The Guardian World News

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• George Osborne: Euro crisis proves need for cuts
• Turkish peace plan put to Gaddafi
• Phone firms challenge Yates evidence
• Alcohol linked to cancer risk in UK
• Calls for end to Ivory Coast sanctions
• Obama says progress in budget talks
• Twelve children killed at Rio school
• Fukushima evacuated after quake
• WikiLeaks cables reveal Israel's fears
• Jury told Tomlinson's 'last words'
• PM brokers £800m defence deal
• HMRC criticised over internships
• Peace camp to stay for royal wedding
• US to fund Sesame Street remake for Pakistan
• 'I didn't belong to anybody'
• Sir David Attenborough's TV life
• My lover wants me to do it all in bed
• Lost Dr Seuss stories to be published
• Clinton the role model for Queen
• Commodore 64 lives again!
• Cash Isa holders urged to switch
• Show honours female war artists

George Osborne: Euro crisis proves need for cuts Posted: 07 Apr 2011 04:05 PM PDT Chancellor 'scaremongering' over Portuguese bailout, Labour says, after he stressed domestic significance of single currency George Osborne used Portugal's plea for a €90bn (£79bn) rescue package to justify the government's austerity plans and warned that those who denied the need to deal with the budget deficit were "playing Russian roulette with Britain's national sovereignty". The chancellor will join other EU finance ministers in Budapest to work out the tough terms of a bailout for Portugal after the eurozone's debt crisis claimed its third victim within a year. But he was accused by his Labour shadow, Ed Balls, of "scaremongering" after stressing that the deepening problems of the single currency had a domestic significance. Financial markets responded calmly to the news that Portugal had finally sought help from its EU partners but, amid concerns that Spain could be the next target for speculative attack, Brussels said its plea would be treated "in the swiftest possible manner". Pressure on the weaker countries of the 17-nation eurozone was increasedwhen the European Central Bank raised interest rates for the first time in almost three years. The ECB had put pressure on a reluctant Portugal to drop its hardline opposition to a bailout amid concerns that Portuguese banks were becoming too reliant on ECB funding. "We have encouraged the Portuguese authorities to ask for support," said Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the ECB. Spain ruled out the possibility that it would be the next to buckle. Finance minister Elena Salgado said Spain's economy "is more diversified, more powerful with sound basics, and is much more competitive" than Portugal's. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development backed Spain's chances of avoiding a bailout: "Spain will not have the same problems as Portugal has been facing because it has been addressing those problems for quite some time," said Angel Gurría, the secretary general of the Paris-based thinktank. In the UK, the Bank of England left borrowing costs on hold at 0.5% as Osborne used a keynote speech to the British Chambers of Commerce to spell out the government's case for deficit reduction. "If you hear the stories about the cuts and still wonder why our country needs to take these difficult decisions, then look at what is happening around us. First Greece, then Ireland, today Portugal," he said. "All of them countries that did not convince the world they could pay their debts. Two of them countries with smaller budget deficits than Britain. Now all of them being bailed out, at huge costs to their populations. "Today of all days we can see the risks that would face Britain, if we were not dealing with our debts and paying off our national credit card. These risks are not imaginary – they are very, very real. Those in our country who deny the urgent need to deal with our deficit are playing Russian roulette with Britain's national sovereignty." Balls, speaking to Sky News, said: "I think this is a desperate piece of scaremongering from what is an increasingly desperate chancellor who looks out of his depth. If anybody is playing Russian roulette with the British economy, it is George Osborne taking a huge gamble now without any idea how it's going to turn out. That may be good political lines but it is very bad economics. And it's taking huge risks with jobs and businesses and family finances up and down the country. I think he has got this very, very badly wrong and he will rue this day with this blatant politicking." Attempts to resolve Portugal's crisis speedily were being hindered by Lisbon's political vacuum and over whether a caretaker government had sufficient authority to negotiate bailout terms that are likely to prove unpopular. The European commission and the ECB are expected to dispatch experts to Lisbon as early as next week to pore over the details. Anders Borg, Sweden's finance minister, condemned Portugal's delay in asking for help. "We have reason to direct sharp criticism against the Portuguese. They have placed themselves and Europe in a very difficult situation," he complained. "They should have requested aid much earlier." Portugal last month became the second country in a few months to suffer a government collapse because of the European debt crisis. But unlike Ireland, and previously Greece, the negotiations with Lisbon involve a lame duck prime minister, José Socrates, who lacks the electoral legitimacy to impose the kind of austerity and spending cuts that the eurozone will demand as the price of rescue. It is assumed that Socrates will have to strike a deal with the main opposition centre-right Social Democrats in order to secure a negotiating mandate. The collapse of his government last month means that Portugal has been thrust into an early election, with the ballot on 5 June. By then it needs to raise around €10bn, meaning that EU funds would need to be disbursed before the election. EU governments are eager to avoid a repeat of the Irish scenario, where the government negotiated the bailout deal, then lost an election and its successor sought to unpick the terms. Amid speculation about a "bridging loan" to tide Portugal over until the elections, Brussels and Berlin stressed that, legally, the sole instruments available were the two temporary vehicles created last May, the European Financial Stability Mechanism and the European Financial Stability Facility – the first totalling €60bn administered by the commission (with Britain liable for 13.7%) and the second comprising €440bn in eurozone government loan guarantees. Access to those funds requires "strict conditionality". It is also highly probable that the International Monetary Fund, at German insistence, will need to be involved, whether Socrates wants it or not. European debt crisis George Osborne European banks Tax and spending Europe Euro European Union Economics Larry Elliott Ian Traynor guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Turkish peace plan put to Gaddafi Posted: 07 Apr 2011 01:15 PM PDT Rebels also 'positive' about three-point plan after separate meeting with Turkish officials Turkey has proposed a path to a peaceful resolution to the deadlocked conflict in Libya, involving a withdrawal by Muammar Gaddafi's forces from cities held by the rebels, and democratic reform. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, has outlined the proposal in Ankara, saying: "We are working on the details of this roadmap." It would include humanitarian corridors in Libya, he said. Turkey, which this week hosted an envoy from the Gaddafi regime, the new foreign minister, Abdel Ati al-Obeidi, said the measures would be discussed at an international meeting on Libya in Qatar next week. The US, European countries and Middle Eastern allies will take part. Obeidi was reported to be floating ideas for a three-country tour in search of a political solution, with Gaddafi staying in power while constitutional reforms were introduced. Libya's opposition and the international coalition reject any plan involving Gaddafi remaining in power. Erdogan outlined three elements to his proposal: a ceasefire in the cities surrounded by Gaddafi's forces, including Misrata; a humanitarian corridor to allow aid to enter, co-ordinated with Tripoli; and negotiations leading to a new political process in Libya, including free elections. Sources close to Erdogan said he had discussed the proposal with Obeidi, who would take the message back to Tripoli. The Turkish government also met Mustafa Abdul Jalil, the chairman of the rebel council, in Doha recently. Jalil was said to have been "positive" about the proposal. Meanwhile, Nato is investigating a claim by Libyan rebels that a botched air strike has killed at least 13 of its fighters as the west scrambled to deal with what commanders admit is a flaw in communications with rebels on the battlefield. The revolutionary leadership sought to defuse anger at Nato over the strike near the frontline town of Brega, where several missiles hit rebel tanks, by claiming that it was carried out by Gaddafi's air force. That appeared unlikely given the imposition of the no-fly zone and the destruction of his air defences in recent days. The Nato aircraft appear not to have been informed that, for the first time, rebels had moved several tanks, rocket launchers and other armour up to the frontline . All of it was seized from government forces and therefore was indistinguishable from Gaddafi's weaponry. But the second Nato attack on rebel forces in less than a week deepened anger and suspicion about the actions of the alliance, which is accused in rebel-held areas of abandoning the fight against Gaddafi. Nato had been keen to assuage those concerns by demonstrating that it is still taking on the Libyan leader's army. A rebel commander, Ayman Abdul-Karim, told the Associated Press that he had seen air strikes hit tanks and a rebel convoy, including a bus carrying fighters toward Brega. He and other rebels described dozens killed or wounded. Rebel fighters who saw the strike were furious. "Nato are liars. They are siding with Gaddafi," said Salem Mislat. Thirteen people, including three doctors, died last Friday in a western air raid after rebels opened fire with an anti-aircraft gun while a Nato plane was overhead. Yesterday's incident came as western powers tried to improve slow communications between the rebels and Nato commanders, who are receiving old information about the situation on the ground. A fresh assault by Gaddafi's forces appeared to be pushing the revolutionaries back once again. The government army advanced close enough to Ajdabiya, the last main town before the revolutionaries' de facto capital, Benghazi, to shell its western gate. That sent people fleeing in their thousands from Ajdabiya, which has changed hands several times. The revolutionaries' military problems are being compounded by a looming economic crisis. Western governments that have established diplomatic ties with the revolutionary council are now urgently trying to find ways to legally get frozen Libyan assets to the rebel administration, which says it has less than a fortnight's cash available. The matter is complicated by UN sanctions against Libyan state bodies, which appear to prevent western governments from transferring funds in to banks even in rebel-held territory. The US holds about £20bn in Libyan assets and Britain has several billion, but officials say releasing the funds is proving legally complicated. The economic crisis is likely to be compounded by plunging oil production that was cut further on Wednesday by an attack on a pumping station. Nato dismissed the regime's claims that British planes were responsible for the attack, saying it was carried out by Gaddafi's forces. The American general who heads the US's Africa command, Carter Ham, told Congress that he believes the conflict is settling into a stalemate. He advised against providing weapons to the rebels until the US is confident about who exactly they are, amid warnings from other members of the American military about ties to Islamist extremists. However, that concern is rapidly receding among western diplomats dispatched to Benghazi to deal with the rebels who say that they have been impressed by a commitment to creating a free and democratic society. Libyan spokesman Musa Ibrahim said he was not aware of the details of the plan, but added: "We are open to all proposals for reform from within Libya." Libya Middle East Turkey Nato Muammar Gaddafi Chris McGreal Seumas Milne Harriet Sherwood guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Phone firms challenge Yates evidence Posted: 07 Apr 2011 11:48 AM PDT Four phone companies dispute that police 'ensured' they warn potential News of the World phone-hacking victims John Yates, the senior police officer at the centre of the phone-hacking scandal, faces a new set of allegations that he has misled parliament. A Guardian investigation has found that all four leading mobile phone companies dispute evidence that Yates has given to a select committee about police efforts to warn public figures whose voicemails were intercepted by the News of the World. During the original police inquiry in 2006 phone companies identified a total of at least 120 politicians, police officers, members of the royal household and others whose voicemail had been accessed by Glenn Mulcaire, the NoW's private investigator. Yates told the home affairs select committee last September that police had "ensured" the phone companies warned all of their suspected victims. But all four companies have told the Guardian police made no such move and that most of the victims were never warned by them. Two of the companies, Orange and Vodafone, wrote to Scotland Yard last autumn, spelling out the fact that they had told none of their customers that they had been hacked and that police had never asked them to. The home affairs committee on Thursday said that more than four months after those letters were sent to the Yard, it was unaware of Yates having made any attempt to tell it that there might be a problem with the evidence he gave. The committee chairman, Keith Vaz, said he would write to Yates and to the phone companies to clarify the position. The latest allegations come after a public dispute in which Keir Starmer, the director of public prosecutions, has challenged Yates's account to parliament of the advice that police were given by prosecutors and the impact this had on the original investigation of the affair and the number of victims who were identified. At a session of the committee on Tuesday, Vaz said the DPP's evidence clearly contradicted the account which Yates had given to the committee the previous week and that he would be writing to Yates to ask for an explanation. Yates is currently acting deputy commissioner of the Met. In relation to the phone companies, the key evidence from Yates was given to the committee in September last year when Vaz asked him whether police had warned all the public figures whose pin codes had been found in Glenn Mulcaire's paperwork. Yates said: "We have taken what I consider to be all reasonable steps in conjunction with the major service providers – the Oranges, Vodafones – to ensure where we had even the minutest possibility they may have been the subject of an attempt to hack or hacking, we have taken all reasonable steps." MP Mary Macleod asked what he meant by "reasonable steps", and Yates replied: "Speaking to them or ensuring the phone company has spoken to them." The four leading mobile phone companies all say that this is not correct and that the police did not ask them to warn any victims among their customers. All of them searched their call data as part of the police inquiry in 2006 and all initially followed the standard procedure, which is to keep such inquiries confidential. Vodafone found about 40 customers whose voicemail had been intercepted. They told none of them that they had been victims but warned a small number in particularly sensitive positions to check their security. A spokesman said: "We were not asked by the Met police to contact any customers but believed it was important that we inform as many as we could. As it was a live investigation, however, we were very limited in the information we could pass on to customers. We were only able to remind customers, where we believed it was appropriate, of the importance of voicemail security." Orange identified about 45 customers whose voicemail had been dialled from Mulcaire's phone numbers. It said it warned none of them but passed the customers' details to Scotland Yard. A spokesman for Orange said: "At no point during the investigations were we asked, nor did we feel it right, to take further action in relation to these customers. The Metropolitan police are fully aware of our position on this." T-Mobile gave police information from its call records but says it never finally identified customers who were victims and therefore warned none. A spokesman said: "We have never been supplied with a list of names or telephone numbers by the police of customers who may have been compromised, nor were we asked by the police to contact any of them." O2 identified about 40 customers whose voicemail had been successfully accessed. It is the only company to have taken a corporate decision to approach and warn all of them. Asked about Yates's evidence, a spokesman for O2 said: "We weren't contacted by the police and asked proactively to get in touch with customers to warn them if they had been victims." It is now clear that police failed to inform not only those victims who were identified by the phone companies but a large number of others whose details were found in notebooks, computer records and audiotapes seized from Mulcaire in August 2006 but never properly investigated until the Yard began its third investigation into the affair in January. The failure means that police broke an agreement with the DPP that they would contact "all potential victims". It also means many of the victims were deprived of the chance to check the call data, which is kept by the phone companies for only 12 months, and that they had no opportunity to change their pin codes or to assess the damage done by the interception of their messages. The immediate problem for Scotland Yard is that the phone companies, like the DPP, are now challenging the evidence given to the public and parliament by the most senior officer in the affair, John Yates. In July 2009, he made a public statement: "Where there was clear evidence that people had potentially been the subject of tapping, they were all contacted by police." In February 2010 he wrote to the culture, media and sport committee: "Where information exists to suggest some form of interception of an individual's phone was or may have been attempted by Goodman and Mulcaire, the Metropolitan police has been diligent and taken all proper steps to ensure those individuals have been informed." Yates's evidence about the phone companies last September prompted an exchange of letters. According to one senior police source, speaking on condition of anonymity, Detective Chief Superintendent Philip Williams, who works directly under John Yates, wrote to mobile phone companies in October, claiming that he believed that the companies had contacted "all of the people potentially identified as being victims." On November 2, Orange wrote back to DCS Williams. The company is understood to have told him that police had never asked them to contact victims and that they had not done so. On November 22 Vodafone also wrote to DCS Williams. It is understood that the company expressed surprise that he was claiming to believe that it had contacted victims in 2006; it pointed out that it was for the police, not for the phone companies, to establish who had been victims of crime; and indicated it had no record of the police ever asking it to contact customers. Last month – more than four months after that exchange of letters – Yates gave evidence on phone-hacking to the home affairs committee and to the culture, media and sport committee. He made no reference to the letters. Nor did he tell the committee that the two companies had challenged his previous account. However, in evidence to the media committe, he did indicate some awareness of a problem. He said: "I think there is some confusion with some of the mobile phone companies as to who was doing what, and we need to get some clarity around that … I am not sure that the follow-up was as thorough as it could have been." In a statement on Thursday night, Scotland Yard said Yates had told the home affairs select committee in September 2010: "We think we have done all that is reasonable but we will continue to review it as we go along." A spokesman said the correspondence with the phone companies was part of that review and Yates had acknowledged in recent evidence to both select committees that more should have been done for victims. A spokesman said the current inquiry was reviewing the victim strategy. Nick Davies guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Alcohol linked to cancer risk in UK Posted: 07 Apr 2011 04:01 PM PDT Charity urges Europe-wide action to cut consumption after huge study underlines risks of drinking too much At least 13,000 cancers in the UK every year are the result of people's drinking habits, according to one of the largest studies ever carried out into diet and cancer. The research, carried out across eight European countries including the UK, has found that thousands of cancers could be prevented if men had the equivalent of no more than two drinks a day and women had no more than one. Nearly half of the alcohol-related cancers in the UK – nearly 6,000 – were related to the mouth and throat. Alcohol is a key cause of cancer of the mouth, oesophagus, voicebox and pharynx. But alcohol also causes more than 3,000 colorectal cancers and about 2,500 breast cancers every year, according to Cancer Research UK, which cofunded the study. The full extent of the damage is revealed by the Epic study (European prospective investigation into cancer and nutrition), which is monitoring the links between diet and cancer in the UK, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Greece, Germany and Denmark. It finds that 10% of men's cancers and 3% of women's cancers in western Europe are caused by drinking. Doctors and health groups are already concerned about the rise in liver disease. The British Liver Trust said the study should trigger a Europe-wide effort at preventing alcohol-related harm. "Once again we are seeing the impact alcohol can have in all areas of health," said the trust's campaigns manager, Sarah Matthews. "While alcohol damage is often linked to the liver, this study highlights the impact alcohol has on the rest of the organs in the body. "The results are not a surprise as we feel we haven't touched the tip of the iceberg in preventing alcohol health harms in the UK. Substantive measures, such as setting a minimum pricing at an effective level, have been ignored and we continue to employ a half-hearted attempt in protecting the health of society. This study should form the basis of EU action to tackle the four Ps of alcohol marketing – price, promotion, placement and product. Only then will we see a change in how alcohol is viewed and consumed." The study looked at the past and present drinking habits of nearly 364,000 men and women, mostly aged between 35 and 70 at the time of recruitment in the mid-1990s. They completed a detailed questionnaire on diet and lifestyle when they joined the study. Alcohol consumption was measured by specific questions on the amount, frequency and type of drink. The study, published by the British Medical Journal, found that thousands of cancers could have been avoided if people had consumed no more than one drink a day for women or two for men. In 2008, current and former alcohol consumption by men was responsible for about 57,600 cases of cancer of the upper digestive tract, colorectum and liver in Denmark, Greece, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Britain. More than half of these cases (33,000) were caused by drinking more than two alcoholic drinks per day. There were about 21,500 cases of cancer of the upper digestive tract, liver, colorectum and breast in women in the eight countries in 2008, the study found. Most – 17,400 cases, or 80% – were due to consumption of more than one drink of beer, wine or spirits a day, the researchers say. Madlen Schütze, first author of the study and epidemiologist at the German Institute of Human Nutrition in Potsdam-Rehbrücke, said: "Many cancer cases could have been avoided if alcohol consumption is limited to two drinks per day in men and one drink per day in women, which are the recommendations of many health organisations. And even more cancer cases would be prevented if people reduced their alcohol intake to below recommended guidelines or stopped drinking alcohol at all." Naomi Allen, a Cancer Research UK-funded epidemiologist based at Oxford University, who was involved with the Epic study, said: "This research supports existing evidence that alcohol causes cancer and that the risk increases even with drinking moderate amounts." She added that alcohol was probably causing even more cancers than the research suggests. "The results from this study reflect the impact of people's drinking habits about 10 years ago," she said. Alcohol Cancer Health Sarah Boseley guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Calls for end to Ivory Coast sanctions Posted: 07 Apr 2011 10:27 PM PDT Alassane Ouattara said he asked the European Union to lift sanctions on the main ports of the Ivory Coast which is the world's top cocoa producer Ivory Coast's internationally recognised president Alassane Ouattara has called for an end to sanctions and sought to return the war-torn country to normal, despite a continuing military standoff with incumbent Laurent Gbagbo. UN-backed Ouattara said his forces had blockaded Gbagbo in the presidential residence in Abidjan and he had asked the European Union to lift sanctions on the main ports of the world's top cocoa producer. With Gbagbo refusing to step down, Ouattara, who the UN says won a presidential election meant to draw a line under Ivory Coast's 2002-3 civil war, took the first steps towards assuming executive powers in a televised address on Thursday. He promised to restore security and utilities, meet basic needs and pay salaries after five months of conflict which has killed thousands of people and left residents of what was once West Africa's most prosperous country without food and water. In New York, Ouattara's UN envoy accused Gbagbo of arming his supporters all over the country but said Ouattara would soon announce an end to a ban on cocoa exports he imposed in January. Dealers say about 500,000 metric tons of cocoa is stuck in the country. "I have asked that European Union sanctions on the ports of Abidjan and San Pedro and certain public entities, be lifted," Ouattara said in a speech broadcast on French television. "I have also asked the central bank BCEAO to reopen its branches in Ivory Coast, to ensure a resumption of operations in all banks so as to enable the payment of salaries and arrears in the shortest possible time," he said on television channel LCI. Diplomatic and military efforts to oust Gbagbo this week have been met with fierce resistance and Ouattara said his residence had been sealed off to protect the area. "As for the outgoing President Mr Laurent Gbagbo, who has entrenched himself at the presidential residence in Cocody with heavy weapons and mercenaries, a blockade has been established around the perimeter to secure the inhabitants of the district," Ouattara said. A week of fighting for control of the economic capital Abidjan has driven terrified residents to scramble to find food and water, with frequent power cuts and hospitals overwhelmed with wounded. "Every morning people have to take jerrycans to walk around the neighbourhood and search for water," Cocody resident Jean-Claude said. "As for food, there is nothing left. People have to queue up in long lines to buy even a single baguette." Ouattara said he had asked generals to take all necessary steps to maintain order and security of goods, people and their movements and also secure the delivery of food to markets and medicines in hospitals and health centres. He said steps would also be taken to shed light on all crimes committed during the conflict and would collaborate with international organisations to investigate human rights abuses and punish those found guilty. The International Criminal Court prosecutor said on Tuesday he was in talks with West African states about referring alleged atrocities in the Ivory Coast to the court after a reported massacre in the west of the country. "We have established a national commission of inquiry whose findings will be made public and the perpetrators of crimes will be severely punished," Ouattara said. UN peacekeepers have surrounded Gbagbo's "last defenders", France said on Thursday, after a week of heavy fighting to unseat him. French Defence Minister Gerard Longuet said Gbagbo had about 1,000 men, 200 of whom were in the residence. A UN spokesman in Abidjan told Reuters the United Nations had forces on standby in the upscale Cocody neighbourhood. "We have sent a patrol to Cocody and the surrounding area, but it is not to intervene," UN spokesman Hamadoun Toure told Reuters. "I am not aware that Ouattara has requested our intervention at this stage." Gunfire could be heard on Thursday coming from Gbagbo's presidential palace in the Plateau district and also in the Cocody neighbourhood where his residence is located. "Right now there is shooting every 30 minutes," a Cocody resident, who gave his name as Jean-Claude, said by phone. There was no sign of a major assault by Ouattara's forces, repelled on Wednesday by Gbagbo's feared Republican Guard and youth militias armed with heavy weapons, after talks led by the United Nations and France to secure Gbagbo's departure failed. Earlier this week Ouattara's spokesman said his forces had been told not to kill him. UN envoy Youssoufou Bamba said on Thursday Ouattara's people were no longer negotiating with Gbagbo but wanted him captured and brought to justice. France has taken a leading role in talks to persuade Gbagbo to hand over to Ouattara and end the standoff. Helicopters from French forces and the United Nations peacekeeping mission bombarded Gbagbo's heavy weapons stockpiles earlier this week, including those near his residence. Political analysts said Ouattara forces, who swept south last week in a lightly contested march toward Abidjan, could struggle to defeat Gbagbo's remaining presidential guard without French and UN help. Gbagbo has ruled Ivory Coast since 2000 and blames Paris for supporting the north of the country in the civil war of 2002-03. Rebels from that war now make up the bulk of Ouattara's force. Ivory Coast Alassane Ouattara Laurent Gbagbo Europe United Nations guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Obama says progress in budget talks Posted: 07 Apr 2011 07:36 PM PDT Obama says the two sides have narrowed their differences and staff will work through the night to try to close a deal President Barack Obama expressed hope that a US government shutdown can be averted on Saturday after late-night talks with the Republicans at the White House on Thursday night aimed at agreeing a budget deal. Obama, after meeting the House Speaker, John Boehner, a Republican, and the Senate leader, Harry Reid, a Democrat, said the two sides had narrowed their differences and staff would work through the night to try to close a deal. Obama said: "I have just completed another meeting with the Speaker. We made some additional progress this evening." He said he expected to announce Friday that the shutdown had been averted. But, he added, there remained significant differences. "I am not prepared to express wild optimism," he said. "But I think we are further along today than we were yesterday." With the federal government due to shut down at midnight Friday, Obama said contingency plans would have to be put in train to begin closing services and so he needed an answer from Boehner early Friday. Without a deal, about 800,000 federal staff face being suspended without pay and a range of government services will be withdrawn as hundreds of agencies either continue with a reduced operation or close altogether. Boehner and Reid issued a joint statement confirming they had narrowed their differences but they had not yet reached agreement and that their staffs would work through the night. Obama postponed a trip Friday to Indiana where he planned to make a speech which has been postponed because of the budget crisis. The president wants to be on hand for any further budget negotiations. The US Congress has begun sending out letters warning staff they will be suspended from this weekend along with hundreds of thousands of other workers as part of a looming federal government shutdown. The letters inform staff whether they are regarded as essential – necessary to maintain security and keep Congress running – or non-essential. The process will be repeated at the White House, the Pentagon and hundreds of federal agencies that are preparing to scale back or cease operation from midnight on Friday. If no last-minute agreement is reached, the government will begin stopping everything from tourist visits to the Statue of Liberty and Alcatraz to wages for about 800,000 federal employees. In Washington, libraries will close, there will be no parking attendants and, for one week, no rubbish collection, and the University of the District of Columbia would also be shut. One of the most emotional issues is that troops in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere would not receive pay cheques until the crisis is resolved. But they would at least continue earning during any shutdown, unlike civilian employees. The Republicans want a cut in the federal deficit of $40bn (£24bn). The Democrats made a compromise offer of $34.5bn on Wednesday. The new sticking points are mainly the areas where the Republicans want cuts – abortion programmes and environmental protection, on which the Democrats refuse to give way. Reid, speaking in the Senate early on Thursday, said: "The numbers are basically there. But I'm not nearly as optimistic – and that's an understatement – as I was 11 hours ago. The numbers are extremely close. Our differences are no longer over how much savings we get on government spending." He added: "The only thing holding up an agreement is an ideology." He said the Republican leadership had drawn a line in the sand over abortion and clean air, issues he said had no place in a budget bill. But Boehner's office disputed that there was even agreement on the numbers. The House, which is controlled by the Republicans, passed a bill that would keep the federal government going for at least another week. But the Senate, which is Democratic-controlled, will not pass it and Obama said he would veto it anyway. The Democrats say they are not interested in another stop-gap measure and insist is only a Republican attempt to avoid blame for a shutdown. As evidence, they say that the bill includes $12bn in cuts. US politics United States Barack Obama Democrats Republicans US Congress Ewen MacAskill guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Twelve children killed at Rio school Posted: 07 Apr 2011 12:22 PM PDT Brazilian media describes killing by former pupil as the worst school massacre in the country's history A gunman opened fire at a school in Rio de Janeiro, killing at least 12 children, mostly girls aged between 11 and 13, in what Brazilian media described as the worst school massacre in the country's history. Ten of the victims were shot in the head or chest by the 23-year-old gunman, who was named as Wellington Menezes de Oliveira. Another 18 people were reported to have been injured, several seriously, before Oliveira killed himself. Witnesses said Oliveira, a former student of the Tasso da Silveira school in Realengo, in western Rio, approached the school with two handguns just before 8.30am and opened fire on two boys on a nearby street. He shot one in the head and one in the arm. Oliveira is then said to have continued through the school's metal gates and through its front door where a yellow sign reads: "Smile: you are being filmed." Dorival Porto Rafael, a rubbish collector who was at the school, told Globo online that the gunman had walked into a class where students were studying Portuguese. "He came into the class saying he was going to give a talk. He went to an eighth-grade class, on the [ground floor], and without saying anything took out a pistol from his bag and started firing," Rafael said. "The police arrived and he tried to go up to the next floor, but when he saw he was surrounded he shot himself in the head." Authorities said Oliveira's killing spree ended only because of the intervention of a military policeman who managed to shoot him in the leg before he took his own life. Crowds jeered as the killer's body was carried out of the school and bundled into a yellow morgue van, wrapped in a black plastic bag. Brazil's president, Dilma Rousseff, has declared three days of national mourning. Speaking at a hastily arranged press conference on the school's tatty basketball court, the mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes, said the tragedy might have been much worse without the policeman's intervention. "God willing, those who are still in danger will not die," he added. Rio's governor, Sergio Cabral, said Oliveira had been "heavily armed with two guns and a belt filled with professional ammunition". "I believe it is our duty to … support the families of the young boys and girls killed by this psychopath, this animal," he added. President Rousseff said: "We must unite in rejecting this act of violence … against defenceless children — children who have lost their lives and their futures." One witness told the Guardian he had seen between 15 and 20 children dead or seriously wounded. "It is a massacre, a true massacre," said Roni de Macedo, a firefighter who arrived on the scene shortly after the shooting began and dragged eight seriously injured children from the school. "There is blood on the walls, blood on the chairs. There are 15 to 20 dead I think," he said, covered in blood from head to toe. "I've never seen anything like this. It's like something in the United States." Hercilei Antunes, 44, a postman who lives opposite the school and has a daughter there, said: "I saw a load of injured kids, bleeding kids. I saw a dead guy inside. I heard more than 30 shots. "I heard shots, shots, shots and more shots. I tried to go in, but he shot more and I am not made of steel," he added. Antunes's porch was blood-stained where he had given first aid to injured children as they fled the school. With police helicopters hovering overhead, Yvonette Fernandes wept as she looked for her 12-year-old niece, along with scores of other desperate family members. "Where is she? I want to know where she is." Some students recounted lucky escapes. Sidcley Lopes Garcia, 13, said he had arrived late for class and was outside when he heard the first shots. "I jumped over the wall," he said. "Lots of my friends were injured." Another 12-year-old student stood outside the school weeping. "I thought I was going to die," she cried. "He shot my friend. My friend is dead." Twins Brenda and Bianca Rocha Tavares, 13, were inside the school at the time of the shooting and were both hit. Brenda died after being shot in the head, while her sister was shot in the arms and taken to hospital for surgery. "I was working when I heard about the shooting and came here," Perla Maria dos Reis Paes, their aunt, told O Globo."Unfortunately my niece is dead." Brazil Tom Phillips guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Fukushima evacuated after quake Posted: 07 Apr 2011 12:44 PM PDT Powerful 7.1 magnitude quake shook north-east part of country, but fears that it would trigger a tsunami have subsided Workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant were forced to evacuate on Thursday night after a powerful earthquake shook northeast Japan, almost a month to the day since the region was hit by a quake and tsunami that killed an estimated 28,000 people. Two people were killed in the quake and more than 130 people injured, according to the national police agency. A 79-year-old man died of shock and a woman in her 60s was killed when power was cut to her oxygen tank. Fears that the magnitude 7.1 quake, the strongest since the tsunami, would set off another series of huge waves subsided with the lifting of a tsunami warning about 90 minutes later. The nuclear plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power, said Thursday's earthquake had not caused further damage to the facility, adding that workers battling to cool down overheating reactors had temporarily retreated to an on-site quake-resistant shelter. The latest earthquake caused power outages across a wide area of northern Japan and knocked out several power lines at Onagawa nuclear power station north of Sendai city. One remaining power line continued to supply electricity as normal, and there have been no reports of abnormal radiation levels in the area. The plant's spent fuel pools briefly lost cooling capacity but an emergency diesel generator quickly kicked in. The earthquake struck 30 miles beneath the water off the coast of Sendai, about the same depth and location as the magnitude 9.0 quake on 11 March. The earthquake hit shortly after 11.30pm local time. The violent shaking lasted about 30 seconds, hurling items on to the floor in the neighbourhood near the city's main railway station. In Miyagi prefecture motorways were closed and bullet train services were partially suspended. In Sendai hotel guests and diners filed on to streets, some clutching torches as they began walking home in near-darkness. Sirens from emergency vehicles filled the air, but more than three hours later there were no reports of major damage. Police and the fire service officials said they had received numerous calls about fires and gas leaks. NHK, Japan's public broadcaster, said seven people had been injured, two of them seriously. The earthquake sent the dollar sliding against the yen and wiped out early gains in European stock markets. The International Atomic Energy Agency said progress was being made to stabilise the Fukushima Daiichi plant, where workers have been injecting nitrogen into a reactor to prevent a potentially explosive build-up of hydrogen gas. "The situation at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant remains very serious," Denis Flory, head of the IAEA's nuclear safety department, told reporters. But he added: "There are early signs of recovery in some functions such as electrical power and instrumentation." Japan Japan disaster Natural disasters and extreme weather Justin McCurry guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

WikiLeaks cables reveal Israel's fears Posted: 07 Apr 2011 01:00 PM PDT Julian Assange hands over tranche of secret files to newspapers in Israel on its co-operation with US and view of neighbours Mohammed Tantawi, the head of Egypt's ruling generals, was an obstacle to Israeli efforts to stop arms smuggling within the Gaza strip, according to Israeli security forces. The assessment was privately delivered to US diplomats, alongside praise for former intelligence chief Omar Suleiman's efforts to stop weapons trafficking, according to the WikiLeaks embassy cables. The revelations come in a tranche of the most militarily sensitive cables from the US embassy in Tel Aviv. They have been handed over to Israeli newspapers by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The Hebrew-language paper Yediot this week announced a deal under which it will print an interview with Assange, who has recently had to defend WikiLeaks from accusations of antisemitism. The cables show intimate co-operation between US and Israeli intelligence organisations. Israel's preoccupation with Iranian nuclear ambitions is well known and the US cables detail the battering on the subject that diplomats repeatedly receive from Tel Aviv. They also shed detailed and sometimes unexpected light on Israel's military analyses of its other enemies and friends in the region. Egypt is the primary route for weapons and munitions into the Gaza strip, and the US has been facilitating co-operation between Israel and Egypt to tackle this for several years. On arms smuggling across the Egyptian border to Hamas in Gaza, Israeli intelligence chiefs described as "supportive" Omar Suleiman, who was Egypt's intelligence minister, but said defence minister Mohammed Hussein Tantawi was "an obstacle" in a November 2009 cable. Another cable seen by the Guardian reveals that the King of Bahrain, whose Arab state has recently been shaken by protests, has had friendly links with the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency. The cables report a private talk between the then US ambassador, William Monroe, and King Hamad of Bahrain in the king's palace on 15 February 2005. Monroe reported back to Washington: "He [the king] revealed that Bahrain already has contacts with Israel at the intelligence/security level (ie with Mossad) and indicated that Bahrain will be willing to move forward in other areas." The cables also shed light on Israel's assessment of Hezbollah's mounting capability to strike directly at Tel Aviv with an arsenal of more than 20,000 missiles. Israeli intelligence chiefs briefed their US counterparts during a regular Joint Political Military Group (JPMG) session on 18 November 2009 about the scale of potential Hezbollah attacks from Lebanon. Washington was told: "Hezbollah possesses over 20,000 rockets ... Hezbollah was preparing for a long conflict with Israel in which it hopes to launch a massive number of rockets at Israel per day. A Mossad official estimated that Hezbollah will try to launch 400-600 rockets and missiles at Israel per day – 100 of which will be aimed at Tel Aviv. He noted that Hezbollah is looking to sustain such launches for at least two months." Other cables detail regular secret talks between the US and Yuval Diskin, head of Israel's internal security agency, Shin Beth, over the role of Hamas in Gaza. On 12 November 2009 the embassy reported the views of the general responsible for Gaza and southern Israel, Major General Yoav Galant, that Hamas needed to be "strong enough to enforce a ceasefire". He told the Americans: "Israel's political leadership has not yet made the necessary policy choices among competing priorities: a short-term priority of wanting Hamas to be strong enough to enforce the de facto ceasefire and prevent the firing of rockets and mortars into Israel; a medium priority of preventing Hamas from consolidating its hold on Gaza; and a longer-term priority of avoiding a return of Israeli control of Gaza and full responsibility for the wellbeing of Gaza's civilian population." Galant was to be made Israel's chief of defence staff earlier this year but the appointment was cancelled due to scandal. The US embassy cables WikiLeaks US foreign policy Julian Assange James Ball David Leigh guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Jury told Tomlinson's 'last words' Posted: 07 Apr 2011 04:48 AM PDT 'The fuckers got me' said newspaper seller as he collapsed after being knocked down by riot policeman, court hears Ian Tomlinson, the newspaper seller knocked down by a police officer at the G20 protests, muttered "the fuckers got me" moments before he died. The inquest into his death has already heard how Tomlinson, a father of nine, was struck with a baton and pushed to the ground by police officer Simon Harwood minutes before he died in the City of London. Describing what may have been Tomlinson's last words, a bystander told the jury in the case that he watched Tomlinson colllapse about 100 metres from where he had been pushed. The former City worker Kamran Saleem, now a charity manager, said: "He said something along the lines of 'They got me, the fuckers got me.' His voice was more quiet than normal and there was an anger to it but probably more surprised than anything." The jury, which is sitting at a venue in Fleet Street, London, has heard how Tomlinson was repeatedly turned away from police cordons near the Bank of England. The 47-year-old had been attempting to find his way home from work before he finally encountered Harwood, a member of the Metropolitan Police's territorial support group (TSG). Harwood, a van driver who had strayed from his vehicle, has accepted Tomlinson posed no threat to him or anyone else when he struck him. He said he did so because he believed the newspaper seller posed a "breach of the peace" under common law. The heavy push sent Tomlinson sprawling to the ground on Royal Exchange Buildings at around 7.20pm on 1 April 2009. Tomlinson was helped to his feet by a bystander and stumbled along Cornhill for a minute or two before collapsing outside a Starbucks coffee shop. Saleem said he saw Tomlinson stagger along Cornhill "as if he was drunk" before falling to the ground "like a tree". "He was kind of swaying as he came up the road, kind of staggering from left to right," he told Alison Hewitt QC, counsel to the inquest. "Just before I saw him fall over when he was coming up he kind of shook his head as if to like clear his head. "And that was when he fell into the wall on his left-hand side. It was like he was not in charge of his body, it was like a tree falling over. His arms were by his side and there was no reaction when he hit the wall. "It was a forceful impact." Saleem said people rushed to Tomlinson's aid and he saw a redness on the man's head. "I think he was still breathing and his eyes were still open." When police medics rushed in to help Tomlinson he started slipping in and out of consciousness and his eyes were "flicking around". "He had a grey look to him. He was a lot paler than before." Saleem said protesters had been throwing bottles at the police who rushed to help Tomlinson. The hearing continues. Ian Tomlinson Police London Paul Lewis guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

PM brokers £800m defence deal Posted: 07 Apr 2011 01:29 PM PDT Prime minister reluctant to reopen strategic review but saves Liam Fox from political embarrassment The Treasury and the Ministry of Defence have struck a deal to fill a politically embarrassing £800m black hole in this year's defence budget, averting further disastrous job and programme cuts at a time when Britain is involved in two major military conflicts. The deal, brokered by Downing Street, comes as speculation increased that senior military figures are pressing David Cameron to reopen the strategic defence and security review (SDSR) less than six months after it was completed. Cameron is reluctant to do so. The defence secretary, Liam Fox, would have been wounded politically if he had been forced to impose fresh cuts. But there is some scepticism that the deal agreed by the Treasury and the MoD will produce the savings the two sides claim. The MoD said the deal for the 2011 budget meant there would be no additional cuts this year to armed forces manpower, equipment or capabilities over and above SDSR decisions. As part of the deal finalised on Wednesday, the MoD has saved £100m by renegotiating the terms of as many as 500 contracts. The deal will also probably require the MoD to delay the purchase of equipment including some helicopters. It has also agreed to removing 80% of defence equipment and support marketing, reductions in civilian expenses, a 50% reduction in media and PR costs, a cut in the number of photographers, and the sale of some parts of the MoD's broadband spectrum. Fox is also imposing a new cost control regime on the MoD in a bid to get its escalating costs under control. However there is scepticism that this package will lead to sufficient savings given the MoD's past failures to control its budget. The Treasury has given ground by saying it will not claw back the savings the MoD makes as a result of the decommissioning of equipment. The chancellor George Osborne has also agreed that the operational allowance, the top-up paid to soldiers on active duty worth £29.02 a day, will be fully funded by the Treasury. Previously the MoD had to pay half the cost. Details will be given to the Commons when MPs return after the Easter break. The MoD insists there will be no reopening of the strategic defence review, even though some senior military figures insist the status of the review is a live discussion. One senior figure disclosed: "There's a lot of objective thinking going on. The uncertain world we envisaged coming down the track is here now". Cameron is keen not be seen to be inflexible about the SDSR, but would not want a full scale reopening of its assumptions and decisions. The SDSR was designed to tackle a £38bn defence shortfall and an equipment programme that was over committed and unsustainable after 13 years without a defence review. Defence sources maintain that the UK has enough Tornado strike aircraft, and the abolition of two squadrons will not see an overall reduction in the number of planes. The Tornado is needed in both Afghanistan and the no-fly zone in Libya. The strategic defence review is due to last five years, and some defence ministers argue there is no point revisiting the exercise unless there is a prospect that the funding will also increase. The defence minister Nick Harvey said this week on BBC Daily Politics: "If we have the same envelope of cash, if we went back to reviewing the defence equation I think we would come to the same conclusions. Nothing that has happened since has led us fundamentally to question the decisions we made at the time." Defence policy Military David Cameron Liam Fox Libya Afghanistan George Osborne Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

HMRC criticised over internships Posted: 07 Apr 2011 12:01 PM PDT Annual report of Low Pay Commission calls for action where an intern is doing the work of a paid employee The Low Pay Commission has criticised HM Revenue & Customs for lax enforcement of minimum wage laws and the payment of interns. The LPC's annual report, which this year focused on the position of young people in the labour market, recommended that HMRC needed to take stronger action on unpaid internships. The LPC wanted to see "effective [legal] enforcement" from HMRC, who are responsible for ensuring that interns are paid the minimum wage if their placements can be considered to be work. The report also called for better understanding of the law. "We recommend that the government takes steps to raise awareness of the rules applying to payment of the national minimum wage for those undertaking internships, all other forms of work experience and volunteering opportunities. In addition we recommend that these rules are effectively enforced by HMRC," it said. The report comes two days after Nick Clegg highlighted the growing problem of internships in a report on social mobility. The deputy prime minister admitted that his father had helped him into an internship at a Finnish bank and get a first leg-up into politics. Senior Tories were also embarrassed when it was reported that they had auctioned off internships for thousands of pounds to raise money for the party at their annual gala ball in February. In the report the LPC rebuffed calls from the British Chamber of Commerce and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development that internships be given a legal exception from the minimum wage or be paid at a lower apprentice rate of £2.50 an hour. However, the expansion of internships has not been welcomed by all in the business community. Submissions to the report reveal that representative bodies from the hospitality, pubs, and sport and leisure sectors expressed concern that internships amounted to unpaid work and were "undermining the minimum wage and placing employers in invidious positions". A submission from the Trades Union Congress criticised current guidance on the issue as weak while internship campaign groups called for job postings for internships to be banned. The report reveals a growing gap between the wages of under-21s and the rest of the adult working population. The report's authors admit that this generational wage inequality is being caused in part by employers taking increasing advantage of lower minimum wage rates for those aged under 21. In effect, lower minimum wage levels for the young were dragging general wage levels, an effect which has been exacerbated by the recession and massive youth unemployment. According to the report, the percentage of younger workers being paid below the adult minimum wage rate has almost doubled in the last six years to 30%. A survey from the campaigning group Interns Anonymous revealed that 50% of internships lasted one to three months and 82% did not lead on to further employment. Tax and spending Nick Clegg Conservatives Employment law Shiv Malik guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Peace camp to stay for royal wedding Posted: 07 Apr 2011 12:32 PM PDT David Cameron wants Parliament Square cleared for big day, but police say protesters are not breaking any laws The prime minister, the home secretary and the mayor of London have all vowed that the ramshackle tented peace encampment yards from Westminster Abbey in Parliament Square will not become a backdrop to the perfect royal wedding tableau in on 29 April. But the sound and fury emanating from the politicians belies an embarrassing powerlessness, the Guardian can reveal. Despite numerous legal attempts, no one – from No 10 down – has been able to come up with any legal power to move the ragtag band of peaceniks, campaigners and eccentrics from the pavement between the Houses of Parliament and the abbey, where Prince William and Kate Middleton will marry on 29 April. As the countdown to the wedding begins, Tory politicians are venting their fury at Scotland Yard, piling the pressure on senior officers to do something. The mayor of London, Boris Johnson, is understood to have made it clear in private to the Metropolitan police that he does not want anything – not a tin of paint, a placard or a tent flap – to spoil the wedding day. David Cameron told the Commons that he could not understand why demonstrators were being allowed to sleep in the square, and stressed at prime minister's question time that he wanted the peace camp removed before the wedding. The home secretary, Theresa May, even created an amendment to the police reform and social responsibility bill, which outlaws the erection in Parliament Square of "any tent, or any other structure that is designed, or adapted... for the purpose of facilitating sleeping or staying in". The legislation is about to enter its second reading in the House of Lords and will not be law in time for the big day. At Scotland Yard, there have been high-level meetings to scour legislation and identify a clause that would give police the power to act. Given the level of political pressure, there have been conversations about the possibility of using emergency powers but, after a meeting at the Yard this week, it was concluded that there was nothing the Met could do. A senior police source said: "They are putting us under huge pressure, but … They made the laws and to date there doesn't seem to be one we can act on. If there was we would have done it by now." Hopes had been resting on attempts by the Greater London Authority and Westminster council to remove the inhabitants of the camp, their 14 tents, placards, montage pictures of war victims and two home-made police boxes, by taking action through the courts. But most protesters have permission to stay on the Parliament Square pavement under a clause in the Serious and Organised Crime Act 2005. There is a small chance that the GLA – which is responsible for the grass on Parliament Square – might be able to move two tents pitched on a patch of lawn at the edge of the square next week if an appeal by peace campaigners Brian Haw and Barbara Tucker fails in the high court. However, all Haw and Tucker need do is move their tents three feet on to the pavement. Westminster council – which is responsible for the pavement – has more chance of success by arguing in the high court that the peace encampment is an obstruction under the Highways Act. But the case has is not due in court until 9 May. "Unfortunately, we have no grounds to clear the camp away for the royal wedding, and, yes, it looks like they are going to be there on the day," said a spokeswoman for Westminster council. Meanwhile, some inhabitants of the camp – which was first settled 10 years ago when veteran peacenik Haw pitched his tent on the grass of Parliament Square – are making what they see as a generous gesture in a spirit of compromise. One protester, Maria Gallastegui, has written to Buckingham Palace offering to cover up her placards for the day. She received a noncommital reply – delivered to her police box. The Prince of Wales, the letter said, "appreciated" her offer and "careful note has been taken on the points you make". For their part, Cameron, May and Johnson seem unlikely to accept the olive branch. A Home Office spokesman told the Guardian: "We are still working with the police and other agencies to address this issue and find a solution to ensure that Parliament Square is in a fit and proper state for the royal wedding." Party like it's 1981 Councils are to be given legal advice from the health and safety watchdog that they have no reason to ban royal wedding street parties. Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, has ordered the Health and Safety Executive to give an immediate ruling that street parties are not a health and safety threat, and will not be liable to legal action. Duncan Smith took action after the cabinet heard from the communities secretary, Eric Pickles, that some councils may be deterring street parties. Figures from the Local Government Association reveal there have been 4,000 applications for street parties in England and Wales. A government source said: "We are furious that councils may be making it difficult. Often it emerges that the Health and Safety Executive have done nothing wrong, but we end up with these myths." Grant Shapps, the local government minister, said: "There is a tendency among some councils to gold-plate everything they do. We want it to be very clear that street parties are easy to set up." A deadline of 8 April has been set for applications and at present Richmond borough council the London borough of Richmond leads with 64 applications. London's boroughs have dealt with 500 applications, and outside the English capital, Bristol 53 and Cardiff 35. Patrick Wintour Royal wedding Protest Monarchy Weddings House of Commons Sandra Laville guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

US to fund Sesame Street remake for Pakistan Posted: 07 Apr 2011 10:30 AM PDT US government aid agency sponsors $20m Pakistani remake of the American kids' TV show There's no Cookie Monster, no Big Bird and no Count von Count. But Pakistani children will soon start experiencing what millions in the west have done for more than four decades – the joys of Sesame Street. In a $20m (£12m) remake of the classic American children's programme, the setting for the show has moved from the streets of New York to a lively village in Pakistan with a roadside tea and snacks stall, known as a dhaba, some fancy houses with overhanging balconies along with simple dwellings, and residents hanging out on their verandas. The Pakistani version, in which characters will speak mostly in Urdu, will feature Rani, a cute six-year-old Muppet, the child of a peasant farmer, with pigtails, flowers in her hair and a smart blue-and-white school uniform. Her curiosity and questions about the world will, it is hoped, make her a role model for Pakistani children. The financing for the series comes from USAid, the economic assistance arm of the US government, which aims to help the country's young learn some basic words and numbers through Sesame Street's fun style of education. Pakistan's schooling system is failing badly, a major reason for a descent into religious conservatism and economic stagnation. Elmo, the cheerful monster toddler from the original, will be in the Pakistani version, with new local personality touches. But other American favourites such as Count von Count – a lovable vampire who would rather count telephone rings than answer the phone – will make way for local characters in SimSim Humara ("Ours"), the Pakistani edition. The programme, which will start filming this summer in Lahore and begin airing in the autumn, is targeted particularly at deprived children outside the big cities and will be shown on the national state broadcaster, PTV, so it should be available even in the smallest village. Following the Sesame Street formula, each show will pick one word and one number to highlight. "The idea is to prepare and inspire a child to go on the path of learning, and inspire the parents of the child to think that the child must be educated," said Faizaan Peerzada, the chief operating officer at the Lahore-based Rafi Peer Theatre Workshop, which was awarded the commission for the project in collaboration with Sesame Workshop, the creator of the American show. "This is a very serious business, the education of the children of Pakistan at a critical time." The show will have strong female characters and carry an implicit message of tolerance but will feature no pro-American propaganda or overt challenge to hardline religious sentiment. Under Barack Obama, US civilian assistance to Pakistan has tripled to $1.5bn a year but the money does not seem to have made much obvious impact. The Pakistani Sesame Street could turn out to be the most visible American aid project in Pakistan in recent years. The $20m US grant will produce the Pakistani Sesame Street for four years, with 78 episodes in Urdu and 56 in regional languages, a radio show, mobile TV vans to show the programme in remote areas and a travelling Muppet roadshow. Some will criticise the expenditure on a TV programme, but it aims to reach 3 million kids, many more than the same sum spent on school building. The Muppets will also be used to front public service messages on issues such as health, which aim to reach 95 million people. "Teaching kids early on makes them much more successful when they get to school. And this programme will have the capacity to encourage tolerance, which is so key to what we're trying to do here," said Larry Dolan, director of the education office at USAid for Pakistan. "In terms of bang for the buck, reaching 95 million people is pretty important. This is much more than a TV programme, far more ambitious than a Sesame Street series." Pakistan Sesame Street Television Children's TV US television United States Obama administration Saeed Shah guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

'I didn't belong to anybody' Posted: 07 Apr 2011 12:30 PM PDT Harold Haig was among thousands of child migrants who were deported to Australia and subjected to horrific physical and sexual abuse. A new film depicts their plight When Harold Haig was 10 years old, a man in a suit came to visit. "He said to me, 'Would you like to go to this wonderful place called Australia where the sun shines all day every day and you pick oranges off the trees, live in a little white cottage by the sea and ride a  horse to school?'" remembers Haig, who is 73 but looks younger, with Pete Postlethwaite cheekbones and flowing white hair. "While I was letting this sink in, he added, 'Well, you know you're an orphan, your parents are dead, you've got no family, you might as well go.'" Haig was one of 7,000 children from British care homes who were shipped mostly to Australia and Canada between the second world war and 1967. The scandal of the lies and abuse suffered by these child migrants was exposed thanks to the tireless work of Margaret Humphreys, a social worker from Nottingham, who, in 1987, took it upon herself to help them find their families. As Oranges and Sunshine, a moving new film by Jim Loach – son of Ken – shows, Humphreys defied death threats to discover the truth about these former child migrants and their past lives. When Haig begins to talk, it is eerie because his softly spoken words and manner exactly resemble those of Jack, a traumatised former child migrant in the film who is played by Hugo Weaving. The British-Australian actor met and talked to Haig about his experiences before taking the role. Apart from the man in the suit talking of oranges and sunshine, Haig barely remembers anything of his childhood in Britain. "Because of my lack of memories, I may as well have been born in Australia when I was 11 years old," he says, bleakly. He was sure he had a sister called Marie, but he could not remember anything at all about his mother: no image, no voice, no smell. "Just a blank. An absolute blank." Surrounded by other "orphaned" children, the voyage to Australia was an adventure ("we ran riot"). When Haig arrived, he was dispatched to a Church of England boarding school in Melbourne. Other child migrants were less fortunate, as Oranges and Sunshine reveals through the story of Len, played by David Wenham. Many ended up in the care of the notorious Christian Brothers where they were treated as slave labour and suffered horrific physical and sexual abuse. One victim told an official inquiry that his Christian Brother carers competed to become the first to rape him 100 times. Haig escaped such trauma – he would be beaten with a strap if he did anything wrong – but, as he says: "The thing missing in an institution for children is that there is no love. You get punished but there is no one there to put their arm around you and say it's OK." One of many powerful scenes in Oranges and Sunshine is when the character based on Haig falteringly explains how he feels: "There's an emptiness in me. There always has been and I think the only thing that could fill it was her, my mother." Haig says something similar when he talks of how he married, had three children and established a successful signwriting business: "Anyone would've thought there's a fella who's got everything, but it was like I had a block of ice inside me. I felt empty. I knew I was missing something. I couldn't work out what it was. And there was this feeling – I didn't know who I was. I didn't know where I'd come from. I didn't belong to anybody. I was in this void." In the 1960s, Haig sank into a deep depression. He was prescribed antidepressants, saved them up and swallowed them all. "I wanted to die. I wanted to go to sleep and not wake up to get rid of this pain, this emptiness," he says. His wife, normally a good sleeper, woke up and saved his life. He wishes he hadn't tried to take his life at home, while his children slept. The "beautiful" younger sister he was always convinced he had eventually traced him through the Salvation Army. Marie had been separated from their mother and Haig, and raised in care homes in Britain; unlike Haig, she remembered her sibling. One day, in 1987, Marie told him she was coming to Australia with a social worker, Margaret Humphreys, who she wanted him to meet. Haig, by then divorced and wandering the Australian outback ("I don't know what I was looking for"), was unimpressed. "I'd seen a lot of social workers and I had no respect for any of them," he says. While Oranges and Sunshine shows Humphreys struggling to win the trust of some child migrants, Haig quickly came to respect her. She was the first to raise the possibility that Haig had been told a terrible untruth – that he might not be an orphan after all. "I didn't think anyone would be so cruel to tell you that sort of a lie," he says. He is amazed by Emily Watson's performance as Humphreys in the film. "I could've been watching Margaret," he says. Haig visited Britain for six months in 1989 to get to know Marie, who passed away 14 years ago, and to help Humphreys track down his mother. With so little record-keeping by the authorities, still in denial over the scale of the trauma they created, it took another few years for them to get confirmation that Haig had not been an orphan. His parents had separated during the war, and with two children, no benefits and no relatives nearby, his mother had been forced to give up her son and daughter. Humphreys discovered Haig's mother had lived two miles from where he was kept in homes (eight institutions in 14 months before he was "deported" – as the former child migrants say – to Australia) and had died just a year before he first visited Britain. The belated release of more suppressed information 10 years ago also helped Humphreys, who was awarded a CBE this year, finally identify Haig's deceased father. No photographs remain of his mother, and Haig will forever wonder why he was given up and whether his mother tried to find him. As Oranges and Sunshine shows, parents were often deceived by the authorities and told their children had been adopted or even that they were dead. "Mothers went to their graves never knowing that their children were still alive, and happy, and well," says Haig. "It's criminal. I don't know what worse you can do to people." Why did this happen? For the British authorities, a one-way ticket to Australia was cheaper than looking after children in care homes. For the Australian government, petrified they would be overrun by Asian immigrants, white children were ideal fodder for the racist "White Australia" policy. In 2009, the Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd apologised to child migrants. "It's a day we'll never forget," says Haig, who is secretary of the International Association of Former Child Migrants and their Families, and is still good friends with Humphreys. Gordon Brown followed with an apology on behalf of the British government a year later. The trauma of all these state-sanctioned lies and abuse has left a long, scarring legacy. Haig is still estranged from his two daughters who felt deserted when his depression destroyed his marriage. "They think I abandoned them, and in many ways I did. I had trouble looking after myself," he says, anguish in his voice. He has since been reconciled with his son, and he hopes the film might yet bring him back together with his daughters. "What Margaret did for me and for thousands of child migrants is to give us back our lives, give us back our identity, and shine a light in where there was just darkness." Where would he be without Humphreys? "I have my doubts about whether I'd be here alive," he says. "You should ask, where would all of us be?" Child protection Children Social history Social care Family Australia Patrick Barkham guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Sir David Attenborough's TV life Posted: 07 Apr 2011 11:38 AM PDT Retrospective expected to be aired next year will mark 60 years since the naturalist joined the corporation in 1952 The BBC is planning a TV retrospective of the work of Sir David Attenborough next year in a move that may signal the twilight of the naturalist's career. The series, which has the working title Life Stories from a series of Radio 4 lectures he has been giving since 2009, will look back on his life's work to mark 60 years since he joined the BBC in 1952. According to a senior BBC natural history source, the project, due to be formally approved soon, indicates that the 84-year-old may soon be calling it a day. Attenborough is due to return to the BBC this autumn with a seven-part series called Frozen Planet, following the cycle of the polar seasons, which took three years to film and saw him film at the north pole for the first time. "He was much more involved in the making of this than he has been with other series and is on screen a lot more," said the BBC source, who added it was unlikely Attenborough would make another large-scale project for the corporation along the lines of Frozen Planet or his other epic series, such as Blue Planet or Planet Earth. "Frozen Planet took three years to film and David braced seriously cold temperatures that most people, let alone someone in their eighties, could not endure. These projects don't happen very easily and I'd be very surprised if he makes another major BBC natural history series," said the senior source. "He is 85 this year and you cannot go on forever." Towards the end of Frozen Planet Attenborough will deliver what the BBC source called a "big polemic" on his views of nature and the environment in what the insider identified as something akin to a final word on his life's work. The episode, called Meltdown, will be a "look at what the future might hold for the animals and people that live at the poles and what these changes might mean for the rest of us", according to the BBC. "The poles – north and south – look superficially very similar, but when you visit them within a few weeks of one another, as I have just done, you realise how profoundly different they are – and how what is happening to them is going to affect the entire planet," Attenborough said in pre-publicity for this autumn's series. "A century ago the poles were just about the most inaccessible places on earth. Today that has changed. Nonetheless, to have visited them both within a few weeks of one another is a huge privilege." Speculation about when he would stand down has long dogged Attenborough. In 2005 he told the Sunday Times that his work up until then had "given a series to every group of animals" and that he had made "enough". Officially the BBC denies that Attenborough's career will be over after 2012 and Attenborough himself remains defiantly hopeful that he will go on. He is filming another 3D film for Sky about botanical work at Kew Gardens in south-west London. This follows his 3D film Flying Monsters for the broadcaster last year. "Yes, I will be making Life Stories for 2012 to mark the anniversary, and I am not sure how much original filming it will involve," he said . Asked if he would continue with his filming work, he said: "I sincerely hope so, yes." BBC's elder statesman It is almost impossible to imagine the BBC without Sir David Attenborough, just as it is difficult to picture the presenter and naturalist making programmes for anyone other than the BBC. Attenborough, who will be 85 in May, makes genuinely popular programmes with a strong educational element, the type of content that even the corporation's most vehement critics habitually applaud. Few, if any, broadcasters embody the BBC's mission statement to educate and inform more fully than he does. At times his name has been employed by executives as a two-word riposte to accusations it was dumbing down. When Attenborough first applied to join the BBC in 1950 as radio producer, his application was rejected but he was offered a job in TV. Four years later he presented the first edition of Zoo Quest, which ran for a decade. His 1979 series, Life on Earth, was the most ambitious natural history series ever undertaken. But Attenborough had a long spell as a BBC executive between the two landmark shows. He was the first controller of BBC2 when it launched in 1965, introducing the coverage of snooker when the channel went colour in the early 70s. Other programmes commissioned by Attenborough included Civilisation and The Ascent of Man. He could probably have been director general if he had wanted to, but has confessed he had no desire to lead the organisation. Instead, he went back to making programmes, all of them multiple award-winning, including Blue Planet in 2001 and Planet Earth five years later. As an elder statesman of the BBC he has occasionally criticised the corporation, telling the Radio Times earlier this year its "sails need to be trimmed". He is currently working on a 3D series for Sky, perhaps the BBC's most bitter rival. James Robinson David Attenborough Television Documentary BBC Wildlife Ben Dowell guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

My lover wants me to do it all in bed Posted: 07 Apr 2011 01:00 PM PDT My long-term girlfriend is fabulous, but I'm expected to do everything when it comes to sex and now I can't get an instant erection like I used to I'm a 24-year-old male. My long-term girlfriend (who was a virgin before meeting me) is a fabulous woman and a great friend, and we have thought about settling down together by the end of the year. However, she expects me to do everything when we are in bed, which makes me mad and I lose my desire. I don't get an instant erection as I used to earlier, but instead I must stroke it for a while. Is it normal? Or shall I check with a doctor? Your girlfriend is inexperienced, and not a mind-reader. You need to let her know you would appreciate it if she occasionally took the initiative. Tell her exactly what you'd like her to do and how. Impart this information in a gentle and encouraging manner. Begin by praising her for something she does that you enjoy, then follow up with "But I'd also love it if you'd try to . . ." or "I would prefer it if you would . . ." Paradoxically, this approach will also make you a better lover and improve the pleasure for both of you, because she will eventually feel safe enough to educate you about her specific needs in a similarly thoughtful fashion. Contrary to popular belief, good sex does not occur naturally and spontaneously; it requires practice. Your plans to settle down make it even more important that you learn better sexual communication, because you will frequently need those skills. Not having an instant erection does not mean there's anything wrong. As you get older, you will probably take even longer, and will continue to require direct stimulation. • Pamela Stephenson Connolly is a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist who specialises in treating sexual disorders. • Email your problem to private.lives@guardian.co.uk Sex Relationships Pamela Stephenson Connolly guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Lost Dr Seuss stories to be published Posted: 07 Apr 2011 05:56 AM PDT Tales from the 50s discovered by avid fan in old magazines due out in new book Seven rarely-seen Dr Seuss stories from the 50s, which were tracked down by a Massachusetts dentist, will finally be published in book form this autumn. Dr Seuss's art director Cathy Goldsmith was on eBay when she stumbled across a sale for tearsheets from 1950s magazines, purporting to be stories by the author, who was born Theodor Seuss Geisel in 1904. She bought the stories, and discovered that the seller, dentist Charles Cohen, was a huge collector of "Seussiana" and an avid Seuss scholar. She travelled to Springfield, Massachussetts, to meet him along with Random House vice-president and publisher Kate Klimo. "His house was literally bursting at the seams with Seussiana: plush, toys, beer trays, puzzles, and a wide range of ephemera. Not only that, Dr Cohen was a fount of Seuss information, history, and theories about Ted's artistic process," said Klimo. "In short order, we had contracted Cohen to write what would become The Seuss, The Whole Seuss, and Nothing But the Seuss. Published in 2003, it was a nearly encyclopaedic look at Ted's career. But through it all, Charles always wanted to compile the stories he had found in various magazines." Ten years later, The Bippolo Seed – described by the publisher as "the literary equivalent of buried treasure" – is lined up for publication in September. "These stories were published during what could arguably be called Dr Seuss's most fertile creative period, a time that would yield both Cat in the Hat and Grinch, a time when his theories about how to reach children through rhyme, rhythm, and a resonant combination of nonsense and sagacity, were coming into full bloom," said Klimo. "The stories are as good as anything in the already-published canon and readers of all ages are in for a treat." The stories include The Strange Shirt Spot, the inspiration for the bathtub ring scene in The Cat in the Hat Comes Back ("'Have no fear of that ring,' / Laughed the Cat in the Hat. / 'Why, I can take cat rings / Off tubs. Just like that!' / Do you know how he did it? / WITH MOTHER'S WHITE DRESS! / Now the tub was all clean, / But her dress was a mess!") Gustav the Goldfish is an early, rhymed version of the Dr Seuss book A Fish Out of Water, about a fish that grows and grows, while The Bippolo Seed tells of a conniving feline (reminiscent of the Cat in the Hat, perhaps) who encourages an innocent duck to make a bad decision. The book is completed with The Great Henry McBride, about a boy whose "far-flung career fantasies are only bested by those of the real Dr Seuss"; The Bear, the Rabbit, and the Zinniga-Zanniga, about a rabbit saved from a bear with a single eyelash; Steak for Supper, about fantastic creatures who follow a boy home for dinner; and Tadd and Todd, a story about twins. Due out in late September from Random House in the US and HarperCollins in the UK, The Bippolo Seed and other lost stories will include an introduction from Cohen, explaining the significance of the stories in Dr Seuss's career. The author, who died in 1991 aged 87, won a Pulitzer for his contribution to American education. He wrote and illustrated 44 books, making his name in 1957 with The Cat in the Hat. Containing just 225 words, it was written following a challenge from his publisher: to write a fun story using the list of words first-grade schoolchildren needed to learn. Dr Seuss Children's books: 7 and under Children and teenagers Publishing Alison Flood guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Clinton the role model for Queen Posted: 07 Apr 2011 12:18 PM PDT In carefully balanced trip Queen will pay respects to Irish soldiers who fought the British crown and others who wore its uniform Bill Clinton displayed a deft touch in 1995 when he became the first US president to visit Northern Ireland since the start of the Troubles. Political leaders from all sides swooned as a carefully orchestrated White House operation ensured that Clinton met each one of them in a way that made them all feel special. Buckingham Palace has clearly paid attention to Clinton's ground breaking visit to Northern Ireland in the early years of the peace process as the Queen prepares to make history by becoming the first British monarch to visit the Irish Republic. The Queen will visit a series of sights which symbolise the complexity of Anglo-Irish relations and explain why no British monarch has stepped onto the soil of any of the 26 counties since George V visited Dublin in 1911. In those days it was part of the UK. The complexity of relations between the two islands will be shown soon after the Queen arrives in Dublin when she is formally received by Mary McAleese, the Irish president, at her formal residence, Áras an Uachtaráin. McAleese was technically born as a subject of the Queen's father, George VI, in Belfast in 1951. This is how the trip, which will take place between 17-20 May, has been balanced: Nationalist Ireland • A tour of Dublin's Garden of Remembrance. The Queen's grandfather George V would probably utter an expletive to beat his famous 'Bugger Bognor' outburst if he knew that Lillibet, who was ten when he died in 1936, is to visit the garden that commemorates the Irish Republicans who tried to overthrow his rule over Ireland in the sixth year of his reign in the 1916 Easter Rising. • A visit to Croke Park, home of Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) sports which are one of the main symbols of nationalist Ireland. The modern world was introduced to the significance of Croke Park in the Liam Neeson Michael Collins film which depicted the 1920 Bloody Sunday shootings. British troops fired on a gaelic football match, killing 14 people. It was only in 2005 that the GAA relaxed its famous Rule 42, which banned the playing of 'garrison games' (rugby and soccer) on its grounds. Anglo-Ireland • A tour of the Islandbridge National War Memorial Gardens in Dublin. The gardens commemorate the thousands of Irish soldiers who died in British or allied uniforms during the first and second world wars. Eamon de Valera, who famously passed on his condolences to the German legation in Dublin when Adolf Hitler died, was supportive of the site. But it was not until 1995 that a Taoiseach (John Bruton) formally visited the gardens. • Visits to Trinity College Dublin, which educated generations of Anglo-Irish professionals, and to the home Guinness which was traditionally associated with the Protestant community. Everyone's Ireland, good and bad • The Rock of Cashel. This takes everyone's breath away as it comes into view on the main road from Dublin to Cork. Once the seat of the Kings of Munster, this is the pride of all traditions in Ireland. But it did play host to Anglo-Irish battles when it was sacked by English Parliamentarian troops in 1647 during the Irish Confederate Wars A visit by the Queen to the Irish Republic has always been seen (excuse the pun) as the crowning moment in the peace process that sets the seal on the full normalisation in relations between the United Kingdom and the Irish Republic. Julian King, the British ambassador to Ireland, hailed the visit as an historic moment: The State Visit programme announced by Buckingham Palace and Áras an Uachtaráin is a wide-ranging and exciting celebration of the close ties between our two countries. Her Majesty and The Duke of Edinburgh will be able to experience at first hand the vibrant links that make our relationship with Ireland so important. This is a historic visit that also celebrates our close modern partnership. But will a tradition of state visits by the Queen be maintained? British ambassadors in post during a state visit by the Queen are usually knighted. But would it be right to bump up Julian King, who is already a CMG (Call Me God), to the full status of KCMG (Kindly Call Me God) after a trip to the 26 counties whose independent republican citizens have taken a dim view of British gongs? The Queen Ireland Northern Ireland Bill Clinton Nicholas Watt guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Commodore 64 lives again! Posted: 07 Apr 2011 09:20 AM PDT The C64, a legend of the 8bit era, is set to return – with brand new insides! It was one of the most successful home computers of the eighties and now it's making an unlikely comeback. A new version of the Commodore 64 is set to be released this summer, featuring entirely modern innards including a 1.8ghz dual-core Intel Atom D525 processor, Nvidia Ion 2 graphics chipset, 2 GB of DDR3 memory and your choice of a DVD or Blu-ray drive. Best of all, the revived machine will feature exactly the same design as its 8bit predecessor, right down to the beige body and rather spongy keyboard (you can see more images on the Commodore USA Facebook page). The old cartridge port and joystick interfaces will be gone, though, replaced with HDMI and USB connections. Users will also be able to install Windows 7, although the machine will ship with Linux and will eventually get its own Commodore OS 1.0, complete with an emulator to play classic C64 titles. The new device is apparently on sale now, and orders are being taken at the price of $595 (£364), although at the moment, the company's website seems to be struggling to cope with the amount of interest a PC in a brown plastic box is generating. Although the original Commodore Business Machines declared bankruptcy in 1994, the brand has passed through a number of hands in the subsequent years. It is now jointly shared by the creator of the new C64, Commodore USA, as well as Commodore Holdings and Commodore Gaming, which builds high-spec PCs. But the big question is, which classic C64 titles should be updated along with the machine? Games Retro games Windows Windows 7 Keith Stuart guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Cash Isa holders urged to switch Posted: 07 Apr 2011 05:44 AM PDT Consumer Focus warns that thousands of cash Isa holders are losing money by sticking with poor savings products after introductory interest rates have expired As the new tax year gets underway savers with existing cash Isas are being warned to check their investments closely – while providers offer "early bird" deals to attract new customers, they are slashing the rates paid on older accounts. HMRC figures show there is £172bn held in cash Isas, but data from Consumer Focus indicates more than a third of cash Isa holders have had them for more than five years, suggesting they are losing out on interest that could be gained by switching. Two-thirds of people who opened a cash Isa with an introductory interest rate are likely to be losing out by failing to switch once it runs out, while a quarter of cash Isa savers did not know whether their account even had a bonus rate. A further third of account holders with an introductory rate weren't sure if their rate had expired or not. Oliver Morgans, financial services expert at Consumer Focus, said: "Unfortunately it seems that banks use higher interest rates to lure customers in and then aim to cash in on their inertia. Sadly, Isa customers have to watch banks like a hawk if they are to get the best deals, and our advice is to check your rate. If you are not happy vote with your feet and switch to an Isa that pays more." Current best-buys Savers investing the maximum £5,340 in Santander's best-buy Flexible Isa, paying 3.3%, would earn £176.22 in interest this year – but it is only open to new investors. The headline easy access rate for those wishing to switch funds is Halifax's Cash Isa, paying 3%, followed by Nationwide building society's e-Isa, paying 3.1%, although this is only available if customers also have a card-based savings account with Nationwide. Fixed-rate cash Isas pay higher rates than variable or easy access cash accounts, with the average for all fixed-rate cash Isas currently at 3.44%, dropping to 1.88% on variable rate Isas and 1.75% on easy access products. Over one year, the Bank of Cyprus fixed-rate Isa pays 3.3% and accepts transfers, while Santander's two-year fixed-rate postal account pays 3.7% and is also open to transfers. Leeds building society is paying 4.2% on its three-year fixed-rate Isa, which accepts transfers and allows investors to access 25% of their cash without penalty, while the best four-year fix is at Saffron building society paying 4.5%. BM Savings is the best-buy cash Isa over five years, paying 5%. Kevin Mountford, head of banking at moneysupermarket.com, said: "With little movement expected in the market, by shopping around and comparing the range of products that best suits their circumstances savers could be better off taking advantage of the good rates now, as they will benefit from accruing interest immediately rather than waiting for a better deal at a higher rate." He added: "This year we have seen several providers keeping their good deals available beyond the Isa deadline, and have even seen some new market leading deals being introduced. But savers might need to act quickly as the headline rates could disappear." Last year, Consumer Focus filed a super complaint with the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) over the cash Isa market, detailing a number of concerns including: low switching levels; confusing pricing structures; and unnecessarily complicated and slow switching processes. It also accused banks of giving poor information to their customers regarding the comparison of accounts. The OFT has since held banks to an agreement that interest rates be printed on customer statements by May 2012 and transfers be completed within 15 working days. Consumer Focus estimates this could save consumers more than £14m. Isas Savings rates Savings Banks and building societies Mark King guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Show honours female war artists Posted: 07 Apr 2011 09:55 AM PDT Curator says aim is to challenge preconceptions with works from first world war to the present War through the eyes of men is a well-trodden artistic subject which is why the Imperial War Museum is providing something of a corrective. "I am looking to challenge some of the stereotypes and views about women war artists, yes," said Kathleen Palmer, curator of a new exhibition running for rest of the year. The show, Women War Artists, explores the experiences and achievements of female artists from the first world war up to the present day. "Women artists have certainly not been afraid to confront the horror of war," said Palmer. "There is perhaps a preconception that it's unusual for women artists to tackle these subjects but clearly that is not the case." There are some extremely strong images in the exhibition, not least a work by Red Cross-commissioned Doris Zinkeisen who had the misfortune to see Belsen – with its 10,000 unburied corpses and 60,000 sick and starving inmates – in 1945. Her work Human Laundry, Belsen: April 1945 is arguably the most powerful of all works which emerged from the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp, capturing the almost industrial nature of what was going on. The show includes well-known works by Dame Laura Knight while others are going on show for the first time, including one by Priscilla Thornycroft showing a horse impaling itself on railings after being spooked by a London air-raid warning. Some of the more recent works include drawings by Linda Kitson, who went to the Falklands, although because she was a woman in 1982 she was not allowed on troop ships overnight. One of her drawings shows Gurkhas having weapons training in the incongruously grand surroundings of the QE2's dance hall. The exhibits go up to Turner prize nominated Mona Hatoum, whose video piece Measures of Distance addresses her enforced separation from her family during the Lebanese civil war. Women War Artists is at the Imperial War Museum from 9 April to 8 January 2012. Museums Art Mark Brown guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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