Panorama investigation into alleged Fifa bribes, according to Uefa president Michel Platini.
The BBC documentary accused three Fifa executive committee members of accepting "corrupt" payments and alleged that Fifa vice-president Jack Warner attempted to supply ticket touts. It was transmitted just three days before the crucial vote to decide who hosts the 2018 competition.
Platini claimed the expose, shown on Monday night, would not directly affect the bidding process, but warned the British media's arduous relationship with football's international governing body could jeopardise England's chances of success.
"I don't think this (programme) will have an effect, no - but I think what may affect the decision is the atmosphere going back a long time and what people have been writing about Fifa in the British press for many years," he said.
The BBC has been heavily criticised over the timing of the Panorama screening, with England's World Cup bid team branding it "an embarrassment".
The controversy comes as Prince William, Prime Minister David Cameron and David Beckham travel to Fifa's headquarters in Zurich in an attempt to lobby support before Thursday's deciding vote. England face competition from Russia, Spain/Portugal and Holland/Belgium and will need to gain the support of 12 members of Fifa's 22-strong committee.
African confederation president Issa Hayatou, whose vote England 2018 had high hopes of capturing, Brazil's Ricardo Terra Teixeira and Nicolas Leoz of Paraguay were all accused by Panorama of taking payments. Mr Warner is the subject of accusations that he "ordered (2010 World Cup) tickets costing 84,240 US dollars from the Fifa ticket office but the deal subsequently fell through". The four men are all part of the electorate who will vote on the 2018 and 2022 hosts.
Critics of the BBC's decision to screen the programme also drew on the fact that the allegations were not linked to World Cup votes and all relate to payments made between 21 and 11 years ago by the collapsed company ISL, which had been awarded the marketing rights to successive World Cups by Fifa.
An England 2018 statement said: "We stand by our previous position that the BBC's Panorama did nothing more than rake over a series of historical allegations none of which are relevant to the current bidding process. It should be seen as an embarrassment to the BBC."
Panorama claims its investigation was in the public interest and defended the timing of the programme. A spokesman said: "The programme is in the public interest and shows that some Fifa executives involved in making decisions about the 2018 bid have a history of taking bribes - and that Fifa has consistently failed to act. Delay until after the bid was not an option once it became clear that the winning nations might have been chosen by officials with a proven track record of corruption."
The Duke of York's role as trade ambassador is at the centre of controversy after a leaked document showed how he criticised France and America and condemned "idiotic" anti-corruption investigators during a trip representing Britain abroad.
US ambassador Tatiana Gfoeller described Prince Andrew boasting "cockily" about UK influence in central Asia in an expletive-laden discussion with British businessmen in Kyrgyzstan which "verged on the rude". Her comments came in a confidential diplomatic cable contained in a tranche of 250,000 secret documents obtained by whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks. Other revelations in the second day of leaks included dispatches showing Chinese frustration with its ally North Korea and suggesting Beijing may be ready to accept reunification with the South.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday said the Obama administration "deeply regrets" the leaks and was taking "aggressive steps to hold responsible those who stole this information". Mrs Clinton said WikiLeaks had acted illegally in posting the material, adding: "This disclosure is not just an attack on America's foreign policy interests. It is an attack on the international community: the alliances and partnerships, the conversations and negotiations that safeguard global security and advance economic prosperity. It puts people's lives in danger, threatens our national security and undermines our efforts to work with other countries."
Prince Andrew's comments came in a two-hour brunch for UK and Canadian businessmen attended by Ms Gfoeller in Kyrgyz capital Bishkek in 2008. Her cable, published on The Guardian's website after the newspaper entered into an agreement with WikiLeaks, summarised the meeting for State Department officials in Washington. She said: "Astonishingly candid, the discussion at times verged on the rude (from the British side)."
Andrew attacked the Serious Fraud Office probe - later closed - into alleged kickbacks related to BAE Systems' multibillion-pound Al-Yamama arms deal with Saudi Arabia, said Ms Gfoeller. She said: "He railed at British anti-corruption investigators, who had had the 'idiocy' of almost scuttling the Al-Yamama deal with Saudi Arabia."
In "an astonishing display of candour", the British businessmen alleged that nothing got done in Kyrgyzstan unless the son of the then president got a cut, and Andrew agreed that he had heard the same name "over and over again" when discussing business in the country.
"At this point, the Duke of York laughed uproariously, saying that 'all of this sounds exactly like France'," wrote Ms Gfoeller. Later, discussing the need for Kyrgyzstan to preserve the legal sanctity of contracts to attract Western investment, Andrew again joked: "They won't need to make any changes to attract the French!"
Ms Gfoeller praised Andrew for being "super-engaged" in the discussion, and said that he had reached out to her "with cordiality and respect, evidently valuing her insights". But she added that he approached the discussion with "unmitigated patriotic fervour" and reacted "with almost neuralgic patriotism" whenever any comparison between the US and UK came up.
Labour MP John Mann suggested that the Prince might have to consider his unpaid role as trade ambassador. Mr Mann told BBC2's Newsnight: "If these comments by Prince Andrew are accurate - and of course we don't know that yet - then clearly it's of public interest that they are out there, so that he can judge whether he is performing the role well and government can make that judgment as well. Prince Andrew will need to think through if he is actually carrying out this role to the best of his abilities."
Buckingham Palace said it would not comment on leaked documents.
Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe will challenge a High Court judge's order that he can never be released.
Mr Justice Mitting announced his decision in London on July 16, ruling that the serial killer of 13 women must serve a "whole life" tariff.
His case will be heard on Tuesday at the Court of Appeal by the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, Mr Justice Calvert-Smith and Mr Justice Griffith Williams.
Now known as Peter Coonan, the former lorry driver, from Bradford, West Yorkshire, was convicted at the Old Bailey in 1981. Sutcliffe, now 64, received 20 life terms for the murder of 13 women and the attempted murder of others in Yorkshire and Greater Manchester.
Mr Justice Mitting, when giving his ruling, said the murderer had caused "widespread and permanent harm to the living". He said: "Apart from a terrorist outrage, it is difficult to conceive of circumstances in which one man could account for so many victims. Those circumstances alone make it appropriate to set a whole life term."
He said he had no doubt that the "appropriate minimum term is a whole life term".
Sutcliffe is being held in Broadmoor top security psychiatric hospital after being transferred from prison in 1984 suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. It was on July 5 1975, that he took a hammer and carried out his first attack on a woman. Sutcliffe is said to have believed he was on a "mission from God" to kill prostitutes - although not all of his victims were sex workers - and was dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper because he mutilated their bodies.
The primary submission made on behalf of Sutcliffe was that the degree of his responsibility "was lowered by mental disorder or mental disability". The diagnosis of psychiatrists who considered his mental condition was that he was "suffering from encapsulated paranoid schizophrenia when he committed the crimes and that his responsibility for the 13 killings was, in consequence, substantially diminished".
But the judge said: "These propositions were, however, unquestionably rejected by the jury." He ruled: "It is not, in my opinion, open to a judge, setting a minimum term, to go behind the verdict of the jury by concluding that, although the defendant's responsibility was not proved to have been substantially diminished, he should be given the benefit of the doubt for the purpose of setting the minimum term, by concluding that it might have been."
It was the opinion of psychiatrists that Sutcliffe "suffers from a chronic treatable mental illness for which he has been willing to accept appropriate treatment, which has successfully contained it for many years".
Councils spent at least £315 million on installing and operating CCTV cameras over the last three years, according to campaigners.
Birmingham City Council, home of the controversial Project Champion scheme which saw more than 200 surveillance cameras installed in two largely Muslim neighbourhoods, topped the list of local authority big spenders with £10.5 million on CCTV alone, Big Brother Watch said.
The figures, provided to the campaigners following requests under the Freedom of Information Act, showed the total £314,835,170.39 spent by 336 local councils on installing and operating cameras between 2007/08 and 2009/10 could have paid the salaries of more than 15,000 nurses.
Alex Deane, the campaign group's director, said: "This is a shocking figure. Public money is being wasted on snooping surveillance that does next to nothing to prevent or solve crime. We are being watched more than ever before, and we're being ripped off into the bargain. British taxpayers will be scandalised to see their money being thrown away like this in the current economic climate."
More than 80 councils failed to respond and 15 said they did not operate any public-facing CCTV cameras.
West Midlands Police apologised over the Project Champion scheme and Chief Constable Chris Sims admitted the force got the balance between counter-terrorism and excessive intrusion into people's lives "so wrong".
The cameras, some of which were hidden, sparked anger from civil liberties campaigners and residents in Sparkbrook and Washwood Heath in Birmingham, where they were predominantly installed.
The scheme was organised by the Safer Birmingham Partnership, an initiative including West Midlands Police, Birmingham City Council and other agencies. The partnership has acknowledged it should have been more explicit about the role of the city's Counter Terrorism Unit in setting up the network of 218 cameras.
The number plate recognition and CCTV cameras were financed under a counter-terrorism initiative but were marketed to locals as a general crime prevention measure.
The report showed the 10 authorities that spent the most on CCTV between 2007/08 and 2009/10 were:1 Birmingham £10,476,874.00, 2 Sandwell £5,355,744.00, 3 Leeds £3,839,675.00, 4 City of Edinburgh £3,600,560.00, 5 Hounslow £3,573,186.45, 6 Lambeth £3,431,301.00, 7 Manchester £3,347,310.00, 8 Enfield £3,141,295.00, 9 Barnet £3,119,020.00, 10 Barking and Dagenham £3,090,000.00.
Protests against proposed increases in tuition fees risk scaring young people from poor backgrounds off going to university, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has warned.
In a letter to the National Union of Students (NUS), Mr Clegg said that many young people now believe - wrongly - that they will have to pay large sums up-front before they go to university.
He appealed to the NUS to ensure that its campaign against fee rises does not have negative consequences on efforts to widen access to higher education.
Mr Clegg's letter to NUS president Aaron Porter came as MPs prepared to debate university funding in the House of Commons.
And fresh protests are expected in central London on Tuesday, with activists calling for school pupils and higher education students to go on strike.
Previous demonstrations saw windows smashed at Conservative Party HQ on November 10 and thousands of students "kettled" by police in Whitehall last week.
Mr Clegg appealed to the NUS to help ensure that those taking part in protests understood "the true picture" of the proposed reforms, which he insisted were fairer than the current system.
"All of us involved in this debate have a greater responsibility to ensure that we do not let our genuinely-held disagreements over policy mean that we sabotage an aim that we all share - to encourage people from poorer backgrounds to go to university," said the Liberal Democrat leader.
The NUS has launched a "right to recall" campaign to force by-elections in seats held by Liberal Democrat MPs - including Mr Clegg - who signed a pledge to oppose increases in fees before the general election. Liberal Democrats secured a provision in the agreement forming the coalition Government that their MPs can abstain in the vote to increase fees, though it remains unclear whether the party's ministers will do so.
But Lib Dems are expected to vote against a Labour motion in the Commons on Tuesday which calls on ministers to delay legislation on the fees hike until after they have published a White Paper spelling out their vision of the future of higher education. Labour's "opposition day" motion will give MPs their first chance of a full-scale debate on university funding since the Government unveiled proposals to increase the cap on tuition fees from £3,375 to as much as £9,000.
A student armed with a handgun held nearly two dozen students and a teacher hostage in a US high school for about five hours before shooting himself when police broke into the classroom.
Officers who were outside the classroom at Marinette High School, Wisconsin, said they heard three gunshots shortly after 8 pm and busted through the door, said police chief Jeff Skorik. The 15-year-old male gunman then shot himself.
No other injuries were reported.
Skorik said the teenager was taken to an area hospital and his condition was not immediately known.
Five of the 23 students who had been taken hostage about 3 pm on Monday had been released about 20 minutes before police entered the classroom because they told the gunman they had to use the bathroom, Skorik said.
The other 18 students and the female teacher, who had acted as a mediator between the male hostage-taker and authorities, were released unharmed once officers were inside.
Skorik said the gunman had refused to communicate with officials during the stand-off, but allowed the teacher to speak with authorities by phone.
The big freeze is expected to engulf the whole of Britain with forecasters predicting snowfall and subzero temperatures in almost every corner of the country.
Freezing Arctic conditions that have paralysed much of Scotland and the North East spread to the Midlands bringing up to two inches of snow during the early hours and are expected to reach parts of Wales, the South East and London later on Tuesday.
Severe weather warnings of heavy snowfall and widespread road ice have been issued across almost every part of the UK, with further travel chaos expected to heap misery on commuters.
It was reported that up to four inches (10cm) of snow fell in the north of England on Monday night and during the early hours of Tuesday morning, with North Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Merseyside all experiencing heavy and persistent flurries. Birmingham and parts of Gloucestershire and Sussex also experienced fresh falls as the band of wintry snow headed south.
Gemma Plumb, forecaster for MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association, said: "Almost everywhere in the UK will reach minus temperatures and have some sleet or snow showers today. There will be heavy snow showers in the South East across Kent, Hampshire, Essex and London, with five to eight cm falling on higher ground."
Nearly 100 commuters travelling from central London to Ashford in Kent were stranded on a SouthEastern train for more than two hours with no power after the tracks froze in the subzero temperatures on Monday night. The 11.07pm service from London Victoria fell victim to the icy weather between Borough Green and West Malling before being towed to safety by another train.
Temperatures reached low of minus 13C in Inverness on Tuesday morning, with forecasters predicting that daytime temperatures would struggle to get past zero due to the bitter wind chill. Edinburgh Airport remained closed due to heavy snow on Tuesday morning and other airports also faced disruption with a number of flight cancellations and delays.
Many schools in Scotland, the North East and Cornwall were also forced to close and expected to remain shut. All schools in Dundee, West Lothian and Shetland were shut on Monday while in York and North Yorkshire, around 50 schools closed their doors. In Cornwall, 44 schools were shut because of the treacherous weather conditions.
The AA said Monday was one of its busiest on record after it was called to more than 20,000 breakdowns, but Tuesday could rival it. A spokesman said: "The fact we're only in the end of November and we've had what will turn out to be one of our top busiest days ever is pretty exceptional. No cars like these conditions and unless you do regular journeys of decent length in your car, it doesn't really give your battery much time to re-charge."
Forecasters warned the severe conditions could last for the rest of the week, with rain, sleet and snow.
A student armed with a handgun held nearly two dozen students and a teacher hostage in a US high school for about five hours before shooting himself when police broke into the classroom, authorities said.
No other injuries were reported in the classroom incident involving a 15-year-old boy at Marinette High School in Wisconsin.
Police officers said they heard three gunshots shortly after 8pm and broke down the door.
The 15-year-old male gunman then shot himself. He was taken to a local hospital, where his condition remains unclear.
Officials earlier had said there were no reports of shots fired, but student Zach Campbell said he and his classmates had been watching a film about Greek myths at the end of the school day when the hostage-taker pulled out a gun and shot the projector.
He then fired another shot.
"It was a very scary event," Zach said. The teenager made students put their mobile phones in the middle of the room and broke his own phone when it rang. The class then spent six hours talking to him about hunting and fishing.
"We just wanted to be on his good side," Zach said. He said the gunmen seemed depressed. "But he didn't really seem like he wanted to hurt anybody."
Zach was among five students who were released about 20 minutes before police entered the classroom after convincing the gunman they had to use the bathroom.
The other 18 students and the female teacher, who had acted as a mediator between the male hostage-taker and authorities, were released unharmed once officers were inside.
The Government will take a "less intrusive" approach to public health - nudging people rather than restricting their choices, the Health Secretary is due to say.
Andrew Lansley will set out plans for changing "social norms" around obesity, smoking, alcohol and exercise so that healthier choices are easier for people to make.
The Government's white paper will describe the creation of a new public health service from existing organisations and will promise to ring-fence public health budgets.
There has been criticism in the past over NHS trusts raiding public health finances to plug deficits and gaps in other services. Under the plans, responsibility for public health will be transferred back to local government and away from NHS trusts, where it currently sits.
Public health directors will be moved to local councils to work as "champions" of healthy living. A Health Inclusion Board, chaired by Professor Steve Field from the Royal College of GPs, will look into the causes of deprivation and health inequalities.
A new public health premium will be introduced - a payment by results incentive for delivering improvements and reducing health inequalities between different groups in society. Mr Lansley will say the Government intends to keep out of people's everyday lives as much as possible but will support them in making healthy choices.
He will point to a model called the Nuffield Ladder of Interventions, which is a scale designed to encourage people to change their behaviour. It starts with realising that some behaviour trends fizzle out on their own and no interventions are required.
The next step is to give people information and education to make a choice for themselves based on evidence. Following that, there is "enabling choice" - giving people a nudge in the right direction so they can change their behaviour.
This might include creating or improving access to public exercise facilities, cycle paths and playgrounds. Another tactic is to try to change social norms followed by guiding choice through "incentives". This might include a "points mean prizes" approach, for example children who walk to school earning points towards an activity day.
At the end of the ladder are more direct interventions, such as increasing taxes to discourage people from smoking or drinking, and restricting or banning things, such as unhealthy fats.
Claims of corruption made against Fifa vice-president Issa Hayatou in a BBC documentary are to be investigated by the International Olympic Committee.
Hayatou is also an IOC member and the Panorama programme, broadcast on Monday night, claimed he was given a bribe worth £10,000 in 1995 by the now-defunct marketing company ISL.
The IOC said in a statement: "The IOC has taken note of the allegations made by BBC Panorama and will ask the programme makers to pass on any evidence they may have to the appropriate authorities.
"The IOC has a zero tolerance against corruption and will refer the matter to the IOC ethics commission."
An inquest into the death of Baby P will not go ahead, a coroner has ruled.
The 17-month-old, now named as Peter Connelly, died at the hands of his mother Tracey, her sadistic boyfriend Steven Barker and Barker's brother Jason Owen in August 2007.
All three were subsequently jailed for causing or allowing his death.
Peter had suffered more than 50 injuries despite receiving 60 visits from social workers, doctors and police at his home in Tottenham, north London, over an eight-month period.
North London coroner Andrew Walker said he believed questions about the circumstances of the toddler's death had already been answered in previous investigations by state agencies and there is therefore insufficient cause for him to hold an inquest.
Earlier this month, the coroner heard submissions from lawyers including those representing Baby P's father, the Metropolitan Police and Barker in a pre-inquest hearing.
It was argued that an inquest would be expensive and that all salient facts had already emerged during inquiries into Peter's care.
But Peter's father, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was said to be keen for an inquest to take place to find out exactly what happened to his son.
Looking at the question of the circumstances in which Peter died, Mr Walker told North London Coroner's Court in High Barnet: "When I look at the reports I ask myself whether the circumstances are those where, despite a number proceedings, there are potential witnesses who are yet to give evidence," he said.
"On the material I have seen it seems to me that the evidence taken as part of the investigations has gone right to the heart of the circumstances of how Peter Connelly died and has led to significant criticism, changes in practices and procedures and many lessons have been learned. In my judgment the question of in what circumstances Baby Peter Connelly died has been answered."
UK household spending has fallen for the first time in almost a decade, the Office for National Statistics has said.
Family Spending, the annual report from the ONS, found that in 2009 the average weekly household spend was £455, down from £471 in 2008.
The drop, the first since the current system of measuring was introduced in 2001-02, coincided with the global economic slowdown.
Giles Horsfield, ONS statistician and editor of the report, said higher expenditure on some housing related costs such as rent, electricity and gas was offset by lower spending on mortgages.
He added: "It's interesting to note that expenditure fell again on clothing which took it to a record low under current methods, for the third year in a row.
"Spending also fell on household goods and package holidays, but held up on sports admissions, cinema, theatre and concerts."
The Cabinet minister in charge of tuition fees will abstain in a key vote on the Government's policy if that is what fellow Liberal Democrat MPs decide to do as a group, he said.
Business Secretary Vince Cable said he is prepared to take the unprecedented step of not backing his own proposals for the sake of party unity.
The party's MPs are in talks in a bid to find a solution to what he conceded is a "difficult" situation for the Tories' coalition partner.
A provision in the agreement forming the power-sharing deal allows Lib Dem MPs to abstain but is ambiguous about the position of ministers and Commons aides.
The party has come under intense criticism from student leaders for abandoning general election pledges to oppose rises in fees - and eventually to scrap them.
Fresh protests are expected in London over the Government's proposals to increase the cap on tuition fees from £3,375 to as much as £9,000 a year.
Mr Cable insisted that he backs his own policy but is willing to sit out the vote - due before Christmas - to ensure the party takes a united approach. His words will be seen as an attempt to persuade rebels considering voting against the policy to row back and stick to the terms of the agreement.
"If we all abstain then that is the position I am happy to go along with. There is an option that we all abstain together and we are considering that," he told BBC Radio 5 Live.
"My own personal instinct - partly because I am the Secretary of State responsible for universities and partly because I think the policy is right - are very much to vote for it. But we have got to vote as a group, collectively, and we are discussing how we do that.
"My position is somewhat different but I am willing to go along with my colleagues. We are a disciplines party, we work together. We are clearly going through a difficult period over this issue and we want to support each other."
