![Image]( "New Zealand remembers dead miners")
New Zealand has held a national remembrance service for 29 coal miners killed in an explosion last month, with a line of 29 black-draped tables each bearing a fallen miner's helmet, lamp and name serving as the centrepiece.
Pike River mine was rocked by an explosion on November 19, trapping the 29 miners. A second major blast five days later dashed hopes any of the workers had survived, and the men's bodies have still not been recovered. Two Britons - Pete Rodger, 40, from Perthshire, and Malcolm Campbell, 25, from St Andrews, Fife - were among the dead.
Two more explosions have occurred since, including one on Sunday that shot flames into the air, signalling a raging underground coal fire that continues to burn.
More than 10,000 mourners attended the sombre open-air service for the dead miners under a sunny sky today at Greymouth's Omoto Racecourse on South Island.
People paused for a two-minute silence before the service to remember the dead men. Flags flew at half-staff on government buildings nationwide.
Victims' families placed photos, tributes and personal items - including clothing, a rugby ball, surfboards, a guitar and a cricket bat - alongside the miners' helmets on the tables. Men, women and children, many weeping, filed quietly past the tables to pay their respects.
"In a very real sense, those men are with us because of those tables," Reverend Tim Mora, who led the service, told the silent crowd.
Grieving father Lawrie Drew said he would not feel a sense of closure until his son Zen's body was recovered. "It's not closure for me. Not until I see the body," he told the Stuff news website ahead of the service.
Prime minister John Key said the nation's four million people were standing behind the region's tight-knit community. "We hoped ... they'd emerge from the depths of the Earth," he told the mourners. "But they never came home."
Recovery teams started a jet engine known as the "gag" machine overnight on Wednesday, blowing inert gases and water vapour into the burning mine to quench the fire raging since Sunday. Police Supt Gary Knowles told reporters once the explosive gases are expelled, work will begin to cool soaring temperatures inside the mine to allow for the recovery of the 29 bodies.
The legal drink-drive limit should be lowered to an "effectively zero" level but such a reduction is "too great a step at this stage", a report by MPs has said.
The current level is 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood and the Government should aim, in the long-term, for a reduction to 20mg, the report from the House of Commons Transport Committee said.
The MPs described 20mg as "effectively zero" and added that any reduction in the limit should only occur after an extensive Government education campaign about drink strengths and their effects on the body.
The report said there was "little evidence to suggest the public would support such a drastic, immediate change in the law".
The committee also said that instead of an "interim" reduction to 50mg, the Government should concentrate on working with individual police forces to achieve a stricter enforcement of the current limit.
The MPs also called on the police to be given additional powers to breath test drivers in the course of a designated drink-drive enforcement operation. Currently, police may stop any vehicle but can only test the driver's breath if there is an element of suspicion.
The MPs views came from an inquiry it conducted into the findings of the report of drink and drug driving law prepared for the Government by Sir Peter North.
One of his recommendations was a lowering of the legal limit to 50mg.
The report said: "While we agree that medical and statistical evidence supports a reduction in the current drink drive limit of 80mg, we note that currently 2% of drivers killed in road accidents have a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) between 50mg and 80mg, while 18% have a BAC greater than 80mg.
"We are concerned that a reduction in the limit to 50mg would send out a mixed message with the Government's official advice to not drink and drive at all, particularly in light of the strong evidence of public uncertainty about what constitutes a 'legal drink'."
Jamie Oliver has recruited a team of inspirational teachers including Lord Winston, David Starkey and Alastair Campbell to turn around the lives of teens who struggled with school.
Other figures such as Rolf Harris, Simon Callow and Daley Thompson are taking part in the TV experiment which will form a Channel 4 documentary series next year.
Jamie's Dream School aims to encourage 20 teenagers who have had difficulties at school to give education a second chance.
Starkey will teach history, Lord Winston is to handle science and Campbell will give politics classes.
Shakespearean actor Callow is to be the drama teacher, Soul II Soul chart star Jazzie B will look after music, Harris will run the art classes and Olympic gold medal-winning decathlete Daley Thompson will teach sport.
Oliver had difficulties of his own at school, partly due to his dyslexia, and left at 16 with two GCSEs.
But the chef - who has already campaigned for healthy eating and improved school dinners - wants to see if others like him can succeed if they have the right environment.
He advertised in the summer to find teens who had failed to thrive in school. During the seven-part series viewers will see if he can persuade the youths, from 16 to 18, to try again with their education.
Other experts lending their weight to the project include Cherie Blair, former poet laureate Andrew Motion, rapper Tinchy Stryder, round-the-world sailor turned environmental campaigner Ellen Macarthur, photographer Rankin and former England cricket captain Michael Vaughan.
The series will examine why many young people are not engaged by education and what can be done.
Details of the first tranche of MPs' expenses of the current parliament are to be published by the new expenses watchdog.
The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) - will release the details of 22,000 claims submitted by MPs between May 7 and August 31.
The publication - to be posted on line at 10am on Thursday - covers the first round of payments to be made under new rules introduced in the wake of the expenses scandal which rocked Westminster last year.
It comes amid continued unrest among MPs over the way the system is being run by Ipsa, with the Commons debating a backbench motion condemning the "unnecessarily high costs and inadequacies" of the new system and calling for the introduction of a "simpler" alternative.
The motion has been tabled by Adam Afriyie, a millionaire Tory who, reportedly, does not claim expenses. He is backed by Graham Brady, the chairman of the Tory backbench 1922, Tony Lloyd, the chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party, and Lorely Burt, the chairman of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary, underlining the strength of feeling across Westminster.
Thursday's release will include details of the 576 MPs - out of a total of 650 - who submitted claims and were reimbursed during the period concerned. For each claim, the watchdog will publish the name and constituency of the MP concerned, the budget the claim is made from (such as general administrative expenditure), the type of expense (such as travel), and a description of the claim.
It will not however be publishing receipts, arguing that the cost of preparing them for publication - in excess of £1 million a year - would not provide "value for taxpayers' money".
This initial release will also not include claims that have been rejected. Ipsa has said that it will only publish rejected claims made after September 14 in order to give MPs and its own staff a chance to get used to the system first.
The Times reported it had obtained a list of 1,574 claims, totalling £116,359, which had been turned down by Ipsa over a period of five months, suggesting that some MPs are still struggling to comply with the new rules. In an open letter to the paper, Ipsa chairman Sir Ian Kennedy said that MPs and been "thoughtful and proper" in making their claims, and when they had been queried it had been due to "misunderstanding" of the new system. He said: "Our approach is a genuine change in how information about MPs' expenses is made public: more transparent than anything that has gone before."
In future, Ipsa intends to publish details of MPs' expenses every three months. Data on office rental and staffing costs will be published annually.
England's bid to host the 2018 World Cup looks set to go "up to the wire" as world football's governing body makes its decision in Zurich.
The England bid team believes there is still everything to play for as it completes a gruelling few days of lobbying the Fifa executive committee in Switzerland.
But trouble at Birmingham City's St Andrew's ground on Wednesday night was an unwelcome distraction from the team's efforts - and followed a row earlier in the week over a Panorama documentary claiming three Fifa members took bribes in the 1990s.
On Wednesday night, five people were arrested and 14 were left needing hospital treatment when hundreds of Birmingham City fans invaded the pitch and clashed with riot police in the aftermath of their team's 2-1 Cup victory over local rivals Aston Villa.
Birmingham manager Alex McLeish insisted he did not think the violence reduced England's chances of winning Thursday's World Cup vote.
Before the trouble, the presence of Prince William, David Cameron and David Beckham seemed to have bolstered the England bid team's chances of success, with bookmaker Coral making England the narrow favourites ahead of Russia and Spain/Portugal.
Belgium and the Netherlands' joint bid is thought to have just an outside chance of succeeding.
England's presentation will begin at 10am GMT with contributors including Prince William, Mr Cameron and Beckham.
The 22 Fifa delegates will vote in secret at 1pm, before the announcement of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosts at around 3pm.
England's hopes were given a further lift on Wednesday night after a key meeting between Fifa powerbroker Jack Warner and the Prince. Mr Warner is president of the Concacaf federation of countries from the Caribbean, north and central America and he confirmed all three of their Fifa members would be voting as a bloc - if England secure these it would be a big step on the road to success in the vote.
The number of 16 to 24-year-olds claiming unemployment benefit has increased fourfold since before the recession, costing the UK economy up to £155 million a week, according to a new report.
Young people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance jumped from 5,840 in 2008 to more than 25,800 this year, a study by the Prince's Trust and RBS found.
The massive rise has left the UK with a much higher youth jobless rate than many other European countries, including Germany, Denmark, Austria, Norway and Holland.
Martina Milburn, chief executive of the Prince's Trust, said: "The annual cost for an individual jobseeker can be as much as £16,000. The argument for intervention and support is unquestionable."
Fionnuala Earley, of RBS, said: "As the UK struggles to clear record levels of national debt, we cannot afford to ignore the growing costs of youth disadvantage. This is not just a welfare burden - lost productivity and wasted potential directly affect the rate of economic growth in the UK.
"It's crucial for the economy that young people have the skills and confidence they need to find work and view entrepreneurship as a realistic option."
Young people with few qualifications have been particularly badly hit by the recession, said the report.
New Zealand has held a national remembrance service for 29 coal miners killed in an explosion last month, with a line of 29 black-draped tables each bearing a fallen miner's helmet, lamp and name serving as the centrepiece.
Pike River mine was rocked by an explosion on November 19, trapping the 29 miners. A second major blast five days later dashed hopes any of the workers had survived, and the men's bodies have still not been recovered. Two Britons - Pete Rodger, 40, from Perthshire, and Malcolm Campbell, 25, from St Andrews, Fife - were among the dead.
Two more explosions have occurred since, including one on Sunday that shot flames into the air, signalling a raging underground coal fire that continues to burn.
More than 10,000 mourners attended the sombre open-air service for the dead miners under a sunny sky today at Greymouth's Omoto Racecourse on South Island.
People paused for a two-minute silence before the service to remember the dead men. Flags flew at half-staff on government buildings nationwide.
Victims' families placed photos, tributes and personal items - including clothing, a rugby ball, surfboards, a guitar and a cricket bat - alongside the miners' helmets on the tables. Men, women and children, many weeping, filed quietly past the tables to pay their respects.
"In a very real sense, those men are with us because of those tables," Reverend Tim Mora, who led the service, told the silent crowd.
Grieving father Lawrie Drew said he would not feel a sense of closure until his son Zen's body was recovered. "It's not closure for me. Not until I see the body," he told the Stuff news website ahead of the service.
Prime minister John Key said the nation's four million people were standing behind the region's tight-knit community. "We hoped ... they'd emerge from the depths of the Earth," he told the mourners. "But they never came home."
Recovery teams started a jet engine known as the "gag" machine overnight on Wednesday, blowing inert gases and water vapour into the burning mine to quench the fire raging since Sunday. Police Supt Gary Knowles told reporters once the explosive gases are expelled, work will begin to cool soaring temperatures inside the mine to allow for the recovery of the 29 bodies.
An urgent review of how the UK's transport systems have performed during the big freeze is under way as thousands face yet more disruption.
Two major airports - Edinburgh and London Gatwick - have been closed and travellers using roads and railways faced major delays.
With criticism mounting of efforts to keep Britain moving during the cold spell, Transport Secretary Philip Hammond announced a review of how transport operators have coped.
He said: "We took urgent action during the summer which means we're better prepared for severe weather than last year - a national strategic salt reserve exists for the first time. But I share the frustration of the travelling public and we need to be sure that we are doing everything possible to keep Britain moving.
"Complacency is not an option. There are lessons to be learned from our performance in every bout of bad weather and it is important that we learn those now. Unfortunately, in extreme weather conditions some disruption is inevitable but there is no excuse for poor communication with passengers and motorists."
Up to 20cm (8in) of fresh snowfall is expected to fall on the east of England on Thursday, 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 slightly tomorrow.
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 Thursday morning, with warnings also applying to Grampian, Strathclyde, Central, Tayside, Fife, South West and Lothian and Borders.
Gatwick Airport will remain closed all day due to the severe weather conditions, with officials warning it will not reopen until at least 6am on Friday. Edinburgh Airport was also closed this morning, but staff were hopeful the runway would reopen later and at London's City Airport the runways will remain closed until noon.
Derek Turner, director of operations at the Highways Agency, said there was no shortage of salt: "At this stage I don't think the country has a salt shortage at all. Certainly the Highways Agency has more salt than it had last year, and we have supplies coming from overseas to create a national stockpile should the weather continue."
But he added that people should be cautious about making any journey: "Safety is paramount and it's really important that people who are setting out have to think about whether their journey is really necessary and, if it is, they take appropriate precautions - taking a shovel, warm clothing, something to eat, something to drink, so that should their journey be obstructed or longer than they anticipated, they are safe.
Students are preparing for a fresh wave of protests on the eve of a Commons vote on university tuition fees.
The National Union of Students (NUS) called for protests on campuses across the country on December 8 - the day before Parliament votes on plans to raise the current fee cap.
On the day of the vote itself 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.
A 9,000-candle vigil - designed to represent the anticipated higher cap level of £9,000 - is planned if the vote passes.
An NUS spokesman said the demonstrations, which are being organised in conjunction with the University and College Union (UCU), would not involve mass protests in central London as they had when riots broke out at Millbank on November 10.
NUS President Aaron Porter said: "MPs can be left in no doubt as to the widespread public opposition to these plans or of the consequences of steamrollering them through Parliament.
"For the third time in less than a month thousands of students have taken to the streets to protest against the Government's attacks on further and higher education.
"Despite repeated dismissals by Nick Clegg that these are uninformed protesters, students are intelligent, articulate people who are not being listened to by those in whom they placed their hope for a different politics."
The decision to stage the crucial Commons vote on December 9 was made on Wednesday, as Liberal Democrats continued 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.
Four out of five people caught carrying a knife are avoiding prison, figures have shown.
Despite efforts to impose tougher sentences for possessing knives, the proportion of offenders being jailed between July and September this year was less than both last year and the year before, the Ministry of Justice said.
Just 18% of the 5,623 people who were sentenced for possession were jailed, down from 22% in the third quarter last year and 23% in the same period of 2008.
The fall comes despite tougher sentences being introduced more than two years ago.
Magistrates were told they should normally sentence those convicted of knife possession at the top end of the range, with the starting point for adults guilty of the lowest level of knife possession being 12 weeks in jail.
Reductions could still be made for an early guilty plea or personal mitigation, taking the sentence below the custody threshold.
The figures also showed that those who were jailed were being sent behind bars for longer.
Of the 1,036 jailed, 34% were sentenced to longer than six months, up from 31% last year and 22% in 2008. And the average jail sentence was 206 days, up from 189 in 2009 and 169 in 2008.
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: "We need to send a strong message to those who carry knives.
"The Government's position is clear that people who commit knife crimes should expect tough sentences, including prison when necessary."
Qantas has launched preliminary legal action against Rolls-Royce, the manufacturer of the engine that exploded on one of its A380 superjumbos in mid-air last month.
The airline said it has filed a statement of claim in a federal court that will allow it to launch legal action against Rolls-Royce at some point.
Qantas chief executive officer Alan Joyce has said the airline will seek compensation from Rolls-Royce over the November 4 incident in which an engine disintegrated shortly after take-off.
Qantas said the legal action would ensure it could sue Rolls-Royce if it was not satisfied with a compensation offer from the UK-based company.
The legal move was announced after Australian investigators said they had identified the source of an oil leak that caused the engine to blow apart in mid air last month, and said a suspected manufacturing defect in the Rolls-Royce engine was to blame.
They warned airlines the potential flaw could cause engine failure.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau recommended the three airlines that use Rolls-Royce's Trent 900 engines on their A380s - Qantas, Singapore Airlines and Germany's Lufthansa - go back and conduct more checks now it has pinpointed the problem area. Three airlines fly a total of 20 such planes.
Earlier warnings blamed an oil leak for a fire and subsequent chain of failures that sent heavy parts flying off an engine on a Qantas A380 shortly after it took off from Singapore on November 4, the most serious safety problem for the world's largest and newest jetliner.
The ATSB, which is leading the international investigation into the Qantas break-up, has added some specifics, saying a section of an oil tube that connects the high-pressure and intermediate-pressure bearing structures of the engine was the danger area.
"The problem relates to the potential for misaligned oil pipe counter-boring, which could lead to fatigue cracking, oil leakage and potential engine failure from an oil fire within the HP/IP bearing buffer space," the ATSB said in a brief statement. It called the problem "a potential manufacturing defect".
The UK economy has suffered a huge blow when millions of people could not get to work because of travel chaos caused by the snow, losing firms valuable business in the crucial run-up to Christmas.
An estimated two out of five staff were not able to go to work as train services ground to a halt and roads were impassable, with police in some areas advising people not to travel unless it was absolutely necessary.
A survey of almost 1,000 employers found 38% of workers could not get to their office on Thursday morning and a further 43% were late arriving.
A third of the firms questioned by employment law firm Peninsula said they will send their staff home early on Thursday if the bad weather persists.
Peter Done, managing director of Peninsula, said: "Snowfall was the major issue yesterday, but the big problem for businesses today is the icy conditions left behind. Public transport such as buses and trains have been hit with major cancellations making it almost impossible for some workers to get into work this morning."
Rail commuter routes into London were among the worst hit, with widespread cancellations of services and lengthy delays from area across the South East. Travellers who managed to make it into London suffered delays on London Underground after a series of signal failures and faulty trains hit services.
The TUC repeated its plea for as many people as possible to be allowed to work from home.
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "In many parts of the country the advice from the police is not to travel unless journeys are absolutely necessary. Workers everywhere have been braving the snow and ice to get into work, but where the weather makes someone's usual commute unsafe, or where working parents find themselves with children but with no childcare, a more sensible approach is needed."
John Walker, chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: "Small businesses have been particularly hard-hit because of the bad weather, with staff unable to make it to work due to snow-bound roads and school closures which meant that parents have to stay at home to look after their children. We are disappointed that we still haven't learnt the lessons from previous bad weather and that the country has yet again ground to a halt.
"We know that small firms are resilient and resourceful by putting plans in place and offering flexible working hours. It is small businesses that come to the aid of local communities in difficult times, but it is essential that this early and prolonged period of severe weather does not catch out local authorities and they must ensure they are prepared in case it continues into next year."
The City watchdog has ruled out action against former bosses at Royal Bank of Scotland after finding no evidence of fraud or dishonest activity in the lead-up to the financial crisis.
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) cleared the firm and individuals, including former chief executive Sir Fred Goodwin, but warned that their competence would be taken into account in any future applications made by them to work at FSA-regulated firms.
In its investigation into the bailed-out bank, the FSA said RBS made a series of bad decisions in the years immediately before the financial crisis, most significantly the acquisition of Dutch bank ABN AMRO and the decision to aggressively expand its investment banking business.
But it added: "The review concluded that these bad decisions were not the result of a lack of integrity by any individual and we did not identify any instances of fraud or dishonest activity by RBS senior individuals or a failure of governance on the part of the board."
It said the findings of its investigation did not warrant taking any enforcement action, either against the firm or against individuals.
"However, the competence of RBS individuals can, and will, be taken into account in any future applications made by them to work at FSA regulated firms," it said.
The FSA launched its investigation into RBS in May last year after it became one of the UK banks to require partial taxpayer bail-out support. The review, carried out with help from accountancy firm PwC, considered if regulatory rules had been broken and what, if any, action was appropriate.
"The review was necessarily extensive and looked specifically at the conduct of senior individuals at the bank, the acquisition of ABN AMRO in 2007 and the 2008 capital raisings," the watchdog said.
The FSA's supervisory investigations into other banks that failed during the crisis are continuing.
More than 220,000 files relating to payments from the Government's Social Fund, which administers loans and grants, were accidentally destroyed by jobcentre staff in the past year in a paper reduction exercise, it has been revealed.
The National Audit Office (NAO) said missing case papers was a "significant" issue which had been compounded by the loss of so many files.
The comptroller and auditor general, Amyas Morse, said he had qualified the Social Fund White Paper Account for the seventh consecutive year because of "material levels of error" in discretionary awards, which include budgeting loans, crisis loans and community care grants, and in funeral expense payments.
He has also qualified his opinion on Sure Start maternity grants, for the first time, because of the level of error found in these payments.
The NAO said its best estimate of the total of overpayments in 2009/10 was £106.4 million, around 2.6% of total payments, up from £83.5 million in 2008/09.
The true level of overpayments, though, could be between £82 million to £130 million, the NAO said in a report.
Mr Morse, head of the NAO, said: "The Social Fund provides financial assistance to some of the most vulnerable in society and, of course, judgments associated with making discretionary awards are to some degree subjective. However, the material level of error in these payments has led me to qualify my opinion.
"I have identified a number of new challenges, as well as the existing issues, which the Department must address in the coming year. I will continue to monitor progress made to correct these problems."
Members of the US special forces have been disciplined after an investigation into the death of British aid worker Linda Norgrove in Afghanistan revealed she was killed by a grenade thrown by her would-be rescuers.
The 36-year-old from the Western Isles died in a blast in Kunar province on October 8 during a failed rescue attempt led by American forces.
Ms Norgrove, a former United Nations employee, was working for the firm Development Alternatives Inc (DAI) when she was captured in the Dewagal valley during an ambush on September 26.
Initial reports suggested she was killed when one of her captors detonated a suicide vest.
An investigation led by US Major General Joseph Votel and British Brigadier Robert Nitsch found that she died when a grenade was thrown into a gully.
Intelligence suggested the aid worker was being held in a group of buildings higher up the mountain and it was only when they returned that they found her body.
Reporting to the Commons, Foreign Secretary William Hague said that although US soldiers reported their use of a grenade, senior officers did not become aware until they examined video footage.
Mr Hague said: "The investigation team found that the failure to disclose information that a grenade was thrown breached US military law.
"As a result, members of the rescue team have been disciplined for failing to provide a complete and full account of their actions in accordance with US military procedure.
"I cannot announce any more details of the disciplinary action taken by the military of another nation, but the fact that this action has been taken will confirm to this House how seriously the US authorities regard this matter."
Large areas of the country have come to a standstill, raising questions over Britain's capacity to cope in sub-zero conditions.
Thousands of commuters were left high and dry after rail operators cancelled many services altogether, while several major airports closed their doors and motorists faced chaos on the roads after many were forced to spend the night sleeping in their cars.
Meanwhile, 300 passengers found themselves stranded overnight on a Southern train in West Sussex after heavy snow caused a series of line failures at Three Bridges station.
Passenger Rebecca Forsey told the BBC: "It was an absolute nightmare. We had to wait around for several hours in the cold on a freezing platform. We finally got something to eat at 4am."
Bad weather meant thousands of children were turned away from lessons at schools across the country while workers arrived late or were forced to take the day off.
The number of schools forced to close because of the weather has more than doubled overnight, according to the Department for Education. Around 7,000 schools across the UK were shut today compared with about 3,000 yesterday, the Government said.
And as forecasters predicted more wintery weather, critics hit out at Britain's handling of the cold snap. Shadow transport secretary Maria Eagle said the crisis was costing the economy up to £1.2 billion a day.
Police in the North East denied reports circulating on social networking sites that they were pulling over and fining drivers who had snow on their cars. Both Durham and Northumbria Police spoke out to counter rumours being spread on the internet and via text message.
A spokesman for Northumbria Police confirmed: "As at any time of the year, in the interests of road safety, drivers are required to have a clear view through their windows when driving and officers may speak to drivers if this is not the case. However information appearing on Facebook that we are specifically targeting drivers for having snow on their car is just not the case - it would appear to be just another urban myth."
And road rescue group the AA continued to receive large numbers of calls. Spokesman Gavin Hill-Smith said they were busy with 5,500 breakdowns nationally from midnight to 11am. The rescue centre was receiving about 1,300 calls per hour, which Mr Hill-Smith said was far fewer than yesterday.
England's dream of hosting the 2018 World Cup has ended in disappointment.
Russia won the right to stage the tournament after a ballot by the Fifa executive committee in Zurich.
President Sepp Blatter made the announcement in the Swiss city.
The England 2018 bid team had hoped the lobbying of Fifa members by Prince William, David Cameron and David Beckham in recent days had given them an advantage. But the campaign was ultimately unsuccessful.
Despite a bid described as "excellent and remarkable" by Mr Blatter, judges rejected sending the tournament back to England for the first time since 1966.
Though the nation is blessed with a series of excellent stadia, good transport links and policing, it is thought a number of behind-the-scenes factors possibly went against England.
BBC's recent Panorama investigation 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 ago.
Uefa president Michel Platini insisted the documentary would not alter members' votes or wreck England's chances. But he did claim that the British media's arduous relationship with football's international governing body could jeopardise England's chances of success.
After the vote, Prince William said: "Well, obviously we're extremely disappointed and so is the team. We had a very strong bid but sadly it didn't work out."
While Prime Minister David Cameron said he was "bitterly disappointed" with the 2018 World Cup bid outcome.
Life not as we know it has been discovered on Earth, raising the chances of alien biology evolving on other planets.
The bugs, described as a form of "weird life" by scientists, are able to thrive on arsenic - and even incorporate it into their DNA.
Arsenic is one of the most deadly substances known to most organisms. It usually disrupts metabolic pathways, making it impossible for the normal mechanisms of life to continue.
But the strange microbes scooped from mud at the bottom of a Californian lake not only survive in an arsenic environment but make the chemical part of their molecular structure. The discovery is said to have huge implications for the search for extraterrestrial life.
When scientists talk about life they tend to mean "life as we know it" - that is, life based on the biological building blocks found on Earth. But some experts have speculated that there may be alternative kinds of life - dubbed "weird life" - elsewhere in the universe.
The new find lends support to that theory, increasing the prospects of discovering life on Mars or the moons of Saturn or Jupiter, or outside the Solar System.
Dr Felisa Wolfe-Simon, from Arizona State University, who led the US researchers, said: "Our findings are a reminder that life as we know it could be much more flexible than we generally assume or imagine.
"If something here on Earth can do something so unexpected, what else can life do that we haven't seen yet? Now is the time to find out."
All "known" life requires six fundamental elements - carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorous and sulphur - which provide the building materials for DNA, proteins and fats.
Phosphorous, normally obtained from inorganic phosphate, is a key member of this group and found in many of the components of cells. Without it, life should not be able to exist. But the bugs studied by Dr Wolfe-Simon's team have the extraordinary ability to swap phosphorous for arsenic.
