![Image]( "Ex-MPs' expenses decision explained")
Supreme Court justices have announced their reasons for ruling that three former Labour MPs accused of fiddling their expenses were not protected by parliamentary privilege.
In a unanimous decision they rejected appeals brought by David Chaytor, Elliot Morley and Jim Devine, who deny theft by false accounting and are facing separate trials.
In their challenge before the nine justices they all raised a common point of law - that criminal proceedings cannot be brought because they would infringe parliamentary privilege.
Their claim to privilege had two bases. The first related to Article 9 of the Bill of Rights 1689, which provides that the freedom of speech and debates or proceedings in Parliament "ought not to be impeached or questioned" in any court or place out of Parliament.
The second related to the "exclusive jurisdiction" of Parliament and referred to the right of each House to manage its own affairs without interference from the other or from outside Parliament.
But the justices, headed by the president Lord Phillips, held that neither Article 9 nor the exclusive jurisdiction of the House of Commons posed any bar to the jurisdiction of the Crown Court to try the former MPs. The three took their cases to the highest court in the land claiming any investigation into their expenses claims and the imposition of any sanctions "should lie within the hands of Parliament".
During the hearing of the appeal in October, Nigel Pleming QC, representing Chaytor and Devine, told the justices that the parliamentary expenses scheme was part of proceedings in the House, so the men should be protected by parliamentary privilege.
He added: "I also wish to emphasise as firmly as I can on behalf of these former MPs that this is not, and never has been, an attempt to take them above or outside the law."
He said the House had "the power to punish, and to recover any monies wrongly claimed, and is well capable of investigating allegations, including allegations of dishonesty, made against its members".
The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, heading a panel of three Court of Appeal judges, earlier this year upheld a ruling by a judge at Southwark Crown Court that the ex-MPs were not protected by privilege. Former Bury North MP Chaytor, 61, of Todmorden, West Yorkshire; ex-Scunthorpe MP Morley, 58, of Winterton, north Lincolnshire; and Devine, 57, of Bathgate, West Lothian, formerly MP for Livingston, are all on unconditional bail.
Nationwide demonstrations against deeply unpopular plans to ramp up student tuition fees have been marred by violence once again.
Thousands of young people incensed by the threat of substantial debts at the end of their time at university took to the streets.
The vast majority took part in peaceful marches, occupations and vigils as MPs debated the potential impact of the changes in Westminster.
Early in the day, hundreds of demonstrators ran from police in Whitehall, in central London, over fears they would be "kettled" just yards from the start of a planned march.
A hardcore group of around 100 people were eventually surrounded in Trafalgar Square as one male officer was taken to hospital with head injuries.
Scotland Yard said it had arrested 153 people. After a group of protesters refused to leave Trafalgar Square at the end of the demonstration, 139 people were arrested for breach of the peace and seven on suspicion of violent disorder.
Earlier in the day, two people were arrested in the capital for public order offences, one for common assault, one was arrested for obstructing police and three people were arrested for criminal damage.
In Bristol, 10 people were arrested as police were pelted with mustard when thousands of students from both universities in the city marched.
Also on Tuesday, Business Secretary Vince Cable signalled he may abstain when the Commons is asked to approve the tuition fees rise he is pushing through.
Under pressure for reneging on a pre-election pledge to oppose any rise in fees, he said he was prepared to sit out the vote on his own policy if other Liberal Democrat MPs did the same. Lib Dem parliamentary candidates signed a pledge to oppose any hike in university fees only for the coalition Government to decide that the rise was necessary.
A city council has launched a consultation on plans to make savings of £300 million over the next four years and cut more than 7,000 jobs.
Birmingham City Council is inviting submissions on the proposals from staff, members of the public and businesses, before final budget decisions are made in March next year.
The consultation document says local authorities are currently facing an "unparalleled financial challenge" and contains proposals to reduce the city council's full-time non-school staffing level from 18,993 to 11,877 by 2015.
The council, which is run by a Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition, estimates that around 3,700 members of staff may take voluntary redundancy, early retirement, or in the last resort, be subject to compulsory redundancy over the four-year period.
Commenting on the document, Councillor Randal Brew, Birmingham's Cabinet Member for Finance, said: "With every challenge there is an opportunity and it is now time to refocus our services.
"This document is well researched and costed and indicative of the savings required.
"But it is draft, not a final version, and subject to consultation."
The nuclear-powered submarine which ran aground on a shingle bank is expected to resume sea trials next month, defence minister Peter Luff said.
Repairs to HMS Astute have been completed and the submarine is at its Faslane base on the Clyde preparing to set sail again.
Mr Luff refused to confirm exactly when HMS Astute would leave the base "for security reasons", but said in a written Commons answer: "The department anticipates that this will be in December."
HMS Astute was on sea trials last month when it became stuck off the coast of Skye and ended up marooned for several hours.
Mr Luff said the "lower rudder skeg" was damaged by the grounding, and further damage caused when the submarine was being towed to deeper waters.
The cost of the repairs is still being calculated, a Navy spokesman said at the weekend, and naval chief Andy Coles has lost his command of the vessel.
The submarine weighs 7,800 tonnes, equivalent to nearly 1,000 double-decker buses, and is almost 100 metres (328ft) long.
Its Spearfish torpedoes and Tomahawk cruise missiles are capable of delivering pinpoint strikes from 2,000km (1,240 miles) with conventional weapons.
The submarine's nuclear reactor means that it will not need refuelling once in its entire 25-year life and it makes its own air and water, enabling it to circumnavigate the globe without needing to surface.
Built by defence giant BAE Systems at Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, it is the first in a fleet of six which will replace the Trafalgar-class submarine.
Britain has "deep concerns" about the safety and security of Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme, leaked diplomatic documents suggested.
Documents from the latest cache of leaked US cables demonstrate that the UK and the US have similar anxieties about Islamabad's nuclear arsenal.
US officials are quoted citing the danger of Pakistani fissile material finding its way into the hands of extremists.
The UK's concerns were communicated to the US by Mariot Leslie, then the Foreign Office's director general of defence and intelligence, at a meeting in September last year.
Now Britain's permanent representative to Nato, she is quoted as saying that "the UK has deep concerns about the safety and security of Pakistan's nuclear weapons". She goes on to say that China could play a "big role" in "stabilising Pakistan".
The Ministry of Defence's director general for security policy, Jon Day, warned US officials separately that relations between Pakistan and India were especially strained. He expressed support for the encouragement of a 'cold-war'-like relationship" between the two countries that would "introduce a degree of certainty" and apparently went on to say that Pakistan was "not going in a good direction".
The disclosures could test relations between Britain and Pakistan, a vitally important regional ally and neighbour of Afghanistan. The Foreign Office said it would not comment on the detail of the documents obtained by whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks and published by the Guardian.
In a further embarrassment for Britain, US officials were apparently told that their interests would be protected at the Iraq Inquiry. Mr Day is cited by Ellen Tauscher, the US undersecretary for arms control and international security, as having given the assurance in September last year.
He is said to have "promised that the UK had 'put measures in place to protect your (American) interests'" during the inquiry, chaired by Sir John Chilcot.
An inquiry spokesman said: "The Iraq Inquiry is independent of the British Government. The protocol agreed between the Iraq Inquiry and the Government allows for material to be withheld from publication if publication would damage international relations or breach the third party rule governing non-disclosure of intelligence material."
More than 140 activists have been arrested after refusing to leave a demonstration against deeply unpopular plans to ramp up student tuition fees.
Police said 146 demonstrators were arrested after a group of protesters refused to leave Trafalgar Square at the end of the demonstration in London.
Thousands of young people incensed by the threat of substantial debts at the end of their time at university took to the streets.
The vast majority took part in peaceful marches, occupations and vigils as MPs debated the potential impact of the changes in Westminster. However, Scotland Yard said it had arrested 153 people on Tuesday.
A police spokesman said after numerous requests from the police for the group to disperse from Trafalgar Square, 139 people were arrested for breach of the peace and seven on suspicion of violent disorder. Earlier in the day, two people were arrested for public order offences, one for common assault, one was arrested for obstructing police and three people were arrested for criminal damage.
During the protest, a police officer and a female protester both received head injuries and were taken to hospital. A police spokesman said that at this stage, neither of the injuries are thought to be serious. It is thought they were hit by missiles thrown over the crowd.
In Bristol, 10 people were arrested as police were pelted with mustard when thousands of students from both universities in the city marched.
Demonstrations, marches, occupations and vigils also took place in Cambridge, Brighton, Newcastle, Bath, Nottingham and Cardiff.
MPs are expected to vote before Christmas on the Government's proposals to increase the cap on tuition fees from £3,375 to as much as £9,000 a year.
Also on Tuesday, Business Secretary Vince Cable signalled he may abstain when the Commons is asked to approve the tuition fees rise he is pushing through. Under pressure for reneging on a pre-election pledge to oppose any rise in fees, he said he was prepared to sit out the vote on his own policy if other Liberal Democrat MPs did the same.
Large areas of Britain have been brought to a halt as the big freeze tightened its grip on the nation.
Two major airports - Edinburgh and Gatwick - have closed, with motorists and rail passengers also experiencing severe disruption.
A spokeswoman for Gatwick Airport said: "We brought in extra people to try to clear the runway. We had a vast army of people. But as fast as they were clearing the snow, the quicker it settled again."
Police said the M3 was closed for a time after a body, thought to be a suicide victim, was found on the southbound carriageway shortly before the morning rush hour. In West Yorkshire, a woman died after falling into an icy lake at Pontefract racecourse.
Temperatures fell as low as nearly minus 20C in the Scottish Highlands overnight - minus 19.8C was recorded in Altnaharra - and thousands of children had to stay at home again due to school closures.
Forecasters warned that the onslaught of Arctic weather will not show signs of letting up until Friday. Met Office forecaster David Price said: "It will remain bitterly cold today with the strong north-easterly winds continuing to bring snow showers and making temperatures feel as low as minus six or seven degrees.
Severe weather warnings were in place for the whole of Scotland, with widespread icy roads and heavy snow expected in central and south westerly areas. Warnings were also in place for northern England, the south coast and parts of Wales.
As well as continuing snow in central Scotland, the North East and Yorkshire, Kent suffered an onslaught of wintry conditions with police advising freight traffic not to venture into the county unless absolutely necessary amid forecasts of gale force winds.
Kent Police said the volume of calls due to the snow was "exceptionally high" and Surrey Police urged drivers to make only essential journeys.
Government plans to introduce locally-elected police and crime commissioners could cost more than £130 million to set up and run in the first year, figures show.
Each of the new roles will attract pay and benefits of about £122,000, an impact assessment released by the Home Office reveals. The moves are part of some of the most radical reforms to policing in 50 years.
Home Secretary Theresa May said the police and crime commissioners "will cost no more than police authorities". But the elections, to be held every four years from May 2012, will cost £50 million, the figures showed.
Mrs May insisted: "I do think it will give people value for money." She added that the figure for the pay and benefits of the 41 new commissioners, put at £5 million, was only an estimate and will be set following consultation with the senior salaries review body.
The Home Secretary will have no powers to sack a commissioner or a chief constable under the "new era" of policing, which will see power move away from Whitehall. But the Home Secretary can intervene "if the police and crime commissioner was preparing to set a budget that was less than necessary to maintain appropriate policing in the area", Mrs May said.
But the fundamental overhaul of the way police are governed is the "wrong policy at the wrong time", representatives of the current doomed system have said.
Rob Garnham, who represents police authorities across England and Wales, said plans published by the Government did not reflect the public's priorities.
The Tory politician lashed out at the detail of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill, which was drawn up by his own party.
And he suggested that the structural changes could detract from work to balance budgets, tackle organised crime and secure the 2012 Olympics.
Former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey has claimed that Christians of "deep faith" are being penalised as he launched a campaign aimed at speaking up for Christian values in public life.
Lord Carey gave his backing to the Christian Concern Not Ashamed Day, urging Christians to "wear their faith with pride" in the face of alleged attempts to "airbrush" them from public life.
"Christianity is a public religion, always has been and always will be," he said. "What we believe in is of paramount importance to our nation and were we to lose it, then I have no idea what will happen to the Christian faith in this country."
The campaign aims to highlight a series of cases involving Christians who have lost claims for discrimination, including Nadia Eweida, the British Airways worker from London, and Shirley Chaplin, the NHS nurse from Kenn, Exeter, who both lost high-profile discrimination claims over wearing crosses at work.
Lord Carey was joined in Westminster, central London, by Gary McFarlane, 49, a Christian marriage guidance counsellor from Bristol who lost a court bid earlier this year to challenge his sacking for refusing to give sex therapy to homosexuals.
Mr McFarlane claimed Christians felt "intimidated" from talking about their faith publicly: "The intimidation is pretty strong, they seek to muzzle me and I do not any longer see a level playing field in our society," he said.
In the leaflet, Lord Carey said the attempt to "airbrush" the Christian faith "out of the picture" was especially obvious as Christmas approaches. He said: "The cards that used to carry Christmas wishes now bear 'Season's greetings'. The local council switches on 'winter lights' in place of Christmas decorations. Even Christmas has become something of which some are ashamed."
But the British Humanist Association (BHA) described the claims of discrimination against Christians as "more than slightly ludicrous".
Andrew Copson, BHA chief executive, said: "The increasingly desperate attempts to work up a victim narrative of "Christianophobia" by these activists have no basis in reality. The narrative calls for increased religious liberty, but the demands would actually limit religious and other freedom for most people, through permitting wide discrimination by Christians against others."
Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said: "The days of the state trying to suppress Christianity and other faiths are over. I want to send an important signal that this Government values the role of religion, faith in public life and the part it can play in the Big Society."
Transport industry criticism of the efforts to keep Britain "open" during the cold spell has grown as it emerged the gridlock could cost the economy as much as £1.2 billion a day.
The AA said there had been a failure to deal with the problem of jammed motorways and major roads.
And breakdown service Green Flag said local authorities had not spread enough grit on minor roads.
With Gatwick airport shut all day, David Learmount, operations and safety editor of Flight Global magazine, said transport infrastructure suffered in the winter in Britain as there was not enough bad weather to justify spending "big bucks" on measures to counter it.
Train companies said they had been "working flat out" to get as many trains running as possible. But a number of services had to be axed and there were delays to others.
The £1.2 billion estimation of the hit the economy would take daily from the gridlock came from insurance company RSA.
RSA director David Greaves said: "This cold front couldn't come at a worse time for the UK.
"Bad weather in the run up to Christmas will have a major impact on the UK's economy and could lead to significant losses for already struggling businesses."
He went on: "We're due to see a rush of sales in December ahead of the VAT rise in the new year, and many retailers are relying on these sales to see them through the traditionally quiet post-January sales period."
Tuition fees protesters have been urged to give evidence of their treatment at the hands of police, "both good and bad".
Jenny Jones, a member of the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA), has been highly critical of the decision to "kettle" a large crowd.
The Green party politician said she wants to know more about what happened on November 24, the second in a series of Westminster demonstrations.
The protests were marred by ugly scenes as people attacked a stranded police van and several thousand people were penned in by police in Whitehall.
Mrs Jones said she wants Met Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson and London Mayor Boris Johnson to see evidence of what happens on the frontline.
She said: "I want to make sure that they hear the voices of people who were there on the day and get a real sense of how those involved experienced the policing of the protests."
Ben Duncan, of Sussex Police Authority, said it has been claimed some officers acted unnecessarily aggressively and senior officers turned a blind eye.
The fellow Green party member said: "There's also growing evidence that the kettling tactic is unjustifiable and dangerous."
Police public order tactics, including "kettling" and the use of appropriate force, remain an extremely contentious issue.
Reviews after the G20 protests urged police to communicate with protesters, ensure officers wear identification and to revise training to help defuse stand-offs.
The governor of the Bank of England has been urged to quit after it emerged he privately criticised David Cameron and George Osborne in the run-up to the general election.
Mervyn King confided to the US Ambassador to London, Louis Susman, in February that he had "great concern" about the then leader of the Opposition and shadow chancellor.
Mr Cameron and Mr Osborne, now Prime Minister and Chancellor respectively, lacked experience and tended to view issues merely in terms of their electoral impact, he said.
At pre-election meetings with them, Mr King had pressed the two men for more details about how they planned to reduce the UK's deficit. He thought they had failed to grasp the pressures they would face to cut spending, the governor told Mr Susman.
His comments - which were relayed to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton - were revealed in the latest tranche of US embassy cables obtained by WikiLeaks. They are embarrassing for Mr Cameron and Mr Osborne and threaten to damage the Government's relations with the governor.
A former member of the Bank of England's interest rate-setting monetary policy committee has accused Mr King of compromising Threadneedle Street's independence. Writing on the Guardian website, Professor David Blanchflower, who stood down from the MPC in May last year and has clashed with Mr King before, said the governor had a "thirst for power and influence" which had "clouded his judgment one too many times".
"He has now committed the unforgivable sin of compromising the independence of the Bank of England," he wrote. "He is expected to be politically neutral but he has shown himself to be politically biased and as a result is now in an untenable position. King must go."
Prof Blanchflower said the leaked cable showed that Mr King had attempted to "co-author the coalition's strategy on the deficit", adding: "That is definitely not part of his job description."
Labour MPs also seized on the governor's remarks as evidence that he had doubts about the Tories' deficit-reduction strategy. Chuka Umunna, a parliamentary aide to Labour leader Ed Miliband, said: "Ministers parrot lines wrongly claiming Labour had no plan for deficit reduction, but now we learn the Bank of England governor had grave concerns that it was they who lacked a plan."
But Tory MP Patrick Mercer said the governor should be kept in his job as an "experienced hand" at a difficult economic time, even if his independence had been compromised.
Up to half of late night licences could go under plans to give licensing authorities the power to charge premises which open past midnight.
An annual levy of up to £4,480 could be imposed on large nightclubs that mainly sell alcohol to fund the additional policing costs.
The power, introduced in the Government's Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill, is aimed at tackling problem premises but could be introduced across entire local authorities.
Up to half of the pubs and clubs that currently open late are expected to amend their licences to avoid having to pay the levy when it is introduced, an impact assessment released by the Home Office found.
The move is expected to bring in between £9 million and £15 million as around 50%-75% of the 24,111 late-opening premises choose to pay the levy - between 12,000 and 18,100 premises.
David Cameron has flown back to Switzerland as England's bid to host the 2018 World Cup received a last-minute boost.
Mr Cameron's Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin confirmed he would not be travelling to Switzerland for Thursday's vote.
Prime Minister Putin also claimed Russia faced "unscrupulous competition", a remark which could be seen as criticism of the bidding process organised by football's world governing body Fifa.
The Russian bid and a joint one from Spain and Portugal are seen as England's main rivals.
However, the Candidatura Iberica bid also suffered a possible setback when it emerged that Portugal and Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo would not be joining their delegation because of an ankle injury.
After a whistle-stop trip to Westminster, Mr Cameron got back on a plane to join Prince William and David Beckham ahead of the decision by Fifa's executive committee.
His spokesman told reporters: "The assessment at the present time is that it is going to go to the wire."
During Prime Minister's Questions, Mr Cameron said: "We have got the stadia, we have got the facilities, we have the transport networks, we have the enthusiasm in our country for football, and we can put on an absolutely first-class World Cup."
Prince William had breakfast with Fifa's Paraguayan member Nicolas Leoz as England looked to maintain momentum.
The meeting revealed England's determination to overcome any backlash from the Panorama row - Mr Leoz was one of three Fifa members accused by the BBC programme of taking bribes in the 1990s.
Supreme Court justices have announced their reasons for ruling that three former Labour MPs accused of fiddling their expenses were not protected by parliamentary privilege.
In a unanimous decision they rejected appeals brought by David Chaytor, Elliot Morley and Jim Devine, who deny theft by false accounting and are facing separate trials.
In their challenge before the nine justices they all raised a common point of law - that criminal proceedings cannot be brought because they would infringe parliamentary privilege.
Their claim to privilege had two bases. The first related to Article 9 of the Bill of Rights 1689, which provides that the freedom of speech and debates or proceedings in Parliament "ought not to be impeached or questioned" in any court or place out of Parliament.
The second related to the "exclusive jurisdiction" of Parliament and referred to the right of each House to manage its own affairs without interference from the other or from outside Parliament.
But the justices, headed by the president Lord Phillips, held that neither Article 9 nor the exclusive jurisdiction of the House of Commons posed any bar to the jurisdiction of the Crown Court to try the former MPs. The three took their cases to the highest court in the land claiming any investigation into their expenses claims and the imposition of any sanctions "should lie within the hands of Parliament".
During the hearing of the appeal in October, Nigel Pleming QC, representing Chaytor and Devine, told the justices that the parliamentary expenses scheme was part of proceedings in the House, so the men should be protected by parliamentary privilege.
He added: "I also wish to emphasise as firmly as I can on behalf of these former MPs that this is not, and never has been, an attempt to take them above or outside the law."
He said the House had "the power to punish, and to recover any monies wrongly claimed, and is well capable of investigating allegations, including allegations of dishonesty, made against its members".
The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, heading a panel of three Court of Appeal judges, earlier this year upheld a ruling by a judge at Southwark Crown Court that the ex-MPs were not protected by privilege. Former Bury North MP Chaytor, 61, of Todmorden, West Yorkshire; ex-Scunthorpe MP Morley, 58, of Winterton, north Lincolnshire; and Devine, 57, of Bathgate, West Lothian, formerly MP for Livingston, are all on unconditional bail.
The pilot of the plane which crashed and injured Nigel Farage during a polling day stunt has been charged with threatening to kill the Ukip leader.
Justin Adams, 45, had been contracted to fly the light aircraft which nose-dived to the ground while towing a campaign banner on May 6.
Mr Farage, who escaped with broken ribs, bruised lungs and facial injuries, later declared himself "the luckiest man alive" and said he feared he would burn to death in the wreckage on General Election day.
Adams was arrested at his home in Faringdon, Oxfordshire, on Sunday.
He has been remanded in custody at Oxfordshire Magistrates' Court and will appear again on December 7 over the charges, which are not related to the crash.
An Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) report found the PZL-104 Wilga 35A came down after the banner reading: "Vote for your country: Vote UKIP", became wrapped around the tail of the aircraft.
This caused the plane's nose to drop and although Adams "maintained some control of the aircraft", he could not prevent it crashing into a field at Hinton-in-the-Hedges, Northamptonshire.
Mr Farage, 46, who failed in his bid to oust Commons Speaker John Bercow from his Buckingham seat, was rescued as fuel poured out into the cockpit.
He emerged dressed in a pin-stripe suit, blue shirt and tie, with a UKIP rosette still attached after his harness was released by witnesses. He was unable to attend the count at Aylesbury Civic Centre and was instead transferred to hospital for treatment.
Adams, who had been trapped in the wreckage of the aircraft for a time, also required medical treatment.
Senior American officials believed Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin may well have known about the operation to murder dissident former spy Alexander Litvinenko in London, according to leaked US diplomatic cables.
Washington's senior diplomat in Europe challenged suggestions that the killing could have been the work of "rogue elements" in the Russian security forces, according to the latest documents posted on the WikiLeaks website.
Assistant secretary of state Daniel Fried said that Mr Putin's attention to detail meant that it would have been difficult for such an operation to be carried out without his knowledge.
Elsewhere, the cables describe Russia as a "virtual mafia state" in which the activities of the government and organised crime are indistinguishable, according to The Guardian which had advance access to the material.
Mr Fried's comments were made in a conversation in Paris with Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, a senior adviser to then French president Jacques Chirac, on December 7 2006, two weeks after Mr Litvinenko's death in a London hospital.
Mr Gourdault-Montagne was said to have adopted a "defensive posture" over claims that the Russian government was involved. "He showed reluctance to see the Kremlin's hand in the Litvinenko poisoning, preferring to ascribe it to rogue elements," according to the US record of the conversation.
Mr Fried, however, strongly disagreed. "Fried commented that the short-term trend inside Russia was negative, noting increasing indications that the UK investigation into the murder of Litvinenko could well point to some sort of Russian involvement," the account noted.
"MGM (Mr Gourdault-Montagne) wondered aloud who might have given the order, but speculated the murder probably involved a settling of accounts between services rather than occurring under direct order from the Kremlin.
"(But) Fried, noting Putin's attention to detail, questioned whether rogue security elements could operate, in the UK no less, without Putin's knowledge.
"Describing the current atmosphere as strange, he described the Russians as increasingly self-confident, to the point of arrogance."
Trouble marred the end of a Cup quarter-final clash on the eve of the vote to decide whether England will host the 2018 World Cup.
Hundreds of Birmingham City fans invaded the pitch following their home victory over local rivals Aston Villa, some throwing flares towards where the away fans were sat and ripping up seating and hurling it towards the pitch. Dozens of police and club stewards struggled to contain the rioting.
Birmingham manager Alex McLeish said the violence threatened to bring English football "back to the Dark Ages" but that he did not think it would affect Thursday's World Cup vote.
He told Sky Sports 1: "I don't think that will affect the World Cup bid, I'm sure that's already decided, and let's hope England gets it because it deserves it.
"It doesn't look good though, when you see fans running on the pitch like that and carrying on. It takes us back to the Dark Ages."
On Thursday, England will learn if it is to host the 2018 World Cup when Fifa's executive committee cast their votes at a meeting in Switzerland. The other contenders are Russia, Spain-Portugal and Belgium-Netherlands.
A West Midlands Police spokesman said of the incident in Birmingham: "Police and club stewards are working to bring an end to sporadic outbreaks of disorder at the Birmingham derby."
A Football Association spokesman said: "The FA abhors acts of violent behaviour and we urge the clubs and authorities to identify any individuals involved in disorder, and impose the stiffest available sanctions, including banning orders.
"The FA will fully investigate the matter in conjunction with the appropriate authorities.
"The whole of English football has worked hard to eradicate scenes of disorder from our game, with Home Office figures this week showing a significant drop in arrests at the many thousands of football matches held every week, the majority of which still pass trouble free."
The Government is to stage the crucial Commons vote on raising university tuition fees next week, it has been reported.
Ministers have decided to hold the vote on Thursday December 9, according to media reports. The move comes as Liberal Democrats continue to agonise over whether to support the measure in the division lobbies.
Staging the vote on a Thursday - when many Scottish and Welsh nationalists and Northern Ireland MPs will have left for their constituencies - could make it easier for the Government to get it through without the Lib Dems.
The party is currently deeply divided, with some Lib Dem MPs determined to vote against the measure, having promised during the general election campaign to oppose any increase in tuition fees.
Business Secretary Vince Cable has suggested that he could abstain - even though he has direct Cabinet responsibility for the measure - if it would help keep the party together.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg - the target of much of the fury of student protesters opposed to the plan - has refused to say what he will do.
However former Lib Dem higher education spokesman Lord Willis - who retired as an MP in May - said that they should "bite the bullet" and rally behind the plan. He said: "The reality is that we either bite the bullet and believe that the ... proposals ... are the ones to take us forward in terms of higher education or we don't."
"They do take us forward and it is time the Liberal Democrats now simply got on board and said 'Well, let us back them, let us sell them'. I would like Nick to say that and I would also like Vince to say that."
Shadow business secretary John Denham said that Labour would mount an intensive campaign against the increase in the fees right up to the day of the vote. He said: "We will launch a 'last seven days campaign' to persuade Tory and Lib Dem MPs that they should not inflict on young people the highest fees of any public university system in the industrialised world."
The National Union of Students (NUS) later announced plans for mass protests ahead of the MPs' vote and called for protests on campuses across the country on December 8. The following day students and NUS officials will hold a rally and then lobby MPs inside the Palace of Westminster in an effort to persuade them to vote against any fee rise.
Senior American officials believed Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin may well have known about the operation to murder dissident former spy Alexander Litvinenko in London, according to leaked US diplomatic cables.
Washington's senior diplomat in Europe challenged suggestions that the killing could have been the work of "rogue elements" in the Russian security forces, according to the latest documents posted on the WikiLeaks website.
Assistant secretary of state Daniel Fried said that Mr Putin's attention to detail meant that it would have been difficult for such an operation to be carried out without his knowledge.
Elsewhere, the cables describe Russia as a "virtual mafia state" in which the activities of the government and organised crime are indistinguishable, according to The Guardian which had advance access to the material.
Mr Fried's comments were made in a conversation in Paris with Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, a senior adviser to then French president Jacques Chirac, on December 7 2006, two weeks after Mr Litvinenko's death in a London hospital.
Mr Gourdault-Montagne was said to have adopted a "defensive posture" over claims that the Russian government was involved. "He showed reluctance to see the Kremlin's hand in the Litvinenko poisoning, preferring to ascribe it to rogue elements," according to the US record of the conversation.
Mr Fried, however, strongly disagreed. "Fried commented that the short-term trend inside Russia was negative, noting increasing indications that the UK investigation into the murder of Litvinenko could well point to some sort of Russian involvement," the account noted.
"MGM (Mr Gourdault-Montagne) wondered aloud who might have given the order, but speculated the murder probably involved a settling of accounts between services rather than occurring under direct order from the Kremlin.
"(But) Fried, noting Putin's attention to detail, questioned whether rogue security elements could operate, in the UK no less, without Putin's knowledge.
"Describing the current atmosphere as strange, he described the Russians as increasingly self-confident, to the point of arrogance."
Frozen Britain will endure another Arctic blast of snow and ice as sub-zero temperatures bring more chaos to public transport, motorways and commuters.
Two major airports - Edinburgh and London Gatwick - remained closed on Thursday morning as the country endures what forecasters have described as one of the coldest starts to December on record.
Up to 20cm (8in) of fresh snowfall is expected to fall on the east of England according to weather experts, with London and the South East also being hit by more blizzards.
Temperatures across the UK will struggle to break zero, but experts offered some respite, predicting that the wintry weather will ease off on Friday.
Forecaster David Price, from The Met Office, said: "It will continue to be very cold for most of the country today and in terms of snow it will be a very similar picture to yesterday.Showers will be pushing in from the North East coast and across Northern England all the way through to the east coast.
"A band of snow will continue to affect South East England, with the Home Counties, Kent, Surrey and London all experiencing between 2cm and 5cm of snowfall. Southern counties and Devon will also have snow."
In England, the Met Office has issued severe warnings of heavy snow in the North East, Yorkshire and Humber, the East, the South West and London and the South East.
Temperatures fell to minus 18.6C in the Scottish Highlands on Wednesday night, with warnings also applying to Grampian, Strathclyde, Central, Tayside and Fife and South West, Lothian and Borders.
Mr Price said there is likely to be large amounts of snow on the ground on Thursday, as fresh falls add to already high levels. However, he predicted an ease in snowfall on Thursday night and said that for most, Friday would start off as a "fine" day.
Widespread ice caused major problems nationwide on Wednesday, with the AA attending more than 11,300 breakdowns. The RAC also saw call volumes rise to unprecedented levels for this time of year. The train network continued to run despite the severe weather, with the Association of Train Operating Companies (Atoc) reporting 80% of its timetable operating today, with 66% of trains running on time.
