December 5, 2010, 3:04 pm
![Image]( "Security concerns after spy claims")
MPs have questioned parliamentary security following revelations that a suspected Russian spy worked undetected in the House of Commons.
Liberal Democrat MP Mike Hancock has stood by his assistant Katia Zatuliveter insisting she had "nothing to hide" as she faced deportation for allegedly being a spy. Mr Hancock challenged the security services to produce evidence against Ms Zatuliveter, who was arrested on Thursday morning and is currently being held at an immigration detention centre.
The 25-year-old, who came to the UK three years ago to study a masters degree at Bradford University, held a House of Commons pass and underwent security vetting before taking up her position as a full-time assistant two-and-a-half years ago. She worked previously for the MP as an intern.
Ms Zatuliveter is appealing against the deportation order, which came after the Home Secretary Theresa May was briefed by MI5 about her alleged connection to Russia's foreign intelligence service, the SVR, The Sunday Times reported.
Meanwhile, MPs said there must be a security review of Parliament if the system was breached. Shadow foreign secretary Yvette Cooper told BBC1's Andrew Marr Show said: "There are parliamentary security checks on anyone who applies for a House of Commons pass, anybody who is going to work in the House of Commons. Of course it is important to make sure that these are strong enough and secure enough."
Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith told Sky News: "I have never seen or met her and the trouble is I would say normally this would be a joke but actually after what's been going on with some of the spies that Russia seems to have put into all sorts of places, you have to take it quite seriously really I suppose."
On Sunday, it emerged Ms Zatuliveter, a Russian who originates from Dagestan, was forced to flee her home as a child in the mid-1990s during the Chechnyan conflict.
It is not known what prompted Ms Zatuliveter's arrest but a source told The Sunday Times she was no longer welcome in the UK. The source said: "Her presence here is not considered to be conducive to national security. There was unhappiness about what she could have access to. The intention is to show her the door."
Mr Hancock, a member of the Defence Select Committee, also represents Portsmouth South, where the Ministry of Defence has significant naval interests.
If it is confirmed Ms Zatuliveter is a Russian spy and she is deported, it will be the first case since the Cold War of a Russian agent being removed from the Houses of Parliament.
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December 5, 2010, 6:01 pm
![Image]( "Assange to fight extradition moves")
The lawyer for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has vowed to fight moves to extradite his client from the UK to Sweden.
Swedish authorities are seeking to question Mr Assange regarding sex allegations, which his lawyer Mark Stephens has denounced as a "political stunt".
Mr Stephens said Mr Assange would "certainly" fight deportation on the grounds that it could lead to him being handed over to the US, where senior politicians have called for him to be executed.
He said that the WikiLeaks site - which was last week forced to move to a Swiss host after being dumped by US internet companies - had come under siege from "a huge number of cyber-attacks". The organisation held further secret material which it regarded as a "thermo-nuclear device" to be released if it needs to protect itself, he said.
Mr Assange, who is staying in Britain, has come under growing pressure from politicians in the US and around the world after his WikiLeaks site started publishing excerpts from a cache of 250,000 secret American diplomatic cables last week.
Former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has described him as "an anti-American operative with blood on his hands" and called for him to be hunted down like a Taliban leader, while another senior Republican Mike Huckabee has said that "anything less than execution is too kind a penalty" for what he has done.
Swedish prosecutors have sent an international arrest warrant to the Metropolitan Police, seeking his extradition for questioning on allegations - which he strongly denies - of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion.
International police agency Interpol has issued a "Red Notice" urging people to contact police with information about his whereabouts.
But Mr Stephens on Monday said that Sweden's chief prosecutor had told Mr Assange in September that there was no case for him to answer, following complaints against him by two women, but the investigation was revived following the intervention of a Swedish politician. He said that Swedish prosecutors knew where Mr Assange was and urged them to call him to discuss the case.
Meanwhile, the Australian government said it would give consular help to Assange if he is arrested abroad. However, the administration again condemned WikiLeaks' publication of secret US diplomatic documents, saying doing so threatens the security of the United States and its allies.
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December 5, 2010, 7:40 pm
![Image]( "Nadir to sue for wrongful arrest")
Former Polly Peck tycoon Asil Nadir is to issue a writ for wrongful arrest, his lawyers said.
The 69-year-old millionaire was arrested on Saturday afternoon for an alleged breach of his bail conditions. He is awaiting a multi-million pound theft trial next year and has to be in his Mayfair townhouse between midnight and 6am.
Police believed Nadir, who wears an electronic tag, was out of his home breaking his curfew at some point on Friday night and took him into custody. But after five hours of questioning Nadir emerged on Saturday evening with his 26-year-old wife Nur on to the steps of Charing Cross police station.
Claiming police had apologised, he promised to issue a writ on Monday morning "against the people that have created this most unfortunate situation".
It was not clear whether he meant the Metropolitan Police or the company that monitors his tag.
But on Sunday night his lawyers, Bark and Co, fraud specialists, issued a statement on their website saying "a full article will be released tomorrow".
It said: "Evidence in the form of witnesses and CCTV showed that there had been no such breach. Mr Nadir was released without charge and received an apology. On Monday morning a wrongful arrest writ will be served .Mr Nadir is extremely upset with the events of yesterday and a full article will be released tomorrow."
Nadir was originally charged with 66 offences of theft alleging a £34 million fraud following the collapse of his Polly Peck empire.
He fled in 1993 to northern Cyprus before the counts - put into fewer condensed charges - could be put to him at trial. But on July 30 this year Mr Justice Bean was told he wanted to return to fight the case.
Upon arriving back in Britain in August with his wife, Nadir declared he had a "little injustice to sort out" and that he was confident he would clear his name.
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December 5, 2010, 7:40 pm
![Image]( "New protests planned over fees hike")
The Government will face a series of protests this week in the run-up to a crucial vote on controversial plans for a huge hike in university tuition fees.
Students and lecturers pledged to keep up pressure on MPs to vote against the plans following a wave of demonstrations and occupations in recent weeks, some of which have flared into violence.
The Metropolitan Police will be monitoring social network sites in the coming days to gauge the level of support for the protests and are expected to have a large number of officers on duty on Thursday, the day of the Commons vote on whether to raise fees to £9,000 a year.
Some trade unions are urging their members to join the protests, maintaining that students are in the front line of opposition to the Government's massive cuts in public spending.
The University and College Union (UCU) and the National Union of Students (NUS) on Monday announced their plans for the week's protests in their joint campaign against education funding cuts and plans to raise university fees, revealing there will be demonstrations at universities across the country on Wednesday ahead of Thursday's event. On the day of the vote there will be a mass lobby of MPs, a rally in Westminster and a candlelit vigil.
UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: "These proposals, if they go through, will change the entire landscape of education in this country and we must continue to oppose them. We need to expose the damage they will do to our universities, colleges and communities. MPs must be left in no doubt of the strength of opposition to these plans and the consequences of voting for them. We have been overwhelmed by support from people across the country against these plans and we hope they will all join us in making their voice heard this week."
NUS President Aaron Porter said: "The joint NUS and UCU march that brought together 50,0000 people on 10 November has provided the spur to a new wave of activism and lobbying, placing the Government's policy on fees and student support policy under huge pressure. This week we must keep that pressure up as the vote approaches. 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."
Bob Crow, general secretary of the Rail Maritime and Transport (RMT) union, has written to branches calling for "full support" for the protests. "This campaign is very much in the front line of the fight back against the ConDem cuts and has united pensioners, students and trade unionists in an imaginative and co-ordinated coalition of resistance. It has exposed the lies and hypocrisy of the LibDems and has opened up serious cracks in the coalition that we can all drive a wedge into.
"RMT was delighted to have students supporting our picket lines during the last Tube strike and we will make sure that there is a high-profile presence from RMT supporting the students in their action this week."
Meanwhile colleges and sixth-forms around the country will be holding lunchtime protests a week on Monday against Government plans to axe the Education Maintenance Allowance.
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December 5, 2010, 7:40 pm
![Image]( "Police warn ministers over cuts")
Policing leaders have warned ministers that they may not be able to protect frontline forces because of heavy cuts to their budgets over the coming two years, it has been revealed.
The Home Office has ordered 20% of cuts to police budgets over the next four years, but it wants to "frontload" the reductions so the bulk of the pain is felt in the next two years - with 6% sliced off Government grants next year, 8% in 2012/13 and 4% in each of the following two years.
The Association of Police Authorities (APA) on Sunday wrote to policing minister Nick Herbert, warning that this approach risks "long-term damage to policing capability". They called for the burden of the cuts to be shifted to the second half of the period covered by Chancellor George Osborne's spending review, between 2013 and 2015.
In the letter, obtained by the Daily Telegraph, the cross-party association insists that it is committed to protecting the public and frontline police services.
But it adds: "The ability of authorities and forces to achieve this outcome is seriously impacted by the phasing of the proposed cuts. While understanding the imperative to reduce expenditure quickly, a sensible, realistic approach is necessary to realise the savings objectives and avoid long term damage to policing capability."
Signatories include the APA's Conservative chairman Rob Gardham, his Labour deputy Mark Burns-Williamson and Liberal Democrat and Independent members.
Police authorities, made up of local councillors and independent members, hold police chiefs to account and set budgets in each of the 43 force areas of England and Wales, as well as a few other bodies like the British Transport Police. They are due to be replaced by directly-elected police commissioners in 2012 - by which time the worst of the cuts will already have been implemented.
Shadow home secretary Ed Balls said: "I hope the Government will seriously consider this cross-party plea. Police forces have already made clear the speed and scale of the cuts means the frontline can't be protected by long-term efficiencies. It will inevitably mean thousands fewer police officers, which will undermine the fight against crime.
"But doing all this at a time when there are a growing number of public protests, an ongoing terror threat, the security challenge of the Olympics and an expensive experiment with directly-elected police chiefs is a reckless gamble. The Government must urgently think again."
A Home Office spokesman said: "We are cutting red tape and bureaucracy, freeing officers to get back to the frontline where people want to see them. Our measures to scrap the stop and account form and reduce the box ticking around stop and search will free up to 800,000 hours of police time alone."
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December 5, 2010, 7:40 pm
![Image]( "Sub zero temperatures return to UK")
Sub zero temperatures will return to the UK following a brief reprieve from the freezing weather, forecasters warned.
Sunny spells graced many parts of the UK on Sunday enabling snow to thaw. But the arctic temperatures returned with a vengeance overnight with the mercury plummeting to -15C in parts of Yorkshire.
Forecasters warned that sub-zero temperatures, more snow and patches of freezing fog will make the commute to work a distinctly chilly affair.
Temperatures are expected to be as low as -5C to -10C in many areas throughout the early part of the morning.
More snowfall is also expected in Scotland and northern England.
Paul Mott, forecaster for MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association explained: "It will be a pretty cold commute to work for a lot of people today. The cold weather has really returned, by 1am the temperature in Topcliffe in North Yorkshire had fallen to -15C.
"There will be widespread snow in central and southern Scotland, this will spread to Cumbria and the North East throughout the day. Some areas can expect snowfalls of between five to 10 centimetres.
"Further south there will be some patches of freezing fog, particularly in central England, areas such as Gloucester and the Cotswolds for example.
"And drivers should certainly take the freezing fog into account when planning a journey."
The highest maximum temperatures across the UK on Monday are expected to fluctuate between a chilly 0C and -2C. And there is no respite from the cold in sight. Mr Mott added: "There are some very cold days coming up for the rest of the week, but it does look like the situation may ease towards the weekend."
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December 5, 2010, 7:40 pm
![Image]( "MPs urge tuition fee vote delay")
A small group of Liberal Democrat backbenchers are trying to postpone Thursday's crucial vote on university tuition fees, as the party struggles to find consensus on the divisive issue.
Leader Nick Clegg has been attempting to broker agreement on a collective abstention in the vote in the hope of preserving unity, even though he has publicly stated that he would like to vote for the package, which trebles the maximum annual fee to £9,000.
He will address his parliamentary party in the Commons on Tuesday in a last-ditch effort to prevent a three-way split, but reports suggested that he has yet to persuade key backbenchers like president Tim Farron and former leaders Charles Kennedy and Sir Menzies Campbell not to join Labour in the no lobby.
Vince Cable has been increasingly public about his desire to vote in favour of the legislation which he is responsible as Business Secretary for taking through Parliament.
Now backbencher Greg Mulholland is pushing a fourth option of calling off the vote, so that a full public consultation on the future of university funding in England can be carried out ahead of a Government White Paper in 2011.
"It is not in anyone's interests to do this at this stage," Mr Mulholland told The Guardian. "Sometimes the most courageous thing to do is to admit you need a rethink. The best thing for higher education is not to force this vote through on Thursday."
Mr Mulholland has tabled an early-day motion in the Commons, which has so far gained the support only of fellow Lib Dem John Leech and Green MP Caroline Lucas. But he is hoping to persuade the Lib Dem leadership - and their Conservative coalition partners - that delay is the best way of avoiding a damaging split which could do serious harm to the Government's stability.
Ministers on Sunday tried to shore up support for the university funding package by unveiling £150 million worth of help, which could see fees waived for one or two years for 18,000 of the poorest students under the National Scholarship Programme.
National Union of Students president Aaron Porter said that the support paled in comparison to the £500 million being cut from the Educational Maintenance Allowance for sixth-formers from disadvantaged backgrounds. He said: "They are giving a little with one hand but taking considerably more with the other hand."
And Labour's shadow business secretary John Denham said that the move amounted to an admission that higher fees will put poorer students off university. In a letter to Mr Cable, Mr Denham said the announcement of the Scholarship scheme "makes it very clear that you do believe that high fees can deter students from low-income backgrounds".
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December 5, 2010, 7:40 pm
![Image]( "£830m to improve broadband network")
The Government is to spend £830 million in a drive to give the UK the best broadband network in Europe by 2015.
An action plan entitled Britain's Superfast Broadband Future, published by Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, sets out the ambition to create a "digital hub" in every community in the country by the end of this Parliament.
Linked to the nearest exchange by high-speed connections, the hubs would allow communities to extend the internet network to every home.
Mr Hunt said the plan aimed to stimulate private sector investment and cut barriers to business investment in the reliable and secure superfast network which ministers regard as vital to the UK's economic growth.
Ministers will invest £50 million in a second wave of pilot projects to test how digital hubs can be extended to all communities, including those in remote rural areas.
And there will be moves to cut the costs of access to communications infrastructure and new awards of 800MHz and 2.6GHz spectrum to allow the development of next-generation mobile services.
Already, more than 70% of UK households have broadband and nearly 50% have access to a superfast 50 Mbps service.
Mr Hunt said: "A superfast network will be the foundation for a new economic dynamism, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs and adding billions to our GDP.
"But it is not just about the economy, around the world there are countless examples of superfast broadband helping to build a fairer and more prosperous society, and to transform the relationship between Government and citizens."
Rural Affairs Secretary Caroline Spelman said that rolling out superfast broadband to the countryside is "probably the single most important thing we can do to ensure the sustainability of our rural communities in the 21st century".
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December 5, 2010, 7:46 pm
![Image]( "Leak of vital sites list condemned")
The Government has condemned the decision by WikiLeaks to publish a secret list of facilities that the US considers vital to national security.
The website revealed a detailed list of installations worldwide including a number of sites in the UK such as satellite sites, BAE Systems plants and cable locations.
The latest leak lists hundreds of pipelines, undersea cables and factories, including a cobalt mine in Congo, an anti-snake venom factory in Australia and an insulin plant in Denmark.
A Downing Street spokesman said this morning: "We unequivocally condemn the unauthorised release of classified information. The leaks and their publication are damaging to national security in the United States, Britain and elsewhere.
"It is vital that governments are able to operate on the basis of confidentiality of information."
A spokeswoman for BAE Systems, which owns three UK sites included on the list, said: "BAE Systems recognises its role as a custodian of key industrial and military assets. We would be concerned at any activity which compromises this."
The latest revelations come as the lawyer for the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange vowed to fight moves to extradite his client from the UK to Sweden. Swedish authorities are seeking to question Mr Assange regarding sex allegations, which his lawyer Mark Stephens has denounced as a "political stunt".
Mr Stephens said Mr Assange would "certainly" fight deportation on the grounds that it could lead to him being handed over to the US, where senior politicians have called for him to be executed.
He said that the WikiLeaks site - which was last week forced to move to a Swiss host after being dumped by US internet companies - had come under siege from "a huge number of cyber-attacks".
The organisation held further secret material which it regarded as a "thermo-nuclear device" to be released if it needs to protect itself, he said.
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December 5, 2010, 8:40 pm
![Image]( "Warning over Egypt shark attacks")
The Foreign Office has warned holidaymakers in an Egyptian resort to be on their guard following a string of shark attacks that have left several people seriously injured and one woman dead.
An elderly German tourist died after she was attacked by an oceanic white tip shark in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh a few days after three Russians and a Ukrainian tourist were badly mauled in similar attacks.
Officials said the tourist died immediately after her arm was bitten off by the shark while she was swimming at the resort, a renowned diving and vacation resort.
Thousands of British tourists flock to Sharm el-Sheikh each year, attracted by its balmy temperatures and crystal clear waters.
In response to the attacks the Foreign Office amended its travel advice for people visiting the area.
A statement on its website read: "Attacks by oceanic white tip sharks are extremely rare and shark attacks of any kind are very unusual in the Red Sea. If you are considering diving or snorkelling in any of the Red Sea resorts be aware that safety standards of diving operators can vary considerably.
"A basic rule is never to dive or snorkel unaccompanied. Where possible make any bookings through your tour representative. Unusually cheap operators may not provide adequate safety and insurance standards."
After the attacks authorities ordered people to stay out of the water around Sharm el-Sheikh.
On Thursday, the Environment Ministry said two sharks suspected of the maulings were caught.
A British tourist described witnessing one of the shark attacks at first hand. Ellen Barnes, 31, of Horsham, West Sussex, told The Sun newspaper: "The water was churning like I was in a washing machine. I was being thrown around in the blood. The shark was thrashing and tearing at this poor woman and I could barely keep my head above the water it was so choppy."
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December 6, 2010, 1:09 am
![Image]( "Soldier death: Friendly fire probed")
A British soldier who died in southern Afghanistan on Sunday may have been killed by friendly fire, the Ministry of Defence has said.
The soldier, from the 3rd Battalion The Parachute Regiment, was shot while on patrol in the Nad-e Ali District of Helmand Province.
Initial reports indicate that his death may have been caused by an attack on an insurgent position by a US aircraft, an MoD spokesman said.
The spokesman said: "Further to the announcement of the death of a soldier from 3rd Battalion Parachute Regiment in Nad e-Ali yesterday, initial reports suggest that the death was caused as a result of a friendly fire incident.
"The incident will be the subject of a full investigation; however, first reports indicate that an attack on an insurgent position by a US aircraft, requested by and agreed with British forces on the ground, may have been the cause.
"The investigation is ongoing and as such it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage."
The family of the serviceman, who has not yet been named, have been told. The incident in Helmand Province is under investigation by the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf).
The soldier was part of an operation working to increase security in the district, Task Force Helmand spokesman Lieutenant Colonel David Eastman said.
He added: "He has made the ultimate sacrifice protecting the people of Nad-e Ali from insurgent intimidation and defending his country from the threat of terrorism; no more could be asked of any soldier. He will be greatly missed by all who knew him."
A total of 346 UK military personnel have died since operations in Afghanistan began in 2001.
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December 6, 2010, 1:38 am
![Image]( "Bishop slates 'hijacked' Santa")
Santa Claus has been "hijacked" in Britain into becoming a Father Christmas of a "thousand adverts", a senior Church of England bishop has warned.
The Rt Rev Dr Alan Smith, Bishop of St Albans, said the message of "selfless" St Nicholas - the saint who inspired Santa Claus - had been lost in favour of "pester power" and materialism.
The saint, a fourth century bishop of Myra in present day Turkey, was renowned for his generosity and his love of children, Dr Smith said in his Christmas message.
According to one story, St Nicholas saved three girls whose family had been unable to pay marriage dowries from being sold into prostitution by throwing three bags of gold coins into their open window one night, he said.
Dr Smith urged parents to put inexpensive oranges and gold chocolate coins into children's Christmas stockings as a way of remembering the saint.
"It's sad that in Britain the selfless St Nicholas has been hijacked and has become the Father Christmas of a thousand adverts," he said.
"We are left with little more than a materialistic Christmas, less about giving and more about self-pampering. Pester-power rules OK."
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December 6, 2010, 1:38 am
![Image]( "Women 'hit hardest by new Budget'")
Women are facing a "grossly disproportionate and devastating" impact from the Government's emergency Budget, it has been argued at the High Court.
Women are bearing the brunt of the cuts triggered in jobs, benefits and services after a "complete failure" to take account of gender equality laws, a QC said.
The Fawcett Society, which campaigns for gender equality, is asking Mr Justice Ouseley, sitting in London, for permission to seek a High Court declaration that the June Budget is unlawful and must be reconsidered.
The society argues women are disproportionately affected because more women than men rely on the welfare benefits that are being cut, and the changes to the tax system favour far more men than women.
Karon Monaghan QC, representing the society, told the judge that, of the £8.1 billion in savings raised by the Budget, £5.7 billion was being born by women - "72% as against 28% for men."
Ms Monaghan said: "Top-line analysis demonstrates a grossly disproportionate and devastating impact so far as women are concerned." If the judge agrees the society has an arguable case, their judicial review application will go to a full hearing in the near future.
Ms Monaghan argued the Chancellor of the Exchequer had failed to comply with the Government's duty under the 1975 Sex Discrimination Act "to eliminate unlawful discrimination" and promote equality of opportunity between men and women. It failed to carry out gender equality impact assessments and act in accordance with its own gender equality scheme, said the QC.
The hearing comes as Labour equalities spokeswoman Yvette Cooper released research by the House of Commons Library which she said showed that women will bear £11 billion of the £16 billion tax, benefit and pension cuts imposed in the Budget.
The emergency Budget hit women almost three times as hard as men and Chancellor George Osborne's Spending Review hits them twice as hard, with a combined total of 27 different policy changes affecting women more harshly than men, said Ms Cooper.
The Government is seeking to block the High Court application, arguing the Fawcett Society failed to act promptly, and its delay could cause "serious prejudice to good public administration".
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December 6, 2010, 1:38 am
![Image]( "Airline guilty over Concorde crash")
America's Continental Airlines and one of its mechanics have been found guilty of criminal negligence in causing the French Concorde crash that killed 113 people 10 years ago.
A Paris court ruled that the company and mechanic John Taylor must pay fines over the July 2000 disaster.
Taylor was also given a 15-month suspended prison sentence. All other defendants were acquitted in the verdict.
Investigators said a Continental DC-10 dropped titanium debris on the runway at Charles de Gaulle airport before the Concorde took off.
The debris cut the Concorde's tyre, hurling bits of rubber into the fuel tanks and starting a fire.
The airline was fined 265,000 dollars (£170,000), and Taylor 2,650 dollars (£1,700). Three former French officials also facing manslaughter charges were acquitted.
While France's aviation authority concluded the crash could not have been foreseen, a judicial inquiry said the plane's fuel tanks lacked sufficient protection from shock and said officials had known about the problem for more than 20 years.
The families of most of the crash victims were compensated years ago, so financial claims were not the trial's focus - the main goal was to assign responsibility. It is not uncommon for such cases to take years to reach trial in France.
Continental is now part of Chicago-based United Continental Holdings , which was formed in October as the holding company owner of United and Continental airlines, which will eventually be combined into a single airline.
https://www.continental.com/web/en-US/default.aspx?SID=28C9145C0C22479BB20986AC775569A2(Continental Airlines)
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December 6, 2010, 1:38 am
![Image]( "Trips axed over Egypt shark attacks")
British holiday companies have cancelled all water sports and boat trips in an Egyptian resort following shark attacks that have left several people seriously injured and one woman dead.
Thomson and First Choice also advised its holidaymakers to stay out of the water in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
The action comes after a warning by the Foreign Office (FO) for holidaymakers to be on their guard at the resort - one of the most popular winter sun destinations for Britons.
An elderly German tourist died after she was attacked by an oceanic white tip shark in Sharm el-Sheikh a few days after three Russians and a Ukrainian tourist were badly mauled in similar attacks.
Thomson and First Choice said: "We are advising all our customers in Sharm el-Sheikh that diving and watersport activities are suspended.
"Our teams in the resort are advising all customers to refrain from going into the sea. We are also cancelling all water-based excursions in the Sharm el-Sheikh area until further notice. We are continuing to monitor the situation and will update customers accordingly."
On its website the Foreign Office said: "Attacks by oceanic white tip sharks are extremely rare and shark attacks of any kind are very unusual in the Red Sea.
"If you are considering diving or snorkelling in any of the Red Sea resorts be aware that safety standards of diving operators can vary considerably.
"A basic rule is never to dive or snorkel unaccompanied. Where possible make any bookings through your tour representative.
"Unusually cheap operators may not provide adequate safety and insurance standards."
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December 6, 2010, 1:38 am
![Image]( "Clegg faces more pressure on fees")
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg is facing mounting pressure over tuition fees amid more signs of splits among his MPs.
Transport minister Norman Baker hinted that he could choose to resign from the Government rather than back sharp hikes, while backbenchers urged the postponement of Thursday's crunch vote.
Meanwhile, the situation descended into confusion after an impostor pretending to be Lib Dem ministerial aide Mike Crockart said he is also ready to quit over the issue.
Deputy Prime Minister Mr Clegg is due to make a last-ditch effort to head off a crisis when he addresses his parliamentary party on Tuesday night.
Lib Dem grandee Lord Ashdown has also appealed for MPs not to breach the coalition agreement by voting against the plans, while Downing Street warned that the principle of collective responsibility for ministers still applies.
However, there are signs that opposition within the party is hardening despite efforts to strike a deal.
Asked on BBC One South East's Politics Show whether he would be backing the change or abstaining, Mr Baker said: "Or voting against. There are three options and, to be honest with you, I genuinely haven't decided."
He added: "It's an option if you resign. There are three options on the table and I haven't yet decided what I'm going to do."
In a bizarre episode, someone claiming to be Mr Crockart, the parliamentary private secretary to Scottish Secretary Michael Moore, told the Evening Standard: "I will be voting against 100%. I'm not going to be pushed out. Resigning probably will be the only option." Questions were only raised about his identity when the impersonator was interviewed on BBC Radio 4's the World at One, and colleagues realised it was not the Edinburgh West MP.
The Lib Dems then released a more tempered statement on behalf of the real Mr Crockart that said: "Discussions are still going on with parliamentary colleagues. I have not made a final decision."
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December 6, 2010, 3:49 am
![Image]( "Clegg to issue plea over fees vote")
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg is preparing a last-ditch appeal for his MPs to avoid a damaging three-way split over tuition fee hikes.
Frantic negotiations have been continuing as some members of the Government, including transport minister Norman Baker, appeared willing to quit rather than back the controversial proposals.
Mr Clegg will hold a crunch meeting with his parliamentary party on Tuesday night at which he is expected to urge them to present a united front.
Lib Dem grandee Lord Ashdown has also appealed for MPs not to breach the coalition agreement by voting against the plans on Thursday, while Downing Street warned that ministers are still subject to the principle of collective responsibility.
However, there were signs that opposition within the party was hardening despite efforts to strike a deal.
Asked on BBC1 South East's Politics Show whether he would be backing the change or abstaining, Mr Baker said: "Or voting against. There are three options and, to be honest with you, I genuinely haven't decided.
"It's an option if you resign. There are three options on the table and I haven't yet decided what I'm going to do."
In a bizarre episode, someone claiming to be Mike Crockart, the parliamentary private secretary to Scottish Secretary Michael Moore, told the Evening Standard and the BBC he was also on the verge of resigning.
Questions were only raised about the impersonator's identity when colleagues realised the voice on air was not that of the Edinburgh West MP.
Mr Clegg and Business Secretary Vince Cable have publicly stated that they would like to vote for the package, which trebles the maximum annual charge to £9,000, although the idea of a mass abstention as allowed under the coalition deal has been floated.
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December 6, 2010, 4:29 am
![Image]( "Airline blamed for Concorde crash")
US airline Continental and one of its mechanics have been convicted of causing the Air France Concorde crash that killed 113 people 10 years ago.
The airline was ordered to pay Air France £914,000 for damaging its reputation, and fined £170,000.
The presiding judge ruled Continental and its employee were guilty of criminal negligence, confirming investigators' long-held belief that titanium debris dropped by a Continental DC-10 onto the runway at Charles de Gaulle airport was to blame.
The debris cut the Concorde's tyre, propelling bits of rubber into the fuel tanks and starting a fire.
The plane then slammed into a nearby hotel, killing all 109 people aboard and four others on the ground. Most of the victims were German tourists.
Ronald Schmid, a lawyer who has represented several of their families , said he was "sceptical" about the ruling.
The airline and mechanic John Taylor were also ordered to jointly pay more than £230,000 in damages to different civil parties.
Taylor was also given a 15-month suspended prison sentence, and a £1,700 fine. All other defendants - including three former French officials and Taylor's now-retired supervisor Stanley Ford - were acquitted.
The court said Taylor should not have used titanium, a harder metal than usual, to build the wear strip that fell off the DC-10. He was also accused of improperly installing the piece that fell onto the runway on July 25, 2000,.
Continental's lawyer, Olivier Metzner, confirmed the airline would appeal. He denounced a ruling that he called "patriotic" for sparing the French defendants and convicting only the Americans.
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December 6, 2010, 4:29 am
![Image]( "Heavy snow sparks commuter chaos")
Plunging temperatures and more heavy snow have swept across large parts of Britain once again, ending the weekend respite from the Arctic conditions.
A band of snow swept across the central belt of Scotland, causing major disruption in Glasgow and Edinburgh and shutting a number of airports.
Commuters faced gridlock on the roads or delayed and cancelled rail and bus services as they struggled to get to and from work.
Dozens of schools were once again closed, with many being forced to shut at lunchtime as the heavy snow continued to fall.
Temperatures across Britain struggled to rise above freezing after a night which saw Mercury plunge to as low as minus 18C in parts of Yorkshire.
The AA said it had attended more than 10,800 breakdowns by 11am on Monday, with calls coming in at just under 3,000 per hour - roughly double the usual rate.
Spokesman Gavin Hill-Smith said: "Extremely cold weather across the country coinciding with Monday morning, one of the busiest times of the week, has made for a very busy morning - even busier than last Monday when we had the widespread snow."
Problems reported included vehicles failing to start and frozen door locks.
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December 6, 2010, 4:29 am
![Image]( "Equality group loses Budget appeal")
The Fawcett Society has been refused permission to challenge the legality of the Government's emergency Budget.
A QC for the gender equality group told a High Court judge in London that the Budget cuts were having a "grossly disproportionate and devastating" impact on women, who were having to bear the brunt of the cuts triggered in jobs, benefits and services.
The Society was applying for permission to seek a declaration that the Government had acted unlawfully in formulating the Budget last June "without paying due regard to gender equality laws".
But Mr Justice Ouseley ruled the application "unarguable - or academic" and dismissed it.
Ceri Goddard, the Fawcett Society's chief executive, said she is "obviously disappointed" with the outcome of the case and will now study the judgment with a view to a possible appeal.
But she said taking court action had led to the Government conceding that gender impact assessments did apply to the Budget and should have been carried out in two key areas - the public sector pay freeze and certain benefit changes.
The challenge had also led to an investigation of the whole gender issue by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said Ms Goddard.
Refusing permission to seek judicial review, the judge said the society had delayed too long in making its application.
Such proceedings could have had "a very significant impact" on the budget of a new government and "they should have been brought much more quickly".
He also ruled the application was unarguable, and there was "no prospect" of a court declaring the Budget unlawful.
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MPs have questioned parliamentary security following revelations that a suspected Russian spy worked undetected in the House of Commons.
Liberal Democrat MP Mike Hancock has stood by his assistant Katia Zatuliveter insisting she had "nothing to hide" as she faced deportation for allegedly being a spy. Mr Hancock challenged the security services to produce evidence against Ms Zatuliveter, who was arrested on Thursday morning and is currently being held at an immigration detention centre.
The 25-year-old, who came to the UK three years ago to study a masters degree at Bradford University, held a House of Commons pass and underwent security vetting before taking up her position as a full-time assistant two-and-a-half years ago. She worked previously for the MP as an intern.
Ms Zatuliveter is appealing against the deportation order, which came after the Home Secretary Theresa May was briefed by MI5 about her alleged connection to Russia's foreign intelligence service, the SVR, The Sunday Times reported.
Meanwhile, MPs said there must be a security review of Parliament if the system was breached. Shadow foreign secretary Yvette Cooper told BBC1's Andrew Marr Show said: "There are parliamentary security checks on anyone who applies for a House of Commons pass, anybody who is going to work in the House of Commons. Of course it is important to make sure that these are strong enough and secure enough."
Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith told Sky News: "I have never seen or met her and the trouble is I would say normally this would be a joke but actually after what's been going on with some of the spies that Russia seems to have put into all sorts of places, you have to take it quite seriously really I suppose."
On Sunday, it emerged Ms Zatuliveter, a Russian who originates from Dagestan, was forced to flee her home as a child in the mid-1990s during the Chechnyan conflict.
It is not known what prompted Ms Zatuliveter's arrest but a source told The Sunday Times she was no longer welcome in the UK. The source said: "Her presence here is not considered to be conducive to national security. There was unhappiness about what she could have access to. The intention is to show her the door."
Mr Hancock, a member of the Defence Select Committee, also represents Portsmouth South, where the Ministry of Defence has significant naval interests.
If it is confirmed Ms Zatuliveter is a Russian spy and she is deported, it will be the first case since the Cold War of a Russian agent being removed from the Houses of Parliament.
The lawyer for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has vowed to fight moves to extradite his client from the UK to Sweden.
Swedish authorities are seeking to question Mr Assange regarding sex allegations, which his lawyer Mark Stephens has denounced as a "political stunt".
Mr Stephens said Mr Assange would "certainly" fight deportation on the grounds that it could lead to him being handed over to the US, where senior politicians have called for him to be executed.
He said that the WikiLeaks site - which was last week forced to move to a Swiss host after being dumped by US internet companies - had come under siege from "a huge number of cyber-attacks". The organisation held further secret material which it regarded as a "thermo-nuclear device" to be released if it needs to protect itself, he said.
Mr Assange, who is staying in Britain, has come under growing pressure from politicians in the US and around the world after his WikiLeaks site started publishing excerpts from a cache of 250,000 secret American diplomatic cables last week.
Former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has described him as "an anti-American operative with blood on his hands" and called for him to be hunted down like a Taliban leader, while another senior Republican Mike Huckabee has said that "anything less than execution is too kind a penalty" for what he has done.
Swedish prosecutors have sent an international arrest warrant to the Metropolitan Police, seeking his extradition for questioning on allegations - which he strongly denies - of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion.
International police agency Interpol has issued a "Red Notice" urging people to contact police with information about his whereabouts.
But Mr Stephens on Monday said that Sweden's chief prosecutor had told Mr Assange in September that there was no case for him to answer, following complaints against him by two women, but the investigation was revived following the intervention of a Swedish politician. He said that Swedish prosecutors knew where Mr Assange was and urged them to call him to discuss the case.
Meanwhile, the Australian government said it would give consular help to Assange if he is arrested abroad. However, the administration again condemned WikiLeaks' publication of secret US diplomatic documents, saying doing so threatens the security of the United States and its allies.
Former Polly Peck tycoon Asil Nadir is to issue a writ for wrongful arrest, his lawyers said.
The 69-year-old millionaire was arrested on Saturday afternoon for an alleged breach of his bail conditions. He is awaiting a multi-million pound theft trial next year and has to be in his Mayfair townhouse between midnight and 6am.
Police believed Nadir, who wears an electronic tag, was out of his home breaking his curfew at some point on Friday night and took him into custody. But after five hours of questioning Nadir emerged on Saturday evening with his 26-year-old wife Nur on to the steps of Charing Cross police station.
Claiming police had apologised, he promised to issue a writ on Monday morning "against the people that have created this most unfortunate situation".
It was not clear whether he meant the Metropolitan Police or the company that monitors his tag.
But on Sunday night his lawyers, Bark and Co, fraud specialists, issued a statement on their website saying "a full article will be released tomorrow".
It said: "Evidence in the form of witnesses and CCTV showed that there had been no such breach. Mr Nadir was released without charge and received an apology. On Monday morning a wrongful arrest writ will be served .Mr Nadir is extremely upset with the events of yesterday and a full article will be released tomorrow."
Nadir was originally charged with 66 offences of theft alleging a £34 million fraud following the collapse of his Polly Peck empire.
He fled in 1993 to northern Cyprus before the counts - put into fewer condensed charges - could be put to him at trial. But on July 30 this year Mr Justice Bean was told he wanted to return to fight the case.
Upon arriving back in Britain in August with his wife, Nadir declared he had a "little injustice to sort out" and that he was confident he would clear his name.
The Government will face a series of protests this week in the run-up to a crucial vote on controversial plans for a huge hike in university tuition fees.
Students and lecturers pledged to keep up pressure on MPs to vote against the plans following a wave of demonstrations and occupations in recent weeks, some of which have flared into violence.
The Metropolitan Police will be monitoring social network sites in the coming days to gauge the level of support for the protests and are expected to have a large number of officers on duty on Thursday, the day of the Commons vote on whether to raise fees to £9,000 a year.
Some trade unions are urging their members to join the protests, maintaining that students are in the front line of opposition to the Government's massive cuts in public spending.
The University and College Union (UCU) and the National Union of Students (NUS) on Monday announced their plans for the week's protests in their joint campaign against education funding cuts and plans to raise university fees, revealing there will be demonstrations at universities across the country on Wednesday ahead of Thursday's event. On the day of the vote there will be a mass lobby of MPs, a rally in Westminster and a candlelit vigil.
UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: "These proposals, if they go through, will change the entire landscape of education in this country and we must continue to oppose them. We need to expose the damage they will do to our universities, colleges and communities. MPs must be left in no doubt of the strength of opposition to these plans and the consequences of voting for them. We have been overwhelmed by support from people across the country against these plans and we hope they will all join us in making their voice heard this week."
NUS President Aaron Porter said: "The joint NUS and UCU march that brought together 50,0000 people on 10 November has provided the spur to a new wave of activism and lobbying, placing the Government's policy on fees and student support policy under huge pressure. This week we must keep that pressure up as the vote approaches. 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."
Bob Crow, general secretary of the Rail Maritime and Transport (RMT) union, has written to branches calling for "full support" for the protests. "This campaign is very much in the front line of the fight back against the ConDem cuts and has united pensioners, students and trade unionists in an imaginative and co-ordinated coalition of resistance. It has exposed the lies and hypocrisy of the LibDems and has opened up serious cracks in the coalition that we can all drive a wedge into.
"RMT was delighted to have students supporting our picket lines during the last Tube strike and we will make sure that there is a high-profile presence from RMT supporting the students in their action this week."
Meanwhile colleges and sixth-forms around the country will be holding lunchtime protests a week on Monday against Government plans to axe the Education Maintenance Allowance.
Policing leaders have warned ministers that they may not be able to protect frontline forces because of heavy cuts to their budgets over the coming two years, it has been revealed.
The Home Office has ordered 20% of cuts to police budgets over the next four years, but it wants to "frontload" the reductions so the bulk of the pain is felt in the next two years - with 6% sliced off Government grants next year, 8% in 2012/13 and 4% in each of the following two years.
The Association of Police Authorities (APA) on Sunday wrote to policing minister Nick Herbert, warning that this approach risks "long-term damage to policing capability". They called for the burden of the cuts to be shifted to the second half of the period covered by Chancellor George Osborne's spending review, between 2013 and 2015.
In the letter, obtained by the Daily Telegraph, the cross-party association insists that it is committed to protecting the public and frontline police services.
But it adds: "The ability of authorities and forces to achieve this outcome is seriously impacted by the phasing of the proposed cuts. While understanding the imperative to reduce expenditure quickly, a sensible, realistic approach is necessary to realise the savings objectives and avoid long term damage to policing capability."
Signatories include the APA's Conservative chairman Rob Gardham, his Labour deputy Mark Burns-Williamson and Liberal Democrat and Independent members.
Police authorities, made up of local councillors and independent members, hold police chiefs to account and set budgets in each of the 43 force areas of England and Wales, as well as a few other bodies like the British Transport Police. They are due to be replaced by directly-elected police commissioners in 2012 - by which time the worst of the cuts will already have been implemented.
Shadow home secretary Ed Balls said: "I hope the Government will seriously consider this cross-party plea. Police forces have already made clear the speed and scale of the cuts means the frontline can't be protected by long-term efficiencies. It will inevitably mean thousands fewer police officers, which will undermine the fight against crime.
"But doing all this at a time when there are a growing number of public protests, an ongoing terror threat, the security challenge of the Olympics and an expensive experiment with directly-elected police chiefs is a reckless gamble. The Government must urgently think again."
A Home Office spokesman said: "We are cutting red tape and bureaucracy, freeing officers to get back to the frontline where people want to see them. Our measures to scrap the stop and account form and reduce the box ticking around stop and search will free up to 800,000 hours of police time alone."
Sub zero temperatures will return to the UK following a brief reprieve from the freezing weather, forecasters warned.
Sunny spells graced many parts of the UK on Sunday enabling snow to thaw. But the arctic temperatures returned with a vengeance overnight with the mercury plummeting to -15C in parts of Yorkshire.
Forecasters warned that sub-zero temperatures, more snow and patches of freezing fog will make the commute to work a distinctly chilly affair.
Temperatures are expected to be as low as -5C to -10C in many areas throughout the early part of the morning.
More snowfall is also expected in Scotland and northern England.
Paul Mott, forecaster for MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association explained: "It will be a pretty cold commute to work for a lot of people today. The cold weather has really returned, by 1am the temperature in Topcliffe in North Yorkshire had fallen to -15C.
"There will be widespread snow in central and southern Scotland, this will spread to Cumbria and the North East throughout the day. Some areas can expect snowfalls of between five to 10 centimetres.
"Further south there will be some patches of freezing fog, particularly in central England, areas such as Gloucester and the Cotswolds for example.
"And drivers should certainly take the freezing fog into account when planning a journey."
The highest maximum temperatures across the UK on Monday are expected to fluctuate between a chilly 0C and -2C. And there is no respite from the cold in sight. Mr Mott added: "There are some very cold days coming up for the rest of the week, but it does look like the situation may ease towards the weekend."
A small group of Liberal Democrat backbenchers are trying to postpone Thursday's crucial vote on university tuition fees, as the party struggles to find consensus on the divisive issue.
Leader Nick Clegg has been attempting to broker agreement on a collective abstention in the vote in the hope of preserving unity, even though he has publicly stated that he would like to vote for the package, which trebles the maximum annual fee to £9,000.
He will address his parliamentary party in the Commons on Tuesday in a last-ditch effort to prevent a three-way split, but reports suggested that he has yet to persuade key backbenchers like president Tim Farron and former leaders Charles Kennedy and Sir Menzies Campbell not to join Labour in the no lobby.
Vince Cable has been increasingly public about his desire to vote in favour of the legislation which he is responsible as Business Secretary for taking through Parliament.
Now backbencher Greg Mulholland is pushing a fourth option of calling off the vote, so that a full public consultation on the future of university funding in England can be carried out ahead of a Government White Paper in 2011.
"It is not in anyone's interests to do this at this stage," Mr Mulholland told The Guardian. "Sometimes the most courageous thing to do is to admit you need a rethink. The best thing for higher education is not to force this vote through on Thursday."
Mr Mulholland has tabled an early-day motion in the Commons, which has so far gained the support only of fellow Lib Dem John Leech and Green MP Caroline Lucas. But he is hoping to persuade the Lib Dem leadership - and their Conservative coalition partners - that delay is the best way of avoiding a damaging split which could do serious harm to the Government's stability.
Ministers on Sunday tried to shore up support for the university funding package by unveiling £150 million worth of help, which could see fees waived for one or two years for 18,000 of the poorest students under the National Scholarship Programme.
National Union of Students president Aaron Porter said that the support paled in comparison to the £500 million being cut from the Educational Maintenance Allowance for sixth-formers from disadvantaged backgrounds. He said: "They are giving a little with one hand but taking considerably more with the other hand."
And Labour's shadow business secretary John Denham said that the move amounted to an admission that higher fees will put poorer students off university. In a letter to Mr Cable, Mr Denham said the announcement of the Scholarship scheme "makes it very clear that you do believe that high fees can deter students from low-income backgrounds".
The Government is to spend £830 million in a drive to give the UK the best broadband network in Europe by 2015.
An action plan entitled Britain's Superfast Broadband Future, published by Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, sets out the ambition to create a "digital hub" in every community in the country by the end of this Parliament.
Linked to the nearest exchange by high-speed connections, the hubs would allow communities to extend the internet network to every home.
Mr Hunt said the plan aimed to stimulate private sector investment and cut barriers to business investment in the reliable and secure superfast network which ministers regard as vital to the UK's economic growth.
Ministers will invest £50 million in a second wave of pilot projects to test how digital hubs can be extended to all communities, including those in remote rural areas.
And there will be moves to cut the costs of access to communications infrastructure and new awards of 800MHz and 2.6GHz spectrum to allow the development of next-generation mobile services.
Already, more than 70% of UK households have broadband and nearly 50% have access to a superfast 50 Mbps service.
Mr Hunt said: "A superfast network will be the foundation for a new economic dynamism, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs and adding billions to our GDP.
"But it is not just about the economy, around the world there are countless examples of superfast broadband helping to build a fairer and more prosperous society, and to transform the relationship between Government and citizens."
Rural Affairs Secretary Caroline Spelman said that rolling out superfast broadband to the countryside is "probably the single most important thing we can do to ensure the sustainability of our rural communities in the 21st century".
The Government has condemned the decision by WikiLeaks to publish a secret list of facilities that the US considers vital to national security.
The website revealed a detailed list of installations worldwide including a number of sites in the UK such as satellite sites, BAE Systems plants and cable locations.
The latest leak lists hundreds of pipelines, undersea cables and factories, including a cobalt mine in Congo, an anti-snake venom factory in Australia and an insulin plant in Denmark.
A Downing Street spokesman said this morning: "We unequivocally condemn the unauthorised release of classified information. The leaks and their publication are damaging to national security in the United States, Britain and elsewhere.
"It is vital that governments are able to operate on the basis of confidentiality of information."
A spokeswoman for BAE Systems, which owns three UK sites included on the list, said: "BAE Systems recognises its role as a custodian of key industrial and military assets. We would be concerned at any activity which compromises this."
The latest revelations come as the lawyer for the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange vowed to fight moves to extradite his client from the UK to Sweden. Swedish authorities are seeking to question Mr Assange regarding sex allegations, which his lawyer Mark Stephens has denounced as a "political stunt".
Mr Stephens said Mr Assange would "certainly" fight deportation on the grounds that it could lead to him being handed over to the US, where senior politicians have called for him to be executed.
He said that the WikiLeaks site - which was last week forced to move to a Swiss host after being dumped by US internet companies - had come under siege from "a huge number of cyber-attacks".
The organisation held further secret material which it regarded as a "thermo-nuclear device" to be released if it needs to protect itself, he said.
The Foreign Office has warned holidaymakers in an Egyptian resort to be on their guard following a string of shark attacks that have left several people seriously injured and one woman dead.
An elderly German tourist died after she was attacked by an oceanic white tip shark in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh a few days after three Russians and a Ukrainian tourist were badly mauled in similar attacks.
Officials said the tourist died immediately after her arm was bitten off by the shark while she was swimming at the resort, a renowned diving and vacation resort.
Thousands of British tourists flock to Sharm el-Sheikh each year, attracted by its balmy temperatures and crystal clear waters.
In response to the attacks the Foreign Office amended its travel advice for people visiting the area.
A statement on its website read: "Attacks by oceanic white tip sharks are extremely rare and shark attacks of any kind are very unusual in the Red Sea. If you are considering diving or snorkelling in any of the Red Sea resorts be aware that safety standards of diving operators can vary considerably.
"A basic rule is never to dive or snorkel unaccompanied. Where possible make any bookings through your tour representative. Unusually cheap operators may not provide adequate safety and insurance standards."
After the attacks authorities ordered people to stay out of the water around Sharm el-Sheikh.
On Thursday, the Environment Ministry said two sharks suspected of the maulings were caught.
A British tourist described witnessing one of the shark attacks at first hand. Ellen Barnes, 31, of Horsham, West Sussex, told The Sun newspaper: "The water was churning like I was in a washing machine. I was being thrown around in the blood. The shark was thrashing and tearing at this poor woman and I could barely keep my head above the water it was so choppy."
A British soldier who died in southern Afghanistan on Sunday may have been killed by friendly fire, the Ministry of Defence has said.
The soldier, from the 3rd Battalion The Parachute Regiment, was shot while on patrol in the Nad-e Ali District of Helmand Province.
Initial reports indicate that his death may have been caused by an attack on an insurgent position by a US aircraft, an MoD spokesman said.
The spokesman said: "Further to the announcement of the death of a soldier from 3rd Battalion Parachute Regiment in Nad e-Ali yesterday, initial reports suggest that the death was caused as a result of a friendly fire incident.
"The incident will be the subject of a full investigation; however, first reports indicate that an attack on an insurgent position by a US aircraft, requested by and agreed with British forces on the ground, may have been the cause.
"The investigation is ongoing and as such it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage."
The family of the serviceman, who has not yet been named, have been told. The incident in Helmand Province is under investigation by the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf).
The soldier was part of an operation working to increase security in the district, Task Force Helmand spokesman Lieutenant Colonel David Eastman said.
He added: "He has made the ultimate sacrifice protecting the people of Nad-e Ali from insurgent intimidation and defending his country from the threat of terrorism; no more could be asked of any soldier. He will be greatly missed by all who knew him."
A total of 346 UK military personnel have died since operations in Afghanistan began in 2001.
Santa Claus has been "hijacked" in Britain into becoming a Father Christmas of a "thousand adverts", a senior Church of England bishop has warned.
The Rt Rev Dr Alan Smith, Bishop of St Albans, said the message of "selfless" St Nicholas - the saint who inspired Santa Claus - had been lost in favour of "pester power" and materialism.
The saint, a fourth century bishop of Myra in present day Turkey, was renowned for his generosity and his love of children, Dr Smith said in his Christmas message.
According to one story, St Nicholas saved three girls whose family had been unable to pay marriage dowries from being sold into prostitution by throwing three bags of gold coins into their open window one night, he said.
Dr Smith urged parents to put inexpensive oranges and gold chocolate coins into children's Christmas stockings as a way of remembering the saint.
"It's sad that in Britain the selfless St Nicholas has been hijacked and has become the Father Christmas of a thousand adverts," he said.
"We are left with little more than a materialistic Christmas, less about giving and more about self-pampering. Pester-power rules OK."
Women are facing a "grossly disproportionate and devastating" impact from the Government's emergency Budget, it has been argued at the High Court.
Women are bearing the brunt of the cuts triggered in jobs, benefits and services after a "complete failure" to take account of gender equality laws, a QC said.
The Fawcett Society, which campaigns for gender equality, is asking Mr Justice Ouseley, sitting in London, for permission to seek a High Court declaration that the June Budget is unlawful and must be reconsidered.
The society argues women are disproportionately affected because more women than men rely on the welfare benefits that are being cut, and the changes to the tax system favour far more men than women.
Karon Monaghan QC, representing the society, told the judge that, of the £8.1 billion in savings raised by the Budget, £5.7 billion was being born by women - "72% as against 28% for men."
Ms Monaghan said: "Top-line analysis demonstrates a grossly disproportionate and devastating impact so far as women are concerned." If the judge agrees the society has an arguable case, their judicial review application will go to a full hearing in the near future.
Ms Monaghan argued the Chancellor of the Exchequer had failed to comply with the Government's duty under the 1975 Sex Discrimination Act "to eliminate unlawful discrimination" and promote equality of opportunity between men and women. It failed to carry out gender equality impact assessments and act in accordance with its own gender equality scheme, said the QC.
The hearing comes as Labour equalities spokeswoman Yvette Cooper released research by the House of Commons Library which she said showed that women will bear £11 billion of the £16 billion tax, benefit and pension cuts imposed in the Budget.
The emergency Budget hit women almost three times as hard as men and Chancellor George Osborne's Spending Review hits them twice as hard, with a combined total of 27 different policy changes affecting women more harshly than men, said Ms Cooper.
The Government is seeking to block the High Court application, arguing the Fawcett Society failed to act promptly, and its delay could cause "serious prejudice to good public administration".
America's Continental Airlines and one of its mechanics have been found guilty of criminal negligence in causing the French Concorde crash that killed 113 people 10 years ago.
A Paris court ruled that the company and mechanic John Taylor must pay fines over the July 2000 disaster.
Taylor was also given a 15-month suspended prison sentence. All other defendants were acquitted in the verdict.
Investigators said a Continental DC-10 dropped titanium debris on the runway at Charles de Gaulle airport before the Concorde took off.
The debris cut the Concorde's tyre, hurling bits of rubber into the fuel tanks and starting a fire.
The airline was fined 265,000 dollars (£170,000), and Taylor 2,650 dollars (£1,700). Three former French officials also facing manslaughter charges were acquitted.
While France's aviation authority concluded the crash could not have been foreseen, a judicial inquiry said the plane's fuel tanks lacked sufficient protection from shock and said officials had known about the problem for more than 20 years.
The families of most of the crash victims were compensated years ago, so financial claims were not the trial's focus - the main goal was to assign responsibility. It is not uncommon for such cases to take years to reach trial in France.
Continental is now part of Chicago-based United Continental Holdings , which was formed in October as the holding company owner of United and Continental airlines, which will eventually be combined into a single airline.
https://www.continental.com/web/en-US/default.aspx?SID=28C9145C0C22479BB20986AC775569A2(Continental Airlines)
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg is facing mounting pressure over tuition fees amid more signs of splits among his MPs.
Transport minister Norman Baker hinted that he could choose to resign from the Government rather than back sharp hikes, while backbenchers urged the postponement of Thursday's crunch vote.
Meanwhile, the situation descended into confusion after an impostor pretending to be Lib Dem ministerial aide Mike Crockart said he is also ready to quit over the issue.
Deputy Prime Minister Mr Clegg is due to make a last-ditch effort to head off a crisis when he addresses his parliamentary party on Tuesday night.
Lib Dem grandee Lord Ashdown has also appealed for MPs not to breach the coalition agreement by voting against the plans, while Downing Street warned that the principle of collective responsibility for ministers still applies.
However, there are signs that opposition within the party is hardening despite efforts to strike a deal.
Asked on BBC One South East's Politics Show whether he would be backing the change or abstaining, Mr Baker said: "Or voting against. There are three options and, to be honest with you, I genuinely haven't decided."
He added: "It's an option if you resign. There are three options on the table and I haven't yet decided what I'm going to do."
In a bizarre episode, someone claiming to be Mr Crockart, the parliamentary private secretary to Scottish Secretary Michael Moore, told the Evening Standard: "I will be voting against 100%. I'm not going to be pushed out. Resigning probably will be the only option." Questions were only raised about his identity when the impersonator was interviewed on BBC Radio 4's the World at One, and colleagues realised it was not the Edinburgh West MP.
The Lib Dems then released a more tempered statement on behalf of the real Mr Crockart that said: "Discussions are still going on with parliamentary colleagues. I have not made a final decision."
Plunging temperatures and more heavy snow have swept across large parts of Britain once again, ending the weekend respite from the Arctic conditions.
A band of snow swept across the central belt of Scotland, causing major disruption in Glasgow and Edinburgh and shutting a number of airports.
Commuters faced gridlock on the roads or delayed and cancelled rail and bus services as they struggled to get to and from work.
Dozens of schools were once again closed, with many being forced to shut at lunchtime as the heavy snow continued to fall.
Temperatures across Britain struggled to rise above freezing after a night which saw Mercury plunge to as low as minus 18C in parts of Yorkshire.
The AA said it had attended more than 10,800 breakdowns by 11am on Monday, with calls coming in at just under 3,000 per hour - roughly double the usual rate.
Spokesman Gavin Hill-Smith said: "Extremely cold weather across the country coinciding with Monday morning, one of the busiest times of the week, has made for a very busy morning - even busier than last Monday when we had the widespread snow."
Problems reported included vehicles failing to start and frozen door locks.
