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[JohnCenaFan28]

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[JohnCenaFan28]

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[JohnCenaFan28]

A serving police officer named in a leaked list of British National Party members will face a misconduct panel, his force said.

Pc Steve Bettley, of Merseyside Police, was included in the list of the far right party's entire membership register which was leaked on an internet blog.

The officer, who was briefly the driver for chief constable Bernard Hogan Howe, has been suspended from duty since the list became public last month.

A Merseyside Police spokeswoman said: "Merseyside Police has completed its investigation of an officer alleged to be a member of the BNP.

"It has been recommended that the Police Constable face a misconduct panel.

"The matter is now in the hands of Merseyside Police's solicitors for further consideration. The Constable remains suspended."

The leak provoked outrage after members of the BNP were revealed to be current and former servicemen, teachers and doctors.

The list included the names, professions, addresses and telephone numbers of thousands of BNP supporters.

When the list was published, BNP leader Nick Griffin pledged to take court action against those behind the leak.

Dyfed-Powys Police is leading a joint investigation with the Information Commissioner's office into the alleged breach of the Data Protection Act.

-Nova

[JohnCenaFan28]

The number of mortgages approved for house purchase has dived by more than 60% during the past year to hit a new record low.

Just 17,773 loans were approved for people buying a home during November, 14% fewer than in October and 60.7% less than in November last year, the British Bankers' Association said.

There was also a steep drop in the number of people remortgaging during the month, with just 29,798 loans for people switching to a better deal in the pipeline, down from 52,452 the previous month.

The figure, which was the lowest for eight years, was also less than half the level for November last year.

The number of approvals for people releasing equity from their home or taking out a mortgage on a buy-to-let property also continued to fall during November to 22,295, 44% less than in the same month of 2007.

David Dooks, BBA director of statistics, said: "The 1.5% November reduction in Bank rate caused lenders to reassess product ranges and borrowers to reconsider future borrowing costs, so consequently there was another drop in market activity.

"Volumes of mortgage approvals reached new lows and, with house prices still falling, the encouragement of lower costs had not filtered through by the month-end, largely because people remain concerned about the impacts of the rapidly slowing economy on their personal finances."

Mortgage lending continued to fall during the month, with net lending, which strips out redemptions and repayments, reaching just 2.9 billion, a third less than in November last year.

Total advances of £11.07 billion were at their lowest level since January 2002.

The figures are unsurprising given the ongoing slump in the housing market, while the tougher lending criteria being adopted by lenders is leading to many people remaining on the standard variable rate when they come to the end of a mortgage deal, rather than remortgaging to a new one.

-Nova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Police officers have been called to schools in England more than 7,000 times in the past year to deal with violence, according to figures obtained by the Tories.

Shadow children's secretary Michael Gove said the statistics were "very worrying". The figures were obtained by the Tories under a Freedom of Information request, to which 25 out of 39 police forces responded.

Each force was asked how many times they were called on to school premises for an attempted or actual violent crime in 2007/08. The figures revealed that there were 7,311 violent incidents in schools during this time. The Metropolitan Police were summoned the most, with 2,698 calls, while Thames Valley had 697 calls and Kent had 425. City of London police had just one incident.

Mr Gove said: "The number of violent incidents in schools that lead to police being called is very worrying. Teachers, parents and children are all too aware of the threat of violence in schools and the corrosive effect it has on creating a safe learning environment. We want to give teachers more authority to remove disruptive and violent children from the classroom and to tackle problems of bad behaviour."

Government figures published last month revealed that thousands of children aged five and under were suspended from schools in England last year for assaulting fellow pupils and teachers. In total, 580 five-year-olds, 300 four-year-olds and 120 three-year-olds were give fixed-period exclusions for attacking another pupil. And 10 pupils aged two and under were suspended for physically assaulting another child.

In March, a survey by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers found that one in 10 state school teachers has been injured by a violent pupil. The union's survey of 800 members across the UK found two-thirds of teachers believed standards of behaviour were getting worse, despite repeated Government crackdowns on poor discipline.

Christine Blower, acting general secretary of the NUT said: "Whilst Michael Gove's initial reading of the figures could look worrying, he should dig deeper into the reasons why schools phone the police. An important reason is that police/school liaison has improved tremendously since the problems with security experienced by schools a decade ago. The second is that, as our own survey showed, there are a minority of pupils whose behaviour has become much worse."

Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT, said: "Any violent incident in schools is, of course, a cause for concern. These figures, however, raise more questions than they answer. They are not a complete picture across all police forces and fail to take account of the variations in police response policies. It is, therefore, unsafe to draw any firm conclusions from these figures."

John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the Tories were "scaremongering". He said: "In fact, schools are havens of calm, even when the communities they serve may be riven with conflict and violence. Police are called to assist more readily than in the past because schools are now working more closely with the police and are more determined than ever to ensure that they are safe places for children."

A spokeswoman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said: "The overwhelming majority of schools are safe and behaviour is very good. Ofsted tell us that in 93% of primary and 72% of secondary schools pupils' behaviour is good or outstanding. We want schools to work closely with the police as part of the Safer School Partnerships and to take a hard line when dealing with poor behaviour."

-Nova

[JohnCenaFan28]

The Speaker of the Iraqi parliament has resigned, removing the legal obstacle which had threatened to prevent thousands of British troops staying in the country.

A row over Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, sparked by a debate over the Iraq journalist who threw his shoes at President George Bush, was eating into parliamentary time needed to pass laws allowing the troops to remain until they are brought home next summer.

But Mr al-Mashhadani tendered his resignation and it was accepted by a majority of the deputies attending a closed-door emergency session after days of bickering and negotiations.

The new laws are needed to legalise British forces being in the country because a UN mandate authorising their presence expires on December 31.

Meanwhile, Gordon Brown has delivered a Christmas message to British troops in Iraq and Afghanistan - insisting their "sacrifices" were making the UK a safer place.

The Prime Minister praised the "dedication, courage and resolve" of military personnel, and pledged to give more support for their "demanding" operations.

In a missive broadcast on BBC Radio 2's Jeremy Vine show, Mr Brown said the "tragic" losses suffered by the forces were felt more acutely at this time of year.

"The pace of operations in Afghanistan and Iraq remains demanding but it's clear to me that your efforts are making a real difference," he insisted.

Mr Brown said it was essential to ensure that Afghanistan did not "again become a base for international terrorism".

In Iraq, he highlighted the recently-announced timetable for withdrawal by the summer, saying the job of training up the country's own troops "will soon be done".

-Nova

[JohnCenaFan28]

The cost of posting first and second class letters is to increase by 3p to 39p and 30p from April, the Royal Mail has announced.

The stamp price rises follow increases last April, when first class stamps rose by 2p to the current 36p and second class by 3p to the present 27p.

Business customers will see average price increases of 4.2%, although there will be smaller rises for firms using franking machines and pre-paid accounts.

The Royal Mail said the increases will add less than 5p to the average UK household's weekly expenditure.

The Royal Mail said that even after the increases, UK stamp prices would remain among the lowest in Europe, while quality of service was among the best.

Stamped mail will still be loss making after the new prices come into effect, the company added.

Luisa Fulci, Royal Mail's director of marketing services, said: "Stamped mail remains very affordable and consumers are still receiving excellent value for money - most countries in Europe charge more to deliver less.

"Our over-riding priority must be to safeguard the currently loss-making six-days-a-week one-price-goes-anywhere universal service, a task which the current market makes much harder, as big business customers choose other forms of electronic communications or competing operators instead of continuing to subsidise consumers."

The Royal Mail said the change in the way people communicated was accelerating the structural decline in market volumes, with the recent Hooper report into the postal market predicting that volumes could fall by between 5% and 7% a year.

Around five million fewer letters are being delivered every day compared with two years ago.

-Nova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Four animals rights activists face up to 14 years in jail after being found guilty of blackmailing companies who supplied Huntingdon Life Sciences.

Gerrah Selby, 20, Daniel Wadham, 21, Gavin Medd-Hall, 45, Heather Nicholson, 41, and Trevor Holmes, 51, were accused of orchestrating a campaign which ran between 2001 and 2007.

All five denied conspiracy to blackmail but Selby, Wadham, Medd-Hall and Nicholson were found guilty at Winchester Crown Court. Holmes was cleared of the charge.

One of the jurors refused to be seen in court while the verdict was announced after 33 hours and 48 minutes of deliberation.

Selby, Wadham and Medd-Hall were released on conditional bail, while Nicholson was remanded in custody until sentencing on January 19. The maximum sentence for the offence is 14 years imprisonment. Three other people - Gregg Avery, Natasha Avery and Daniel Amos - previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to blackmail.

The hierarchy of the group, called Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (Shac), used threats such as claiming that managers of the companies were paedophiles, hoax bombs parcels, criminal damage and threatening telephone calls to force them to cut links with the animal testing company.

The aim was to target suppliers or any company with a secondary link with Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), based in Cambridge.

One of the features of intimidation included sending used sanitary towels in the post, saying they were contaminated with the Aids virus, and personal campaigns against the management of companies including daubing roads outside their homes with words like "Puppy Killer".

Nicholson, from Eversley in Hampshire, was a founder member of Shac, who managed the "menacing" campaigns against the firms who were named on the group's website. The blackmail would only stop when they put out a "capitulation statement" to Shac saying they would not supply HLS, which conducts animal testing for the pharmaceutical industry.

Detective Chief Inspector Andy Robbins, senior investigating officer of Kent Police, paid tribute to the victims of the "systematic and relentless intimidation" which lasted for six years until arrests were made on May 1 2007.

-Nova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Lesbian and gay Christians have denounced Pope Benedict's claim that saving humanity from homosexual or transsexual behaviour is as important as saving the rainforest from destruction.

The Pontiff said humanity needed to listen to the "language of creation" to understand the intended roles of man and woman and that behaviour beyond traditional heterosexual relations was a "destruction of God's work".

He called on the Church to protect man from the "destruction of himself" saying that tropical rainforests deserved protection but man as a creature "does not deserve any less".

But the Rev Sharon Ferguson, chief executive of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, described his remarks as "totally irresponsible and unacceptable in any shape or form."

She said: "It is more the case that we need to be saved from his comments. It is comments like that that justify homophobic bullying that goes on in schools and it is comments like that that justify gay bashing.

"There are still so many instances of people being killed around the world, including in western society, purely and simply because of their sexual orientation or their gender identity.

"When you have religious leaders like that making that sort of statement then followers feel they are justified in behaving in an aggressive and violent way because they feel that they are doing God's work in ridding the world of these people."

-Nova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Another high-street chain is on the brink as retailers slashed prices in a bid to rescue their Christmas sales.

Whittard of Chelsea, the tea and coffee retailer, has lined up Ernst & Young as administrators, a source close to the company confirmed.

The source added: "Whittard is still trading and it has not filed for administration yet. It's still talking to potential buyers. Ernst & Young have been appointed as administrators though should it go into administration."

With only two days left of business before Christmas, stores are hoping to encourage shoppers to spend amid claims up to 15 major retailers could be in danger of going under.

Stores are launching their traditional Boxing Day sales up to 48 hours early in a bonanza for shoppers already enjoying a heavily discounted high street.

A growing list of major stores have announced discounts of 50% or more in sales to start as early as 7am on Christmas Eve.

DIY chain B&Q will offer 50% off all its kitchens and bathrooms from 7am on Wednesday in stores and online, with discounts of up to 75% on some other items.

John Lewis will start its clearance sale online at 6pm on Christmas Eve - the earliest it has ever held the sale - while chemist chain Superdrug will also start an online sale a few hours later at midnight on December 24 with discounts of up to 90%.

Fiona Wilkinson, senior vice president at Visa Europe, said: "Consumers have proven this weekend that they are prepared to postpone their shopping until the last minute in order to take advantage of the many bargains now available on the high street. We are now predicting that consumers may continue their late spending right up until Christmas Eve."

Traders reported a successful weekend and said they were also hopeful the trend would continue through to Christmas Eve.

-Nova