Charity attacks benefit reform plan
The latest phase of the Government's benefit reforms are to come into force but faced immediate criticism, with claims they could lead to fewer poor children receiving child maintenance.
A leading charity said changes to the way single parents applied for child maintenance could push families hardest hit by the current financial downturn into "deeper crisis".
The One Parent Families/Gingerbread group said up to one in four single parents on benefits may "drop out" because they will now have to decide themselves whether to continue using the Child Support Agency, make their own private arrangements, or do without child maintenance altogether.
Fiona Weir, chief executive of the charity, said: "We fear that many poor single parents on benefit will struggle to agree private child support arrangements and their children may end up doing without.
"This would be disastrous for the children affected and for the Government's child poverty targets. Greater investment in services to help parents deal with the consequences of separation is needed, as is active promotion of the Government's child maintenance scheme.
Incapacity benefit also ends on Monday for new claimants, replaced with a new benefit, the Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), which the Government said marked the end of "writing people off".
New claimants who cannot work due to ill-health or disability will be able to claim the new allowance, and within weeks will have their capability assessed by an expert health professional.
Ministers said the new assessment was designed to look at what people can do rather than what they can't, and would ensure that those who can work were given the help and support they needed.
Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell said: "It is more important during an economic downturn that we increase support for people not take it away. The Employment and Support Allowance, a significant landmark in our welfare reforms, will offer the help and support to the disabled and the ill."
The Disability Alliance said it hoped the new allowance would bring about positive improvements in the employment rates of disabled working age adults.
-Ananova
Straw 'driven nuts' by jargon
Government documents are rife with the sort of language criticised by a senior minister as "impenetrable jargon", it has been revealed.
In an outspoken attack on prison reformers, Justice Secretary Jack Straw said the words they used "drive me nuts".
He said campaign groups were "lost in a fog of platitudes" and were guilty of overlooking the suffering of victims.
He identified the phrase "criminogenic needs of offenders" for particular criticism, saying it created a "barrier" between experts and the public.
"I profoundly disagree that we should describe someone's amoral desire to go thieving as a 'need' equivalent to that of victims or the law abiding public," he said.
But a search of Government websites reveals a string of documents using the same phrase.
A document published on the Home Office website and dated last week describes the "multi-agency work providing supportive interventions to address the criminogenic needs of identified PPOs (Prolific and other Priority Offenders)."
A research document, published on Mr Straw's own Ministry of Justice site this month says prisoners have "criminogenic needs" that need support.
The phrase also appears in an MoJ review of indeterminate sentences published last year.
A spokeswoman for the Campaign for Plain English said ministers should tackle their own "fog of jargon".
-Ananova
Mobile fingerprint scanners plan
Police will be able to check the identities of people in the street using mobile fingerprint scanners.
The hand-held devices, no bigger than a BlackBerry smartphone, are being issued to every police force in the UK under a scheme called Mobile Identification At Scene (Midas), according to The Guardian.
They will enable officers to scan suspects' fingerprints on the spot and compare them against records on the police national biometric database, Ident1.
It is claimed the scanners will save police time and cut the number of wrongful arrests.
Currently, officers have to take suspects to custody suites to check their fingerprints - a procedure that takes an average 67 minutes.
The National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) estimates that on a national level this would be equivalent to having an extra 336 officers on the beat.
But campaigners, concerned about the new technology being used to increase surveillance and random checks of individuals, said the law required all fingerprints taken by the scanners to be deleted after use and not added to databases.
Gareth Crossman, policy director of campaign group Liberty, told The Guardian: "Saving time with new technology could help police performance but officers must make absolutely certain that they take fingerprints only when they suspect an individual of an offence and can't establish his identity."
In a trial of similar mobile fingerprint scanners, called Project Lantern, officers used the technology alongside automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) systems to check the identities of people in vehicles flagged up as stolen, uninsured, or with no MoTs.
The devices are being designed to be able receive pictures of suspects so officers on the ground can use the images to help verify identities.
-Ananova
Police arrest 33 at nuclear demo
Police arrested 33 people during a protest at a weapons site.
Protesters blocked a number of gates at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE), at Aldermaston, near Reading.
Campaign group Trident Ploughshares said it successfully blocked the A340 for two hours using a tripod of scaffolding with a protester perched on top.
Nine protesters locked together also blocked a gate into the site for five hours, it said. Thames Valley Police said around 150 people joined the protest which started at 6am.
"The majority of protesters were peaceful. However, 33 people were arrested, mainly for obstruction of the highway, and taken to custody at Newbury, Loddon Valley, Maidenhead and Abingdon police stations," a spokesman said.
Chief Inspector Robbie Robins of Ministry of Defence Police (MDP) was in charge of the policing operation which also involved officers from Hampshire.
"We take the responsibility of public safety seriously and wanted to ensure that disruption to the community was minimised," he said.
"Officers ensured that everyone who attended could exercise their right to engage in lawful protest, while at the same time making sure that members of the public could go about their normal day-to-day business."
Trident Ploughshares said its aim was to halt work at the weapons site which is also AWE's company headquarters.
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament supported the protest. Chairman Kate Hudson said: "This is the largest blockade of Aldermaston for many years and signals an increased public concern about Britain's weapons of mass destruction."
-Ananova
Breaking News: Obama Assassination 'Plot' Halted
A US government agency has said it has disrupted a plot to assassinate Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama.
Authorities have arrested two men for threatening to launch a "killing spree" in the state of Tennessee.
The agency said the alleged attack also threatened to either shoot or decapitate 102 black people.
Agents said they broke up plans by two "neo-Nazi skinheads" to rob a gun store and threaten a predominantly African-American high school, unsealed court records have revealed.
The records did not specify which school was alleged to be threatened.
US correspondent Ian Woods in Washington, said the youth's alleged threat following the release of court records "does not make it a credible threat" to Mr Obama's life.
Jim Cavanaugh, special agent in charge of the Nashville field office for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said the two men planned to shoot 88 black people and decapitate another 14.
The numbers 88 and 14 are symbolic in the white supremacist community.
Cavanaugh said that the men also sought to go on a national killing spree, with Obama as their final target.
Woods said: "It is not necessarily a credible threat to the senator's life. But eight days before an election, clearly something like this will be taken very seriously."
The US government disrupted an unrelated alleged plot during the Democratic Party Convention in Denver, Colorado, in September.
sky news
Ofcom to probe Ross and Brand calls
Ofcom has said it will investigate the offensive phone calls made by Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand to veteran actor Andrew Sachs.
The calls, made for a BBC radio show, ingvolved a claim that Brand had slept with the Fawlty Towers actor's granddaughter Georgina Baillie, 23.
The presenters also joked that the actor might kill himself as a result. Ross, 47, has since issued a personal apology, with Brand, 33, following suit.
A spokeswoman for the media watchdog, which has received complaints about the incident, confirmed Ofcom has decided to investigate. Sources also said that a senior editorial figure signed off the pre-recorded Radio 2 programme.
Pressure has been mounting for the BBC to take further action over the incident, which the corporation has apologised for.
The Daily Mail reported that a producer named Nic Philps had been given the responsibility of calling Sachs to check if he would be happy for the messages to go out.
But a source also said that an un-named senior figure gave the broadcast the go-ahead.
The BBC received more than 1,500 complaints, including phone calls and emails, and there have been calls for the pair to be taken off air or sacked.
Asked what the Prime Minister thought should be done about the affair, Gordon Brown's spokesman told reporters at a regular daily briefing: "Ofcom have said that they will investigate and it is for the BBC and their governing bodies to consider what action needs to be taken."
The spokesman said he had not discussed the broadcast with the Prime Minister, but added that Mr Brown may well have personal views on the nature of its contents which he may air if asked a question about it.
-Ananova
Rhys trial jury shown gun pictures
A jury saw pictures of the gun allegedly used to kill schoolboy Rhys Jones.
Liverpool Crown Court was told the Smith and Wesson .455 revolver was found in the loft space of a house in Croxteth, Liverpool, a month after Rhys, 11, was killed.
The search, carried out by Merseyside Police's Crime Operations Unit at an address which cannot be identified, also found a second gun - a converted imitation Walther PPK self-loading pistol - and a bundle of ammunition.
In a statement read to the jury by Neil Flewitt QC, prosecuting, Pc Mark Andrew Gibbs, who was taking part in the search, said: "I noticed a red and white plastic bag in the far end of the wall and furthest away from the loft hatch. I alerted my colleague as the bag seemed out of place.
"I pulled the bag back and noticed it contained something.
"I saw a black revolver and a black semi-automatic pistol. Arms teams were requested and the bag was left in situ."
Sean Mercer, of Good Shepherd Close, Croxteth, Liverpool, denies murder and denies being a member of a gang called the Croxteth Crew.
The prosecution says Mercer cycled to the Fir Tree pub and fired three shots across the car park at alleged members of rival group the Strand Gang, based in the neighbouring Norris Green estate.
The jury has been told the second bullet struck Rhys as he made his way home from football practice. Shortly afterwards, he bled to death in his mother Melanie's arms.
Alongside Mercer in the dock are James Yates, 20, of Dodman Road and Nathan Quinn, 18, of Wickett Close, both Croxteth; Gary Kays, 25, of Mallard Close, and Melvin Coy, 24, of Abbeyfield Drive, both West Derby, Liverpool, who deny assisting an offender with Boy M, 16, and Boy K, 17, who cannot be identified.
-Ananova
Osborne escapes watchdog probe
The pressure on George Osborne has eased after Westminster's sleaze watchdog refused to probe his links with a Russian oligarch.
A complaint was made to Parliamentary Standards Commissioner John Lyon over the shadow chancellor's contacts with Oleg Deripaska, but he has now dismissed it, according to a spokeswoman.
She said: "The Commissioner has received a complaint about Mr Osborne and he has not accepted it."
The announcement will come as a relief to Mr Osborne and Tory leader David Cameron, who has strongly supported his close ally throughout the damaging episode. The other relevant watchdog, the Electoral Commission, has already insisted that it will not be investigating.
Mr Osborne attempted to draw a line under the affair on Monday by admitting that he had made a "mistake" by enjoying hospitality on the Russian billionaire's yacht over the summer. In his first public comments for nearly a week, he also confirmed he would no longer take part in any discussions about individual donations to the party.
The summer holidays of Mr Osborne and new Business Secretary Lord Mandelson have been subjected to unprecedented scrutiny as the row developed. Both men spent time at the luxurious Corfu villa of banking heir Nat Rothschild, and intriguing light has been cast on their overlapping social circles.
Things turned nasty later after reports emerged of supposedly "poisonous" private comments made about Gordon Brown by Lord Mandelson. Questions were also raised in newspapers concerning the propriety of the then-EU trade commissioner's meetings with Mr Deripaska.
Mr Rothschild - seemingly blaming his old friend from Oxford, Mr Osborne, for the leaks - responded with an incendiary letter to The Times last week in which he accused the shadow chancellor of trying to solicit a £50,000 donation from the oligarch.
In the ensuing storm of claim and counter-claim, Mr Osborne has admitted meeting the billionaire on his luxury yacht, which was moored nearby. He has also confirmed he was present when Mr Rothschild discussed the possibility of the Russian making a donation with Tory Party chief executive and fundraiser Andrew Feldman.
Their conversations included considering whether Mr Deripaska - who, as a foreigner, is banned from making individual donations - could make a contribution through his British-based company, Leyland DAF. However, the Tories insist the matter was never discussed directly with Mr Deripaska, and no money was ever given.
-Ananova
