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[JohnCenaFan28]

One in seven schools are failing to ensure 30% of their pupils achieve five good GCSE grades, including English and maths, official figures showed.

More than 300,000 teenagers left secondary school last year without at least five C grades, including the two core subjects. Ministers announced last June they wanted no school to be in this position by 2011.

Statistics published by the Department for Children, Schools and Families show that 440 schools are falling short of this target, down from 631 last year.

Schools that fail to meet this target are judged to be under-performing and fall under the Government's controversial National Challenge initiative. They could face closure or being turned into an Academy if their results do not improve.

The figures show that 47.6% of the 653,045 pupils who took the exams last summer achieved five or more good GCSE's (A*-C) including English and maths, meaning about 340,000 did not reach this benchmark.

At the 63 academies where pupils took exams in August, 35.6% of pupils achieved this target, while 60.4% got five C grades in any subjects.

The statistics show that at all schools, 65.3% of pupils achieved at least C grades in any five subjects, while 91.6% of pupils are gaining five or more GCSEs grades A*-G, which is considered a pass. The figures also show just 30% of pupils achieved grades A*-C in any modern language. This is the first year such data on modern languages has been included.

Schools Secretary Ed Balls welcomed the statistics and said the Government was on target to see no school falling under the 30% threshold by 2011.

He said: "We always said that around a third of National Challenge schools were on track and the figures published today prove this point. We now need to continue to concentrate on the remaining schools and ensure we are giving them the support and challenge they need to make sure no child is left behind.

"This is no time for excuses - I want every child to go to a good school and that means every school getting above 30%. We are putting in the extra resources to help heads reach this and local authorities will shortly be announcing their plans to make sure all schools reach this target by 2011."

-Nova

[OMEN]

The Taoiseach has condemned Israeli actions in Gaza and has told an audience in Tokyo that the war in Iraq had exposed the limitations of US power.

He was delivering a foreign policy address in the Japanese capital.

The review of Irish foreign policy was delivered as the handover approaches in Washington.
Mr Cowen praised the approach of Barack Obama, telling his audience he hoped it would usher in the same kind of multilateral approach that marked the Clinton years.

He said the war in Iraq had exposed US limitations, and Washington's need for friends and partners, and he again condemned Israeli response to Hamas rocket attacks as disproportionate.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for Trade & Commerce John McGuinness said the time for tough economic decisions has come even if they cause upheaval and strikes.

Mr McGuinness, who is also on the Japanese trade mission, said that any discussions with the social partners had to make immediate decisions or there should be quick consultations before political choices that could be painful.

He also said that if the Taoiseach decided on a cull of the junior ministerial ranks then so be it; however he maintained that there was a job of work for a trade minister in the current situation.

RTE

[OMEN]

A 39-year-old man has been charged in connection with the murder of a leading loyalist paramilitary nearly a decade ago.

He was arrested by the Historical Enquiries Team earlier today to face questions about the killing of Ulster Defence Association member Tommy English in 2000.

The PSNI did not disclose details of the specific charge or charges facing the suspect, who is expected to appear in court in Belfast tomorrow.
Last week former leading loyalist Mark Haddock was charged with the murder of Mr English by the HET after being arrested in Northern Ireland's top security Maghaberry Prison in Co Antrim where he is nearing the end of a 10-year sentence for an attack on a nightclub doorman.

Belfast Magistrates Court was told that the case against Haddock was based on the evidence of two brothers who have already admitted involvement in the killing of Mr English.

Mr English, 40, was gunned down in front of his wife and children in north Belfast.

He was one of a number of people to die during a bitter feud between the UDA and rival Ulster Volunteer Force.

On Monday, Haddock, previously named in court as a leading member of the UVF, dropped a long-running legal action seeking to stop the media from publishing his new name and address after he leaves prison.

He had claimed his life would be at risk after his release if his new identity was known.

RTE

[OMEN]

Representatives from the Stardust Victims Committee have left the security hut at Government Buildings but insist their protest against the Government's handling of the inquiry will resume tomorrow.

Earlier today they had arrived at Government Buildings hoping to meet an official about a report into the possibility of a re-opening of a public inquiry into the fire that left 48 people dead.

The four-person delegation arrived at noon and was demanding to meet someone from the Department of the Taoiseach.


The report in question was sent to Government before Christmas however, the families say they have not been given any indication as to when they will be given a copy.

48 people died in February of 1981 when a fire broke out at the Stardust nightclub in Artane.

Last year an examination into whether a new public inquiry should be launched took place; computer simulations and witness evidence were examined.

Several weeks ago Paul Coffey, who chaired the hearings, gave his report to Government.

But despite the fact the report has been seen by members of Government and officials, the families remain in the dark.

Earlier today the group said it will take its case to the European courts if they do not get information contained in the report.

Speaking this afternoon going into Government Buildings, the committee's Antoinette Keegan said the families are tired of being ignored.

The group says if it does not get sight of the report, which runs to around 100 pages, it will bring legal proceedings against the Government.

RTE

[OMEN]

A Russian ex-KGB agent could soon be in control of London daily newspaper the Evening Standard.

Billionaire businessman Alexander Lebedev is believed to have made an offer for a 76% share of the paper.

He has previously revealed that he used the paper to find out information when he was a young spy based in London.

Owner Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) is believed to be considering the offer, although the company has made no official comment.

DMGT chairman Lord Rothermere is thought to have already rebuffed a bid Mr Lebedev made for the paper last month.

BBC media correspondent Torin Douglas said the paper had been hit by the advertising downturn and a fierce free newspaper battle in London.

An announcement could be made later.

Mr Lebedev has described the Standard as a "very good newspaper" with some "brilliant journalists".

His fortune, which is reported to be worth around $3.1bn (£2.1bn), was made mostly through banking, insurance companies and from his stake in the Russian airline Aeroflot.

In 2006, he teamed up with ex-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to buy the Russian paper Novaya Gazeta.

BBC

[OMEN]

A social worker at Doncaster Council claims the cases of at least 60 children who may be at risk are being ignored because of a backlog of work.

Serious case reviews have been ordered into the deaths of seven children who have died in Doncaster since 2004 in cases involving abuse or neglect.

Last month Ofsted branded children's services in the town "inadequate".

The social worker, whose identity is being protected, said between 60 and 100 referrals had not been looked at.

The worker told BBC News: "I would say that there are neglect issues, lots and lots of neglect issues, that have not been dealt with because no-one's opened up the cases to actually start doing any analysis of what they've got in front of them.

"Some of those could be children that are in need of protection."

December's Ofsted report said of the 317 children on the local protection register, one in four had not been allocated a social worker.

'Want the best'

It also said that most of the town's children's homes failed to meet minimum national standards.

The council told BBC News that the situation had improved since the Ofsted inspection, and that every child in need now had a social worker.

Dr Paul Gray, director of Doncaster children's service, said work was still ongoing to get five homes up to standard.

He said: "We have a very robust set of action plans for the five homes to make sure that within the next four months they are up to standard.

"I don't want inadequate homes, I don't want an adequate children's service.

"I want the best children's service in the country for Doncaster. That is what Doncaster people deserve and that is what we can build."

BBC

[OMEN]

The government is due to announce approval of a controversial plan to build a third runway at Heathrow Airport, the BBC understands.

Ministers are set to confirm the decision later, despite opposition from residents, environmentalists and MPs.

Leading business and union figures back the project, saying it will create jobs and boost the UK's competitiveness.

The Tories said a third runway would be an "environmental disaster" and pledged to stop it happening if elected.

The government has long argued, in principle, that it is in favour of the scheme, subject to noise and air pollution limits, and undertakings about access and traffic congestion.

Rail link

There has been deep unease within Labour ranks about the decision, with several cabinet members reported to be unconvinced about the project and more than 50 MPs openly opposed.

Alongside the commitment to a new runway, Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon is expected to announce increased investment in public transport, including the possibility of new high-speed rail links from the airport.

In an effort to appease its critics the government is expected to announce new safeguards for limiting emissions with airlines using the new runway required to use the newest, least polluting aircraft.
Business Secretary Lord Mandelson defended the government's commitment to environmental concerns over Heathrow.

He said: "It's a classic dilemma - we want to forge ahead in implementing our climate change ambitions when others are not but we don't want to lose our economic competitiveness in the process. We want to do both these things."

Virgin Atlantic's Paul Charles told BBC Radio 5 Live that if there was no third runway "Britain's economy will suffer. Investors will walk out, they won't invest here, jobs won't be created and people will go to Europe instead".

And Lady Valentine, which runs the business group, London First told the BBC that when Britain emerged from recession, it would need a modernised Heathrow more than ever.

But backbench Labour MP John McDonnell, whose constituency includes the airport, said the fight against the expansion was only just "beginning" and opponents would "use every mechanism possible" including legal challenges, to stop the runway going ahead.
Shadow transport secretary Theresa Villiers told BBC Radio 4's Today that approval of the scheme would show Gordon Brown was "deaf to the concerns of his own party and millions of people living under the flight path".

She said any government environmental promises would be shown "to not be worth the paper they are written on" and warned anyone getting involved in the process that her party would cancel the project if they win the next general election.

The Liberal Democrats also oppose the third runway and have urged ministers to invest in high-speed rail links instead.

Asked about the decision on Wednesday, Prime Minister Gordon Brown declined to guarantee MPs a vote on the issue.

Should the government give the go-ahead, he said there would be a debate in Parliament and that the scheme would have to be granted planning permission.

This is likely to be a lengthy process, with work on a new runway unlike to be completed before 2019.

Public protests

Protests have been growing in anticipation of a decision, which was due to be made in December but was delayed amid reports of divisions within government over the issue.

About 700 homes will have to be demolished to make way for the runway, which will increase the number of flights using Heathrow from about 480,000 a year now to 702,000 by 2030.
Campaigners have bought some land earmarked for the construction of the runway in an effort to frustrate the expansion plans.

Environmental campaigners say proceeding with the new runway will leave the government's legal commitment to cut carbon emissions by 80% by 2050 in tatters.

"Expanding Heathrow would shatter the government's international reputation on climate change," said Andy Atkins, executive director of Friends of the Earth.

"We need bold and urgent action to create a low-carbon economy, not more backing for the climate-wrecking activities of the aviation industry."

But the government believes the new runway will not violate its EU commitments on air and noise pollution, pointing out that new aircraft being built will reduce emissions significantly.

'At risk'

Supporters of the runway say Heathrow is already operating at full capacity and the UK economy will lose business to the rest of Europe if it does not go ahead.
They point out that rival airports such as Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam already have at least four runways and that Heathrow is at risk of falling further behind.

Former Labour MP Lord Soley is the campaign director of Future Heathrow, which represents groups in favour of expanding the airport.

He told BBC News that Heathrow brought jobs and "prosperity" to the surrounding areas and in an "ideal world" the expansion would not be needed.

"But the ideal world doesn't exist and it isn't true to say that Heathrow isn't at risk.

"It is at risk and if it continues to decline, then the consequences for west London and the Thames Valley will be very, very serious indeed," he said.

British Airways, the largest airline at Heathrow, has said expanding the airport is the only "credible option".

BBC

[OMEN]

The idea of a "war on terror" is a "mistake", putting too much emphasis on military force, Foreign Secretary David Miliband has said.

Writing in the Guardian, Mr Miliband said the idea had unified disparate "terrorist groups" against the West.

He said the right response to the threat was to champion law and human rights - not subordinate it.

Mr Miliband is due to repeat the views in a speech later in Mumbai, India, the scene of attacks by gunmen last year.

Mr Miliband's warning comes five days before the end of US President George Bush's administration, which has led the so-called "war on terror".

The foreign secretary wrote that since 9/11 the phrase "war on terror" had "defined the terrain" when it came to tackling terrorism and that although it had merit, "ultimately, the notion is misleading and mistaken".

The phrase was first used by President Bush in an address to a joint session of Congress on 20 September 2001, in the aftermath of the attacks on New York and Washington.

Mr Miliband wrote that the phrase was all-encompassing and "gave the impression of a unified, transnational enemy, embodied in the figure of Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda" when the situation was far more complex.

Calling for groups to be treated as separate entities with differing motivations, he wrote that it was not a "simple binary struggle between moderates and extremists, or good and evil" and treating them as such was a mistake.
"Historians will judge whether [the notion] has done more harm than good", he said.

The phrase, informally dropped from use by the UK government several years ago, "implied a belief that the correct response to the terrorist threat was primarily a military one - to track down and kill a hardcore of extremists", he wrote.

But the stance he now promoted was international "co-operation".

Highlighting US President-elect Barack Obama's commitment to close the Guantanamo Bay detention centre, Mr Miliband said it was time to ensure human rights and civil liberties were upheld.

He suggested that the different organisations took advantage of the belief that they had one common enemy and a key way to tackle them was to stop this.

"Terrorism is a deadly tactic, not an institution or an ideology."

He is due to repeat his words in a speech later at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel, in Mumbai, India, the scene of attacks by gunmen last November.

He is in the country in an attempt to mediate tensions between India and Pakistan over the attacks which killed 179 people.

He urged Pakistan's government to take "urgent and effective action to break up terror networks on its soil" and called for a resolution over the disputed region of Kashmir.

BBC

[OMEN]

Israeli tanks and artillery have pounded Gaza city in a relentless barrage of shelling today, despite some signs of progress in the international effort to bring about a ceasefire to the 20-day conflict.

Live video footage from a Reuters camera in downtown Gaza showed sustained artillery fire from the edge of the city for several hours.

Shells exploded in downtown areas and long machinegun bursts echoed off Gaza's cramped housing blocks.
Israeli forces have encircled the city of 500,000 people for days. Tanks have made forays towards the centre to test the resistance of Hamas and other militant groups but have held off a full-scale assault on the densely populated urban maze.

The Palestinian death toll from the air-and-ground offensive has risen to at least 1,024, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. A Palestinian rights group said 670 of the dead were civilians. 13 Israelis have been killed: 10 soldiers and three civilians hit by Hamas rocket fire.

As the toll mounts, ceasefire negotiations have intensified.

An Israeli envoy was to meet Egyptian mediators in Cairo today after a Hamas delegation concluded talks on an Egyptian truce proposal by repeating their demand that Israel withdraw its troops and lift a long-standing blockade on coastal Gaza.

Ceasefire is close, says Spanish FM

In the West Bank yesterday, Spain's Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, a former EU Middle East envoy, said: 'My perception is we are very close to reaching a ceasefire. They are very close but still there is some work to be done.'

In Cairo, Hamas official Salah al-Bardawil said: 'The movement has presented a detailed vision to the Egyptian leadership so it can continue its pursuit to end the aggression and lift the injustice on our people in the Gaza Strip.'

Israel, which wants an end to rocket attacks on its towns and guarantees that Hamas cannot smuggle in more weapons from tunnels to neighbouring Egypt, said it would not agree to a truce allowing the Palestinian Islamists to regroup and rearm.

'Israel seeks a durable quiet that contains a total absence of hostile fire from Gaza into Israel and a working mechanism to prevent Hamas from rearming,' said Mark Regev, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

France and Germany repeated their calls for an immediate halt to the fighting, while Venezuela cut off all diplomatic ties with Israel, just days after expelling the ambassador.

Having launched the Gaza offensive on 27 December to counter Palestinian rocket fire, the Israeli government has been unclear about whether the assault could soon end or be stepped up.

Political analysts see a possible deadline in Tuesday's inauguration of Barack Obama as US president, after which Israel may be reluctant to test White House support for a campaign that has stirred international outrage.

Israeli election next month

Israelis also face a 10 February election which will pit Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Defence Minister Ehud Barak and opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu against one another, straining the cross-partisan support that the offensive has enjoyed so far.

Underscoring its demand for an end to Hamas arms-smuggling, Israel sent planes to drop more bunker-busting bombs along the 15 km sandy frontier between Gaza and Egypt.

'They used bombs that went deep into the tunnels and shook the whole Rafah refugee camp. The land trembled beneath our feet,' said Bassam Abdallah, a local Palestinian cameraman.

Since the offensive began, Hamas rocket fire into Israel has declined sharply, but militants still managed to launch 14 rockets at Israel yesterday, the army said. There was some damage to buildings but no casualties.

In Cairo, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon - who arrived in the region yesterday for several days of intense diplomacy on the conflict - renewed his call for an immediate and durable ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Hamas swept Palestinian elections in 2006 but has been shunned by the West for its hostility to Israel.

With Israeli troops edging closer to the heart of the city of Gaza, international organisations have expressed growing concern about the plight of civilians trapped there.

Human rights groups have reported shortages of vital supplies, including water, in the Hamas-ruled territory. A fuel shortage has brought frequent power blackouts.

Israel has permitted almost daily truck shipments of food and medicine. But Human Rights Watch said Israel's daily three-hour break in attacks to facilitate the supply of humanitarian aid to Gazans was woefully insufficient.

More than half the Gaza Strip's 1.5m people are dependent on UN food aid. The UN has been working in Gaza since 1948, when tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees fled to the area to escape attacks during the war that accompanied Israel's founding.

RTE

[JohnCenaFan28]

Thanks for this.