World News joined 0011

[JohnCenaFan28]

Gordon Brown is to urge EU leaders to copy Britain's blueprint for tackling global financial turmoil.

At a crunch summit in Paris, the Prime Minister will insist that co-ordinated international action along the lines of his £500bn bank bail-out is the only way to ease "extraordinary" turmoil on markets.

The meeting comes after the US set out a similar plan to the UK's, which will see the Government take significant stakes in banks and guarantee lending between them.

Writing in the Sunday Mirror, Mr Brown echoed the warning from US President George Bush yesterday that countries must not "turn against each other" or seek isolation amid the chaos.

"No country - not even the biggest - can make it just on their own at a time like this," he insisted. "We are all in it together and have to work to solve it together."

He said he knew people were "worried", but evoked the spirit of the Blitz in claiming that the UK would "lead the way through".

"I've seen in the cities and towns I've visited a calm, determined British spirit; that, while this is a world financial crisis that has started from America, Britain will lead the way in pulling through.

"And I know that we will come together as a country and emerge a fairer and more successful nation than ever before. Together, we can win the fight for Britain's future."

EU leaders were already due to meet in Brussels on Wednesday. However, Sunday's gathering of eurozone members in Paris was hastily arranged by French President Nicolas Sarkozy after a disastrous week on financial markets.

In a break with precedent, Mr Brown has been invited despite the UK not being part of the single currency.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

The Government has seized more than enough Icelandic assets to pay back British savers caught up in the country's banking collapse, it was revealed.

Some £4bn is understood to have been frozen using anti-terror laws last week, compared to the estimated £3bn that UK councils, charities and individuals stand to lose.

Treasury Chief Secretary Yvette Cooper insisted the assets would not be released until a deal had been struck with Iceland's authorities to return British money.

Asked if they could be sold in order to recover the investments, Ms Cooper told BBC1's Andrew Marr Show: "I think we need to have a proper process for doing this and that is why we sent a team over to Iceland on Friday in order to talk to the Iceland authorities about how that money can get back to the people whose money it really is.

"These discussions are under way at the moment and that is why we have frozen assets in the meantime until we know how people are going to get their money back."

The scale of the assets frozen emerged amid fears that the banking collapse may mean some councils cannot pay their staff this month.

Most of the estimated £1bn invested in Iceland by local authorities was capital, but according to the Independent on Sunday a handful deposited revenue budgets - which include payroll - in order to earn interest.

But an LGA spokeswoman stressed that all councils held reserves, and it was "highly unlikely" there would be any impact. "We are not aware of any councils which have immediate cashflow problems in terms of services or paying staff," she said.

The LGA is urging the Government to relax capitalisation rules for hard-hit councils and allow them to delay payments of business tax rates if necessary.

The Treasury delegation conducting negotiations in Iceland released a statement last night saying "significant progress" had been made. A deal has already been done in principle over an "accelerated" payment for small UK depositors, according to the statement. However, the situation with larger investors has yet to be resolved.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Some bright pupils are being asked to re-take GCSEs to boost the overall results of their schools, it has been claimed.

Independent tutoring expert Dr Mike Ryde claimed some of his young pupils were being asked by their own school to re-sit exams they had taken early at his college, because they had been awarded top marks.

He said: "I have had it a few times, pupils have come to me and said 'my school wants me to take it again'.

"This is because if they know a child is going to get a good mark then they want it to count towards their school's performance."

The performance of schools is judged in part on their GCSE results, which feed into annual national attainment tables.

Dr Ryde is the head of Ryde Teaching Services in Watford, which teaches children below the usual GCSE age. Children can take GCSEs with his college as it is also an assessment centre. But he claimed some schools were then asking pupils to re-take the exam at their own school.

He said: "I had one school call me and ask if they could say a pupil had taken the exam with them because he had got a good grade."

Dr Ryde said more schools should put pupils in for GCSEs early, to reduce the pressure on them to take all of their exams at the age of 16. But he claimed most fail to do so because results of exams taken by younger pupils will not show up in their attainment tables.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said: "Whether a pupil sits a GCSE exam early is a decision for themselves, their parents and the school to take.

"A school may suggest to a pupil that they re-take an exam if it is in the pupil's best interests because they are likely to get a better grade. We would be very surprised to hear of schools asking pupils to re-take exams for any other reason."

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

UK firms issued 111 profit warnings between July and September as the credit crunch hit retailers, media and support service firms, it emerged.

The figures from Ernst & Young are the highest for the third quarter since the same period in 2001 and almost a third higher than in 2007.

Keith McGregor, restructuring partner at Ernst & Young, said the findings from stock market listed firms were "deeply concerning."

He added: "The end of the third quarter and the start of the fourth brought some of the most turbulent weeks for banks and financial markets in a generation; weeks that have completely redefined the banking landscape and reminded us that the credit crisis is far from over."

Support services saw the most warnings to investors with 23 out of 209 companies in the sector, the highest ever recorded for this part of the UK economy. It comprises companies ranging from recruitment agencies to engineering services and Government contractors.

The research said the sector was exposed to industries currently in turmoil, such as the financial and property sectors. The Office for National Statistics recently said the service sector as a whole failed to grow for the first time in six years during the three months to July 2008.

General retailers are also expecting to be a casualty of current economic turmoil.

The sector issued 13 profit warnings out of 78 companies, almost double the number issued in the third quarter of 2007.

E&Y said retailers will struggle to make a profit this Christmas as they need increase their prices to balance escalating overheads at a time when consumers are spending less.

One fifth of the media sector has issued profit warnings in the year to date.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

The Government's controversial plans to increase the terror detention limit to 42 days will be effectively killed off by a defeat in the Lords, one of the measure's leading critics said.

Former shadow home secretary David Davis said he expected peers to overwhelmingly reject the proposals in a vote on Monday.

Mr Davis, who resigned as an MP to force a by-election over the Government's record on civil liberties, said: "I think it will be dead."

Peers will vote on increasing the pre-charge custody time limit for terror suspects from 28 to 42 days.

Mr Davis told BBC1's Andrew Marr Show: "I think it will be thrown out by a huge majority."

He said the measure, contained in the Counter-Terrorism Bill, no longer had support from the public and the Government would not have the political will to force it through using the Parliament Act to overrule the House of Lords.

The Tory MP said: "It was something that was profitable for the Government - they thought by having 42 days and us opposing it they would make us look weak and them look strong. That was when 70% supported it, now it's about 30% supporting the Government."

He continued: "Their own party probably won't support them in the Parliament Act, so I think it's probably over."

Gordon Brown narrowly got the measure through the Commons by just nine votes in a major test of his authority in June.

Mr Davis shocked Westminster by standing down as MP for Haltemprice and Howden in protest at the result and was re-elected after a campaign designed to highlight what he described as the "erosion" of civil liberties under Labour.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

A mother who is campaigning for justice after the rape and murder of her teenage daughter in India is being summoned to answer allegations of neglect, her lawyer has said.

Fiona MacKeown believes the authorities have made a number of attempts to cover up the death of Scarlett Keeling as an accident.

The body of the 15-year-old was found on Anjuna beach in Goa on February 19. She had been left in the care of a 25-year-old tour guide while the rest of the family went travelling.

Now Goa's Directorate of Women and Child Development has ordered Mrs MacKeown, 43, to appear before the courts on October 15.

Her lawyer, Vikram Varma, said she would not attend the hearing and the allegations had "no substance".

Mr Varma said powerful forces in Goa wanted to cover up Scarlett's death. He said: "They have prejudged her. They will try to ensure that Fiona does not come to India to give her testimony about Scarlett. They want what happened to Scarlett to be an accident."

Mrs MacKeown, from Bradworthy, Devon, went travelling with her six other children leaving Scarlett in Anjuna.

Police said initially that her death was an accidental drowning but, after a sustained campaign by Mrs MacKeown, the results were re-examined and a second post-mortem examination held.

The results revealed Scarlett was killed and a murder investigation was launched. The tests also showed that Scarlett was given Ecstasy, cocaine and LSD on the night she died.

Nerlon Albuquerque, the police officer who first investigated the death, was dismissed in April. Two men were arrested, Samson D'Souza, 29, and Placido Carvalho, aged between 30 and 35, who have appeared in court on suspicion of drugging Scarlett and assisting in the murder by that act.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams is to join Christian and Muslim scholars for the start of a conference aimed at promoting understanding between the two faiths.

Dr Williams and the Grand Mufti of Egypt Sheikh Ali Gomaa will be among those addressing A Common Word, a conference at Cambridge University involving academics from around the world.

The event coincides with the first anniversary of the publication of A Common Word Between Us and You, a letter from 138 Islamic scholars, clerics and intellectuals.

Addressed to Pope Benedict XVI and other Christian leaders, the letter warned that the survival of the world could be at stake if Muslims and Christians could not make peace with each other.

"If Muslims and Christians are not at peace, the world cannot be at peace. With the terrible weaponry of the modern world - with Muslims and Christians intertwined everywhere as never before - no side can unilaterally win a conflict between more than half of the world's inhabitants.

"Our common future is at stake," the letter said. "The very survival of the world itself is perhaps at stake."

The scholars also used quotations from the Bible and the Koran to illustrate similarities between the two faiths, such as the requirement to worship one God and to love one's neighbour.

In a letter of response published earlier this year, Dr Williams welcomed the document as a "significant development" in relations between Christians and Muslims.

The organisers of the conference said it would examine practical and "ground-breaking" steps that the two religious faiths could take to ensure they deepen mutual understanding, action and friendship.

The event comes after Dr Williams was heavily criticised earlier this year following a BBC interview in which he suggested that the adoption of some aspects of Islamic sharia law in the UK seemed "unavoidable".

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

A pedestrian died after two stolen cars collided and hit a block of flats, police said.

The cars hit the flats on the London Road in Bedford just before 4am.

A local 25-year-old man, believed to have been walking home after a night out in Bedford, was seriously injured and died at Bedford Hospital, police confirmed.

A Bedfordshire Police spokeswoman said his details would be revealed when an inquest is opened by the coroner.

The spokeswoman said six people have so far been arrested in connection with the incident, which involved a Ford S Max and a Hyundai Coupe, both believed to have been stolen overnight from the Bedford area.

She said all six had been arrested on suspicion of taking a vehicle without consent.

She said: "Three of the people that have been arrested are at Bedford Hospital South Wing, two of which are described as receiving treatment for serious but not life-threatening injuries."

She said the third was receiving treatment for minor injuries and the remaining three people arrested are being held at Greyfriars police station.

The impact of the crash caused extensive damage to the building, which is owned by Bedfordshire Pilgrims Housing Association.

The crash left a hole in the wall of one resident's bedroom and damage to a neighbouring flat and stairwell.

-Ananova

[Slayer_X]

SO........ were both cars stolen together ? Or did car theives collide ?

[Slayer_X]

Careful when you go to 3rd world countries kids . this is what happens .