Crown estate and Scottish government name 10 wave and tide power installations around Orkney islands and Pentland Firth

The heavy Atlantic swell and some of the world's strongest tides are to be harnessed by a breakthrough scheme to generate clean marine energy off northern Scotland, with predictions it will rival the output of a nuclear power station.

The crown estate and Scottish government today unveiled a £4bn project to build 10 wave and tidal power sites around the Orkney islands and the Pentland Firth, with the potential to power up to 750,000 homes.

The devices deployed will include the Pelamis "sea snake", which uses the undulations of the sea surface to generate power, and the SeaGen tidal machine, which looks like an underwater wind turbine. In total, the machine will be able to produce up to 1.2GW of "green" energy, more than Dungeness B nuclear station in Kent.

The crown estate, which owns all the UK's seabed out to 12 nautical miles, said these projects were the world's first commercial wave and tidal power schemes. It is expected to announce new marine power sites in other parts of the UK later this year.

Alex Salmond, Scotland's first minister, said the announcement confirmed his prediction that the Pentland Firth region – where the north-east Atlantic meets the North Sea – would become the "Saudi Arabia" of marine energy.

The narrow sea channel has some of the most powerful currents and tidal surges in the world, with speeds up to 16 knots or 19mph recorded. The area also experiences some of the biggest waves in the UK.

Crown estate officials and the developers accepted these often dangerous waters posed significant engineering and safety challenges for the firms involved.

Salmond said some estimates suggested the waters could release up to 60GW of power – 10 times Scotland's annual electricity usage. Other studies suggest one-third of the UK's total electricity needs could be met by tidal power alone.

"This is a huge milestone on the way to making that dream a reality," Salmond said. "Today marks a major milestone in the global journey towards a low carbon future, with the commercial-scale deployment of marine renewables set to power our economies and help safeguard the planet for generations to come."

The schemes are expected to cost £4bn to install, and will require up to £1bn of extra investment – from public sources – to build new national grid connections, harbours and other infrastructure in Orkney and Caithness.

The 10 projects, several of which have already had investment from a £22m UK government marine energy fund, are evenly divided between wave and tidal power stations, with each type generating up to 600MW. The projects are being shared by three of the UK's largest power firms, E.ON, Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE), which already operates the UK's largest hydro schemes, and Scottish Power Renewables, a heavy investor in windfarms.

In most cases, the utility companies have formed joint ventures with four of the UK's leading marine energy firms, covering small areas of sea with up to 200 machines. They use a variety of techniques to capture the energy of the ocean.

Edinburgh-based company Pelamis Wave Power, whose sea-snake device is now being tested off the coast of Portugal, will have its own 50MW site in the Pentland Firth and share three other sites with SSE and Scottish Power on the west coast of Orkney's main island. Its new devices will each be 180 metres long and generate 750kW of electricity.

Also to use wave power is a more powerful version of Aquamarine's existing Oyster machine, in which a lever hinged at the ocean floor is pushed back and forth. It will be used for a 200MW station with SSE Renewables, and its 200 new 1MW machines are expected to start producing power by 2015.

OpenHydro, a large underwater turbine resembling a jet engine and bolted to the sea floor, is built by Cantick Head Tidal and will harness the firth's fierce tides at a 200MW site south of Orkney.

Another tidal machine, SeaGen, features two underwater propellers attached to a tall column anchored to the seabed. It will be installed by Marine Current Turbines off Orkney and at a 100MW site north-west of John O'Groats. SeaGen is currently on test at the "narrows" leading into Strangford Lough from the Irish Sea.

The marine announcement follows last month's confirmation that £75bn will be spent developing a much larger amount of offshore wind power – at least 25GW – at nine sites around the British Isles, including two off Scotland.

The several government projects are intended to increase the UK's renewable energy output, in a bid to cut the emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel power stations and to increase the country's energy security, as North Sea oil and gas declines.

Orkney islands' council is now planning to invest more than £20m to upgrade its harbours and port facilities to cope with the huge influx in industrial equipment, ships and workers involved in these projects, which will industrialise large areas of the coastline.

The islands are widely admired for their tranquillity and scenery but Stephen Hagan, the council's leader, said he believed most residents were keen to see the investment.

With other island councils in Scotland facing huge local unrest over plans for major onshore windfarms, he does not expect significant opposition on environmental grounds.

"I do genuinely think that people in Orkney feel that we have to get the balance right between the long term sustainability of the place and the environment. I think they see the development of marine renewables as a much better option than onshore wind," he said.

• Wave, tidal and hydropower
• Renewable energy
• Energy
• Energy industry
• Scotland
• Energy

Severin Carrellguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Pontiff will travel to Scotland, hold two public masses and meet the Queen in first official visit to Britain of a pope

Buckingham Palace confirmed details today of the first official visit to Britain of a pope, which will see Benedict XVI celebrate two public masses, meet the Queen and move a 19th century theologian closer to sainthood in a ceremony at Coventry airport.

Non-policing costs amount to £15m, a sum to be met by the state and the Catholic churches of England, Scotland and Wales. Policing costs will depend on the venue for each engagement and will draw on existing budgets for the forces involved ‑ Strathclyde police, the Metropolitan police and West Midlands police.

The pope, due to visit in September, will travel to Scotland and England during his four-day trip, taking in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Coventry and London.

He will follow in the footsteps of his predecessor John Paul II, who visited the country on a pastoral trip in 1982, by celebrating mass in Bellahouston Park, Glasgow.

The pope will also lead the beatification ceremony at Coventry airport of Cardinal John Henry Newman, who is likely to become the first Englishman since the 17th century to be made a saint and the first British, non-martyred saint since St John Twenge in 1379. Popes normally instruct beatifications to be carried out at a local level but the pontiff has made no secret of his admiration for Newman, who is variously described as a "towering figure" and the most famous Anglican to convert to Catholicism ‑ at least until Tony Blair. At a Foreign Office briefing the Scotland secretary, Jim Murphy, welcomed the visit, describing it as a "truly unique event".

Murphy said discussions were continuing as to how to best divide the cost but that appropriate contributions from church or state would be made. Cardinal Keith O'Brien, president of the Conference of Bishops in Scotland, said: "When John Paul II came it was a pastoral event and it was paid for by the church. We're not scrimping in any way."

Following the Scottish leg of the tour, which includes an audience with the Queen at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, and the Coventry event, the pope will travel to London for a lecture on civil society and a potentially awkward meeting with the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth Palace.

Relations between the two buckled last year when the pope created a special wing in the Catholic church for traditionalist Anglicans disaffected with greater inclusion of gay and female clergy, by allowing them to convert while retaining Anglican aspects of worship.

Dr Rowan Williams received no notice of the papal plan and was only informed of the development a fortnight before a press conference to announce it, where he looked visibly uncomfortable.

• Pope Benedict XVI
• Scotland
• Religion
• Pope John Paul II
• Italy

Riazat Buttguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

The poet laureate invokes Achilles in her verse for the England footballer, out of action due to an injured heel

Who knows if it will cheer the tearful David Beckham up or not but I, for one, am full of joy at the news that Carol Ann Duffy has written a poem for the injured footballer.

"This poem is written in sympathy for this part of his story and to draw a parallel with Achilles, who gave his name to Beckham's injury," the poet laureate told the Mirror, where her poem was published today. "The public aspect of some lives provides a narrative, a story, for the rest of us to follow. We speak of 'living the dream', a 'fairytale existence' of 'legends' and of 'heroes'. Like Greek myths, such public lives can contain triumph and tragedy, and in a way we all learn from them, as we do from Ovid, or the Brothers Grimm, or Shakespeare."

Duffy has been nothing if not prolific since taking up the post as laureate last year, launching awards, giving out medals and writing poetry about the expenses row, the 10:10 campaign, Christmas and to mark the deaths of Harry Patch and Henry Allingham.

But I particularly like this latest contribution, "Achilles (for David Beckham)" – sport and football is a combination seen all too infrequently and Duffy, as ever, does it beautifully.

When Odysseus came,
with an athlete's build, a sword and a shield, he followed him to the battlefield, the crowd's roar,
and it was sport, not war,
his charmed foot on the ball ...
but then his heel, his heel, his heel ...

It's a far cry from Henry Newbolt's desperately honourable Vitai Lampada:

It's not for the sake of a ribboned coat,
Or the selfish hope of a season's fame,
But his captain's hand on his shoulder smote —
'Play up! play up! and play the game!'

(Which, incidentally, always reminds me of Jilly Cooper's Polo, and Perdita's comment that "the schoolboy in the poem must be an utter jerk and a poofter to boot to prefer his captain's hand on his shoulder to a season's fame and a ribboned coat".)

Moving on from Cooper, though, if you're as poetically inspired as Duffy by Beckham's injury – or if you've other great examples of sporting poetry – then please share your verses below.

• Carol Ann Duffy
• David Beckham
• Poet laureate
• Poetry

Alison Floodguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

The Iranian opposition is planning to take to the streets again tonight as part of a traditional fire festival in defiance of the authorities. Follow live updates

5.05pm:
The number of incidents reported by the Tehran fire department has increased to 66 up to 7.45pm local time (4.15pm GMT), according to the semi-official Mehr News.

4.48pm:
As usual on one of these protest days there is virtual media blackout in Iran which means that reliable information is difficult to obtain. If you are in Iran and have news, please email me at matthew.weaver@guardian.co.uk or for a more secure encrypted message email me at matthew_weaver@hushmail.com and please post updates or interesting links in the comments section below.

4.39pm:
Three people have been arrested in Enghelab Square in Tehran, according to the INA news agency.

And there is a heavy police presence in Tehran's Haft-e Tir Square and the Saadat Abad and Velanjak areas of the city according to France24.

Earlier today the Committee of Human Rights Reporters said that women's rights activist Laleh Hassanpour was arrested after a police raid on her home.

4.31pm:
The Tehran fire brigade reports 36 separate incidents across the city tonight, according to the state run news agency ISNA. Eight of the incidents were due to handmade fireworks, it said according to our translator.

4.18pm:
There are numerous reports of firecrackers going off and even of clashes on the streets of Tehran from usually reliable sources on Twitter. Video footage has been released but there are doubts about its veracity, some claim it shows last year's fire festival.

4.14pm:
Police are banning petrol stations from filling up containers, according to CNN's Reza Sayah.

4.08pm:
Tehran police chief General Hossein Sajedinia told the ISNA news agency his forces were deployed to prevent "any event in the city".

The police have also announced that riding motorbikes will be banned tonight.

Opposition website, Norooznews, reported that Mousavi told a group of activists that the green movement would continue into the Persian New Year, which starts on Sunday.

"We have to call the next year the year of patience and resistance, until the aims of the Green Movement are achieved," he said.

4pm:
Tonight demonstration is a key test of the strength of the opposition after a disappointing turnout at last month's protests.

Some commentators, including former US security council middle east expert, Flynt Leverett, said the turnout on 11 February showed that the opposition was running out of steam.

The planned protest tonight is different from the other demonstrations staged since the disputed elections last June. It is due to happen at night rather than the day to coincide with Chaharshanbe Suri or the Feast of Fire celebrations.

Even before the election this Zoroastrian ceremony had become a way of showing defiance to the regime. It involves letting off fireworks, jumping over bonfires, and men and women dancing on the streets - an activity banned in the Islamic Republic.

The festival often turns dangerous as young people traditionally chuck petrol bombs and other homemade explosives.

This time round the authorities have banned the festival and stepped up security. The supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei described Chaharshanbe Suri as corrupt and counter to Islam.

Yesterday the authorities announced that six people arrested in earlier protests will be executed. The move is being seen as a way of warning the opposition not to take to the streets tonight, according to the New York Times.

The defeated opposition leaders Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi have not overtly called for supporters to take to the streets tonight. But yesterday Karroubi pointedly said the Iranian government was "plagued with despotism".

And the Facebook page of Mousavi's wife Zahra Rahnavard has expressed support for the festival. It is the festival of light against darkness, it said.

• Iran
• Protest
• Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
• Mir Hossein Mousavi
• Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
• Middle East

Matthew Weaverguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Agents taught how to extract information from social networking sites in US government document obtained by advocacy group

Any criminals dumb enough to brag about their exploits on social networking sites have now been warned: the next Facebook "friend" who contacts you may be an FBI agent.

US federal law enforcement agents have been using social networking sites ‑ including Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and Twitter ‑ to search for evidence and witnesses in criminal cases, and in some instances, track suspects, according to a newly released justice department memo.

FBI agents have created fake personalities ‑ in apparent contravention of some of the sites' rules ‑ in order to befriend suspects and lure them into revealing clues or confessing, access private information and map social networks.

The new online efforts were revealed in a justice department document obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based legal advocacy group. The document, a 33-page slideshow prepared by two justice department lawyers, was obtained in a lawsuit the group filed against the justice department, seeking information on its social network policies.

Law enforcement agencies have long used internet chatrooms to lure child pornography traffickers and suspected sex predators and with a warrant, can seize suspects and defendants' email records. But Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites provide a wealth of additional information, in photographs, status updates and friend lists. In many cases, the information is publicly accessible.

In a section entitled "utility in criminal cases", the document says agents can scan suspects' profiles to establish motives, determine a person's location, and tap into personal communication, for instance through Facebook status updates.

Agents can examine photographs for guns, jewellery and other evidence of participation in robbery or burglary, and can compare information on Facebook status updates and Twitter feeds with suspects' alibis. Friend lists can yield witnesses or informants.

The document advises agents that Facebook is now used in private background checks. It indicates that Facebook often co-operates with emergency law enforcement requests.

In one section on working undercover on social networking sites, the document poses but does not answer the question: "If agents violate terms of service, is that 'otherwise illegal activity'?"

Facebook rules bar users from providing false information or creating an account for anyone other than yourself without permission, and says that users should "provide their real names".

A former US cyber-security prosecutor told the Associated Press that federal investigators working online should be able to go undercover as much as they do in the real world, but said rules need to be developed.

"This new situation presents a need for careful oversight so that law enforcement does not use social networking to intrude on some of our most personal relationships," Marc Zwillinger said.

In one case that highlights the use of social networking in law enforcement, a man wanted in Seattle on bank fraud charges fled and police lost track of him. The suspect's Facebook page was private but his friend list was public. Among Maxi Sopo's friends, prosecutors spotted a former justice department employee who did not know he was wanted. When Sopo posted messages on Facebook describing his easy new life in Mexico, his online friend provided information that enabled Mexican police to nab him in September.

• FBI
• Facebook
• MySpace
• Social networking
• Internet
• United States

Daniel Nasawguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

England 599-6 dec & 209-7 dec; Bangladesh 296 & 331
England win by 181 runs

Graeme Swann became the first England off-spinner to take 10 wickets in a Test since Jim Laker famously routed the Australians in 1956, but his latest achievement in an outstanding year was laced with controversy because of a gratuitous outburst against the Bangladeshi batsman Junaid Siddique as the bowler finally swung the first Test in England's favour.

Swann's response as he forced Siddique to poke a gentle catch to Paul Collingwood at slip, and paved the way for an England victory that was finally achieved by 181 runs in mid-afternoon on the final day, was a rude reminder that he and Laker are products of a very different age.

"Fuck off," he roared, complete with one-finger salute, at a batsman who had just completed a maiden international hundred and whose obduracy in a sixth-wicket stand of 167 with Mushfiqur Rahim had held up England in all for 70 overs and four and a half hours.

It had been hot, exhausting work, and Swann, who bowled 49 overs in Bangladesh's second innings, bore the weight of expectation as the sole England spinner on an unresponsive fifth-day surface. He brings more laughter to the England side than Laker, who could be a cantankerous soul, ever did, but even allowing for present-day trends it was a tawdry response that demeaned Swann and did a disservice to English cricket.

Predictably, Alastair Cook claimed not to have noticed, in which case he can now enter Wisden as the first deaf captain of England. The video analyst had told him that, as well as Siddique and Rahim had played, there were 42 edges or play-and-misses in the partnership – 10 per cent of balls faced – so some frustration was inevitable.

"Naturally you get frustrated, but I was pleased that we kept banging away," he said. "On that wicket you got no reward for anything. At no stage did the umpires say that we had crossed the line. In hot conditions it would have been very easy to boil over more than we did. We stuck together as a side and kept our emotions in check."

Stuart Broad will also attract censure for racing the full length of the pitch in a successful search of an lbw decision against Abdur Razzak. He was another bowler who had worked hard, kicking up more dust in his run-up than the lunchtime stage, and it was a minor sin, but it all encouraged the impression of an England side too exhausted to win with style.

The end, when it came, came quickly. After a wicketless morning that made English hearts sink, Siddique's dismissal was the first of five Bangladeshi wickets to tumble in 18 post-lunch overs. England now head to Dhaka 1-0 up with one to play.

Swann finished with match figures of 10 for 175, securing his feat with the last wicket when Michael Carberry took a slick, diving catch at midwicket to dismiss Naeem Islam. Tony Greig did take 13 wickets against West Indies in Trinidad in 1974, although he was bowling off-cutters.

Bangladesh's right to Test status has been questioned, but the discipline of Siddique and Mushfiqur was a persuasive retort. Siddique's technique is not easy on the eye but Bangladesh's Australian coach, Jamie Siddons, recognises him as a battler. Mushfiqur's wicketkeeping is lacking, but as a wicketkeeper-batsman he is a diamond. Swann deceived him in the flight, tempting him down the pitch for virtually the first time in search of a straight six to bring up his own hundred.

Cook had taken the second new ball five overs into the day, but it brought no reward. Mushfiqur's edge died short of Collingwood at second slip and Broad's appeal for lbw against Mushfiqur was refused by umpire Rod Tucker as marginally high.

Swann twice came close to dismissing Siddique. Umpire Tucker wisely refused an lbw appeal against Siddique, who was also dropped by Prior off a difficult under-edge as he became becalmed on 106. It all added fuel to the send-off.

Cook admitted to a sleepless night as he agonised over the balance of England's attack and admitted that he had wanted the security of a sixth specialist batsman. As for enforcing the follow-on when England led on first innings by 303, the bowlers were tired and it had never crossed his mind. "In my mind the follow-on is very overrated," he said.

• England Cricket Team
• Bangladesh Cricket Team
• England in Bangladesh 2010
• Graeme Swann
• Cricket

David Hoppsguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Twenty five girls from Katine sub-county will benefit from education scholarships given by the Mvule Trust, funded by Guardian readers

In an effort to increase attendance at secondary school among girls from Katine sub-county, 25 young women who recently passed their primary leaving exams have received scholarships to study for the next four years.

The scholarships have been given by the Mvule Trust, a Uganda-based NGO working to support young people in the Teso region of the country, in which Katine is found, through their education. Funding for the scholarships was raised by readers through the Guardian's Christmas appeal last year.

The scholarships will pay for tuition fees, uniforms, a mattress and scholastic materials and should fund the girls up to their O-level year.

The 25 girls, who all received second grade scores in their primary leaving exams (the highest is grade one), have now left their day schools and have joined a boarding school in Soroti district.

According to Adreen Kanyesigye, an officer from Mvule, the decision to pull the girls out of their day schools and into a boarding schools was because it would give the girls more time and space to concentrate on their studies.

She said girls who study in day schools and live at home often have to do a lot of housework and some have long distances to walk to and from class, which makes them vulnerable to attack. Girls who live away from home, but not in school grounds, are at high risk of dropping out because they are exposed to temptations.

"We want them to concentrate so we are taking them to a boarding school to avoid issues of early marriages and pregnancies, which are still a big challenge in Katine," said Kanyesigye.

"For example, if a girl slept hungry and there is this man willing to give her money to buy food, what do you expect next? Pregnancy." She added: "It would be a waste of resources sponsoring girls in day schools who would eventually drop out because of pregnancy."

One girl from a Katine village missed out on a scholarship when it was discovered she had been married off earlier this year.

Sister Mary Alebo, headteacher of the boarding school, said the school expects girls to work hard. "Once you come here, be sure that you meet our standards. Short of that means you pack and go," she said.

But she is confident the girls will succeed. Performance in primary exams is not necessarily an indicator of success at secondary school. Her teachers have the capacity to make every student pass their secondary exams, said Alebo. The school's best O-level student last year didn't achieved very high marks in her primary leaving exams.

In 2007, the Ugandan government abolished tuition fees in public secondary schools to increase access. However, at present, the money allocated to schools only covers the first three years, which means parents have the find the money for fees to put their children through their O-level exams. Parents also still have to pay for books and pens. Only a small minority of families in the Teso region can afford to put their children through secondary school. When there is money for education, boys are usually sent to school rather than girls, who are needed to work around the home or can be married off.

Kanyesigye said the scholarship allocation would be reviewed annually and girls' class performance and discipline will be monitored. Any of the girls who become pregnant will have their bursaries withdrawn.

• Education
• News
• Uganda
• International aid and development

Joseph Malingaguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

'Dogbo' control order on the cards as government backtracks over plan to make owner-insurance compulsory

Ministers were accused of making a "dog's dinner" of proposals for cracking down on dangerous canines after a U-turn on plans for compulsory insurance for the animals, which have now been dropped barely a week after they were published.

Proposals for more than 5 million dog owners to be forced to buy third-party insurance against the risk of their pet attacking someone were launched last week, as part of a package of measures by environment secretary, Hilary Benn, and the home secretary, Alan Johnson.

They were included in proposed changes to the Dangerous Dogs Act aimed at tackling the growing problem of some breeds being used as weapons on inner-city estates. But they provoked an angry response from critics who said the measures would hit law-abiding owners whose dogs did not cause any harm.

In a statement released today, Benn said he could now "rule out" compulsory insurance for all dogs. He said he didn't want to penalise "responsible dog owners". Instead, he said only dogs causing trouble could face being targeted with an insurance requirement as part of a control order, or "dogbo".

The plan for all dogs to be compulsorily microchipped, a central part of the measures announced last week, have not been altered and are still expected to go ahead. The idea is that the chips will allow authorities to trace owners more easily.

The Tories accused ministers of turning a flagship announcement into a "political dog's dinner". The shadow environment secretary, Nick Herbert, said: "Labour have dithered for years on this issue and then rushed out a policy consultation weeks before an election that was immediately seen as totally flawed.

"A dog tax on more than 5 million owners was proposed last week, and is now ruled out by Hilary Benn in a humiliating U-turn that just proves how tired and incompetent this government has become.

"We need a comprehensive approach to this problem with a focus on the minority of owners who use dangerous dogs as weapons, not the vast majority of responsible dog-lovers."

• Dangerous dogs
• Animals
• Control orders
• Social exclusion
• Communities
• Animal welfare
• Hilary Benn
• Alan Johnson

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Kraft executive Marc Firestone apologises to MPs angry over Cadbury takeover and says US food group will not cut jobs in British factories for two years

Kraft promised today there would be no job cuts at any of its UK factories for at least two years after it was taken to task by MPs for making misleading statements during the battle to buy the British confectioner Cadbury.

The US food group caused a furore when, days after it took control of Cadbury, it reneged on a promise to save the Somerdale factory in Keynsham, near Bristol.

The pledge to preserve jobs was made by Kraft's executive vice-president, Marc Firestone, after he endured a two-hour grilling by the business select committee. He also issued Kraft's first public apology since the closure of Somerdale was confirmed last month.

"We are sorry to the people who we disappointed," he said. "We fully understand that for over two years colleagues at Somerdale had been under a closure programme and our statement created uncertainty, and when we announced we would not take it forward, hopes were dashed. We are terribly sorry for that."

Jack Dromey, the Unite union's deputy general secretary, who also gave evidence to the committee, said Kraft had "lied" and the assurances given to MPs did not go far enough. He said Kraft had refused to engage with the union during the takeover battle and added: "The committee forced Kraft to take stumbling steps in the right direction but the company needs to go further and give a five-year guarantee."

• Kraft
• Cadbury
• House of Commons
• Job losses
• Trade unions
• Food & drink industry
• Mergers and acquisitions

Zoe Woodguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

· Tony McCoy ebullient after mount beats Khyber Kim
· Nicky Henderson equals training record with fifth win

Successfully transformed from non-runner to winner in the space of less than a month, Binocular (9-1) took the Champion Hurdle under Tony McCoy at the Festival here. Four weeks ago, a muscle problem was said to have been identified which would keep him out of the race but, after the six-year-old schooled well at Nicky Henderson's Lambourn yard last Wednesday, the decision was taken that he would run after all.

Blinkered for the first time, Celestial Halo set the early pace, stalked by Binocular's stablemate Zaynar. Coming down the hill with half a mile to go, McCoy eased his mount into contention and, from the third-last onwards, his mount appeared a certain winner.

When asked to quicken before the last, Binocular took the sting out of his nearest pursuer, Khyber Kim, and maintained a healthy advantage all the way to the line, eventually scoring by three and a half lengths, with Zaynar plugging on for third.

Last year's winner, Punjabi, was in a good position at the second-last but was unable to quicken when it mattered. Go Native, who was trying to win a £1m bonus for his owner and trainer, never threatened the leaders and appeared to have his lack of stamina exposed.

An unusually ebullient McCoy said: "I was disappointed with him at Newcastle [in November], I was disappointed with him at Kempton [at Christmas] and I thought he wouldn't come back, but he was electric when I sat on him last week and I just hoped we'd got him back. This means so much to me. I'm not as miserable as you all think, you know."

Six small-stakes Betfair punters had backed the winner for a total of £26 at Betfair's ceiling price of 999-1, after it was announced that the horse would miss this race.

The winning owner JP McManus said: "I'd torn up my ticket a few weeks ago and it was only last week when Nicky got back in touch and said, 'I think we might just be able to do this'."

This was a fifth victory in the Champion Hurdle for Henderson, equalling the record held by Peter Easterby.

• Horse racing
• Cheltenham festival

Will Haylerguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Insects hit by loss of grassland habitats due to intensification of agriculture and abandonment of farming land

See the gallery of endangered species

Hundreds of butterflies, beetles and dragonflies are at risk of extinction across Europe with almost one-third of 435 butterfly species in decline, scientists have warned.

The loss of habitat caused by intensive farming, climate change, forest fires and the expansion of tourism is threatening with extinction 14% of dragonflies, 11% of saproxylic beetles and 9% of butterflies within Europe, according to the European red list report for the European commission.

"When talking about threatened species, people tend to think of larger, more charismatic creatures such as pandas or tigers, but we mustn't forget that the small species on our planet are just as important," said Jane Smart of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the conservation group which produced the report. "Butterflies, for instance, play a hugely pivotal role as pollinators in the ecosystems in which they live."

Many of the endangered insect species live in southern Europe where increasingly hot, dry summers combined with irrigation and water extraction is causing wetland habitats to dry up.

The Madeiran large white butterfly is listed as critically endangered on the red list, which reviews the status of 6,000 European species including mammals, reptiles and plants. But the butterfly may already be extinct because it has not been seen on the island of Madeira for 20 years.

The Macedonian grayling butterfly is critically endangered because quarrying is reducing its habitat while other endangered species include the Danube clouded yellow, the violet copper and the Canary Islands large white. Only 4% of Europe's butterfly species, which include 142 unique to the continent, are increasing in number.

Martin Warren, co-author of the butterfly section of the report and chief executive of UK charity, Butterfly Conservation, said the insects were being hit by the loss of grassland habitats due to both intensification of agriculture and recent abandonment of traditional farming land in Europe.

"In the 1950s and 60s we had massive losses of habitat in the UK, and it is still going on to a lesser extent, but in Europe big changes have been going on in the last five to 10 years," said Warren. We lost a lot of our flower-rich meadows in the 50s and 60s, while they are losing theirs at a rate of knots now."

The large blue butterfly, a rare conservation success after it was reintroduced in Devon and Somerset after it became extinct in the UK in 1979, is endangered throughout Europe, declining in every country where it occurs apart from the UK.

Other struggling species, such as the Duke of Burgundy and the Lulworth skipper, which both suffered their worst ever year in the UK last summer, are in decline in many countries across the continent.

Intensification of agriculture is destroying habitat in some areas, while flower and insect-rich pastures in many mountain regions in the Alps and Pyrenees are being abandoned and falling into a poor condition because livestock farming is not financially viable.

Warren called for more support for traditional farming systems to help insects such as butterflies, which he said were very good indicators of changes to the environment.

Saproxylic beetles, which depend on decaying wood in forests and play a crucial role in recycling nutrients, were assessed for the first time on the red list.

Logging, changing woodland management practices and a declining number of mature trees are threatening species such as the violet click beetle. Almost 11%, 46 of 431 species studied, are at risk of being lost to Europe and 7% are threatened with global extinction. A further 13% are listed as "near threatened" in Europe.

Almost a quarter of 137 dragonfly species assessed, including 18 species not found anywhere else in the world, were found to be at risk of extinction or "near threatened". Last year, a new dragonfly centre opened in the UK in a bid to reverse a trend of decline that has seen one-third of British species facing extinction.

• Insects
• Wildlife
• Conservation
• Endangered habitats
• Endangered species
• Farming
• Biodiversity

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Former commander of Sri Lankan army faces coup and assassination plot charges

The controversial court martial of the former Sri Lankan army commander General Sarath Fonseka opened behind closed doors at the high-security national naval headquarters in the capital, Colombo, today.

Major General Prasad Samarasinghe, a military spokesman, said Fonseka had appeared before a three-member panel to face charges that he had undertaken political activities before resigning from the army to campaign in January's presidential election.

He will face a second charge of breaching regulations on purchasing military hardware tomorrow, Samarasinghe said.

Government figures allege Fonseka also planned to take power in an armed coup immediately after being defeated in the poll and plotted to assassinate members of the family of the president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, many of whom hold senior positions.

The former army commander has denied all the allegations, saying they are politically motivated and intended to deny him the chance to run in parliamentary elections next month.

"The general said that he is neither pleading guilty or not guilty because the court has no power to hear and try these charges," Nalin Ladduwahetti, one of Fonseka's eight defence lawyers, said. Fonseka's wife, Anoma, said she had opted not to attend the hearing because the charges against her husband were "a joke".

The 59-year-old former soldier was arrested in early February, shortly after being defeated in the presidential election. He had worked closely with Rajapaksa to end the country's 25-year civil war, leading a final bloody offensive which eliminated enclaves of the Tamil separatist insurgents and killed their leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran.

However, the two fell out when Fonseka launched a political career and succeeded in drawing together a coalition of opposition parties to campaign against the president. Rajapaksa eventually won the election by 18%.

Anura Dissanayake, a parliamentarian and ally of Fonseka, said the general had challenged the authority of the court, arguing that the presiding panel was partial because it included two men that he had disciplined when he ran the army. The panel's third member was a close relative of the current army commander who initiated the court martial, Dissanayake added.

Reporters have been banned from attending the proceedings, and the army has yet to issue any detailed description of today's three-hour hearing.

The trial is being closely followed as Sri Lanka prepares itself for political tension in the coming weeks. Police used teargas and batons to disperse at least one protest in support of Fonseka and arrested 14 people, his party, the Democratic National Alliance, said.

Fonseka's supporters said the government was punishing him for challenging Rajapaksa, and was attempting to cow the opposition before the election on 8 April. The retired general could face up to five years in prison.

The trial was today adjourned until two days before the parliamentary polls, which the Sri Lankan government hopes will give them a two-thirds majority and the power to make sweeping constitutional changes.

Rajapaksa loyalists claim these would see greater representation for minorities, but critics say they would entrench the power of a government they allege has shown authoritarian qualities and has been repeatedly attacked for crackdowns on dissent.

• Sri Lanka

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A selection of the best images from around the world

Refusal to appoint review panel and British judge to oversee Iraqi detainee treatment came from top, inquiry hears

Abuse of Iraqi prisoners by British troops would have been prevented if the former attorney general Lord Goldsmith had not blocked a British judge being appointed to oversee the handling of detainees, a public inquiry heard today.

The army's former top legal adviser in Iraq said he could not understand why there was strong opposition to the military's requests for an independent review of how UK troops treated captives.

Lieutenant Colonel Nicholas Mercer said he believed the lack of a checking process led to the abuse of prisoners.

The inquiry, which is investigating the death of hotel worker Baha Mousa, heard there were six or seven deaths of detainees in UK custody by May 2003.

Mercer, the chief legal adviser to 1st (UK) Armoured Division on the ground in Iraq after the March 2003 invasion, said his commanders wanted British troops' treatment of prisoners to be "exemplary" and "meet the highest standards".

In March and April 2003 they requested the formation of a detainee and internee management unit (DIMU) with a British judge to review how suspects were handled.

This was refused by the military's permanent joint headquarters (PJHQ), apparently on the orders of Lord Goldsmith, then the government's most senior legal adviser, the inquiry heard.

In a witness statement to the inquiry, Mercer said: "The proposal for a UK judge was blocked by PJHQ, seemingly on the instructions of the attorney general, and we were instructed to implement a 'suitably vetted' Iraqi judge as a reviewing authority.

"This was however, unworkable, unrealistic, ill-informed and based [seemingly] on the basis of what was happening in Baghdad.

"I still remain bemused as to why there was such resistance to the establishment of a proper review of prisoners. I cannot understand the opposition to the aspiration towards the highest standards for UK prisoners including the appointment of a UK judge, and why such a decision went up to the attorney general."

Mercer said debate about the issue also wasted "very valuable" time and ignored what was happening on the ground.

He said: "If the DIMU had been stood up with a UK judge as the independent reviewing authority, I believe we would not have encountered the tragedy with prisoners that unfolded, nor breaches of the European Convention on Human Rights, as there would have been suitable independent oversight, accountability and legal clarity."

Rejecting his request for a DIMU, a PJHQ official wrote: "The standards to which Nick refers are based on UK law.

"Whilst his advice might be appropriate for individuals locked up on a Saturday night in Brixton, they are not appropriate for detainees arrested by the Black Watch etc following a bit of looting in Basra."

Mousa, 26, was working as a receptionist at the Ibn al-Haitham hotel in Basra, when it was raided by soldiers of the 1st Battalion the Queen's Lancashire Regiment (1QLR) looking for weapons.

He and several colleagues were arrested and taken to 1QLR's base, where he died on 15 September 2003, having suffered 93 separate injuries.

The inquiry has heard that British soldiers used "conditioning" methods on Iraqi prisoners such as hooding, sleep deprivation and making suspects stand in painful stress positions, which were banned by the British government in 1972.

Mercer warned his superiors before the invasion that a shortage of manpower and resources meant British forces were in danger of violating the Geneva conventions on dealing with prisoners of war.

"In my view, the issue of prisoners had very low priority and was treated more as an inconvenience than an obligation under international law," he said.

He also raised concerns with Major General Robin Brims, general officer commanding 1st (UK) Armoured Division, in March 2003 after witnessing 40 hooded Iraqi detainees kneeling or squatting in the sand with their arms cuffed behind their backs.

Mercer said he was told the treatment he saw was in accordance with British army doctrine on "tactical questioning" – the immediate interrogation of suspects to obtain valuable intelligence.

The use of hooding was banned throughout 1st (UK) Armoured Division in early April 2003, the inquiry heard.

But shortly after this, representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) expressed concerns about the treatment of prisoners of war on a visit to a British internment camp in Umm Qasr, southern Iraq.

Mercer said: "I had no doubt that, given the seriousness of the situation, it would be staffed to PJHQ and to ministers as there was going to be an official complaint to the UK government by the ICRC."

On 20 May 2003, the military police's special investigation branch told him six or seven detainees had died in British custody and that their deaths required investigation.

As a result, he immediately issued an order reminding UK troops that prisoners should be "treated with humanity and dignity at all times", provided with water and food, and should never have their faces covered.

When he left Iraq, Mercer told his successor that the mistreatment of detainees was the most serious issue on the ground and had the potential to cause serious damage to British forces.

"The divisional headquarters found itself in the extraordinary position of seeking the highest standards for prisoners but being knocked back by those in senior legal and political posts," he said in his statement.

"I am still amazed that we had to fight so hard for even basic Geneva convention rights for prisoners.

"This indifference, of course, was exacerbated by the total strategic failure to plan for occupation, and the vacuum it created."

• Baha Mousa
• Iraq
• Military

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More than 50 villagers suffering from lead poisoning have been in custody for six months after the bus taking them to the doctor was stopped by police

Chinese authorities have defended the six-month detention of lead poisoning victims who were seeking medical care, saying the punishment was necessary for "public education".

Police in Jiahe, Hunan province, blocked a bus carrying 53 villagers who were on their way to get health checks last September, according to Chinese media.

Mistakenly believing the villagers were planning to protest, the police have detained two of them for the six months since on the charge of "disrupting traffic". Though it has since been proved that they and their children were contaminated by illegal emissions of heavy metals from a smelting factory, the local government was unapologetic.

"We may have blocked the wrong visit, but they should not have been on that road," Li Ying, deputy secretary of Jiahe county political and legislative committee told the Beijing News, which today published an investigation into the incident.

Ou Shudong, the chairman of the local People's Congress, told the newspaper the police roadblock and detentions were justified. "The villagers' intentions were unclear. Even if they were going for a medical examination, they should have informed the government."

The story highlights the feudal control that local officials exercise in much of rural China. It also exemplifies the widespread strategy of stifling dissent by making an example of suspected ringleaders, a tactic known as "killing a chicken to scare the monkeys".

A Jiahe county report cited by the newspaper says the punishment of a few people "served the purpose of public education for the majority". The Guardian's calls to the county government, police bureau and communist party went unanswered.

The journalistic exposure of police tactics came amid a widening wave of heavy metal scandals. Since the first cases last summer, more than 3,000 children nationwide have been found to have unsafe levels of lead in their blood, forcing the closure of dozens of factories.

According to the environment ministry, 12 heavy metal pollutions incident were reported last year, prompting 32 public disturbances.

Amid widespread unease that the full scale of the problem has yet to emerge, the authorities face a growing environmental and public security challenge.

The factory in Jiahe was operated by Tenda Corporation, a company that had been ejected from other, wealthier areas because of its dire pollution record. Jiahe – one of China's poorest counties – allowed it to operate despite warnings from the local environmental department that the plant was breaking toxic emission regulations.

A gradual build-up of lead in the bloodstream can damage the nervous system and lead to anaemia, muscle weakness, arrested development and brain damage.

Local people complained of health problems and unusually belligerent behaviour and poor school grades among their children, but their petitions to the authorities were ignored for more than three years.

However, medical tests have proved their claims. The latest results, received on 24 February, revealed that 250 of the 397 children in the village had excess levels of lead in their blood. The victims included four of the five children of Liao Mingxiu, one of those still in police detention.

More lead poisoning cases are emerging elsewhere. This week, 88 children and six adults tested positive for lead poisoning in Longchang county, Sichuan province.

Seven children have been hospitalised for a week and more than 700 people are awaiting medical test results.

The source of the contamination, the Zhongyi Alloy factory, has since been closed.

"We have sent 10 doctors to the villages to explain the situation to residents," said Zheng Shili, propaganda director of Longchang government. "Public sentiment is basically calm."

Additional reporting by Han Ying

Known lead pollution cases

Since August 2009

Jiahe county, Hunan province, 250 children affected

Fengxiang county, Shaanxi province, 615 children

Wugang city, Hunan province, 1,345 children

Dongchuan district of Kunming city, Yunnan province, over 200 children

October 2009

Jiyuan city, Henan province 1,008 children

Dec 2009

Longtang town, Qingyuan city, Guangdong province, 44 children affected

Jan 2010

Longchang county, Sichuan province, 81 children

• Pollution
• China
• Health

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European court rejects case that the UK government's refusal to uprate expat pensions was a breach of human rights

More than half a million Britons who retired abroad will not have their pensions increased in line with inflation after a test case was today rejected by a European court.

Judges in Strasbourg dismissed an appeal by 13 expatriates who had argued that the UK government's refusal to uprate their pay outs each year breached their human rights.

The group had been leading a campaign to overturn rules which they say result in 540,000 expat pensioners receiving lower state pensions than their counterparts residing in Britain and some other countries.

The verdict, which ends years of courtroom wrangling, prompted claims that many of these pensioners will now be left "facing the possibility of destitution".

The expats, who include Annette Carson, 69, who now lives in South Africa, claimed the government was guilty of unlawful discrimination.

Under the rules, which ministers have conceded are "illogical", British expats in 150 countries including Australia, Canada and South Africa do not see their state pension increased annually in line with inflation, as happens in Britain and the EU.

According to the International Consortium of British Pensioners (ICBP), which supported the 13 in their case, this means that a pensioner who began drawing a full pension in Australia in 1981 will still be receiving £29.60 a week, although the basic UK state pension is now £95.25 a week. That pensioner has so far missed out on payments of up to £100,000.

Carson emigrated to South Africa in 1989, and her case was cited in the original legal claims which were rejected in the high court, the court of appeal and the House of Lords.

A subsequent claim in the European court of human rights in Strasbourg was also lost, when all but one of the judges ruled that denying pension increases did not breach a human rights convention declaration that "the enjoyment of (convention) rights and freedoms shall be secured without discrimination on any ground such as sex, race, colour, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, association with a national minority, property, birth or other status".

In a hearing in the court of human rights last September – effectively the last appeal stage – lawyers argued that pensioners who had made full national insurance contributions throughout their working lives should not have their pensions frozen and be denied statutory increases just because of their country of residence.

But lawyers for the British government said the priority had to be to target money at the poorest pensioners living at home.

Pension parity for all

After today's verdict John Markham, director of UK parliamentary affairs for the ICBP, said: "The ruling is completely indefensible and will leave half a million pensioners facing the possibility of destitution.

"All British people should have equal freedom of choice as regards where to live in their retirement. Many of us have families overseas – children who have moved abroad for example – and will want to join them in our old age without having to worry about becoming a financial burden."

He added: "What the government is doing is utterly immoral, unjust and un-British. We are calling on the British public to stand up for the rights of our present and future pensioners. Don't let the government get away with this – we must fight on until we achieve pension parity for all."

Britain's biggest pensioner organisation, the National Pensioners Convention, described the decision as "shameful and morally unjust".

Speaking before today's ruling, Carson said she had been in a "tooth and nail battle" with the government. "It is disgraceful that the British government has stubbornly refused for so long to recognise the needs of thousands of ageing pensioners who in their youth helped to protect and rebuild Britain, who paid years of compulsory contributions and who now wish only for their dues," she said.

"Some pensioners have to live on just £6 a week. How the government thinks that is acceptable I do not know."

Carson moved to South Africa in the belief that her pension would keep pace with inflation. She continued paying national insurance contributions between 1989 and 1999, and when she turned 60 in September 2000 she became entitled to draw her pension. However, shortly before this date, she says she was informed she would not receive the annual uprating.

• State pensions
• Pensions
• State benefits
• Family finances

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Hamas begin 'day of rage' as US envoy postpones visit in protest over settlement policy

Israeli-Palestinian tensions erupted into violence today with clashes in East Jerusalem as the US postponed a visit by its Middle East envoy in protest at Binyamin Netanyahu's settlement policy.

Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement, announced a "day of rage" after Monday's reopening of a synagogue in Jerusalem's Old City, clearly seeking to focus international attention on the issue.

The rival Fatah movement also urged Palestinians to flock to the al-Aqsa mosque, the most sensitive of Muslim sites in the divided city. Buses transporting worshippers were turned back.

Israel's Ynet website reported 49 Palestinians injured in confrontations with Israeli paramilitary border guards. Masked rioters burned tyres and threw stones. Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets.

Hamas and Fatah officials have said that restoration work at the Hurva synagogue in the Old City's Jewish quarter endangered al-Aqsa, situated some 400 yards away. Israel has denied the accusation. The synagogue was destroyed by Jordanian forces in the 1948 war.

The trouble erupted after the US announced that peace envoy George Mitchell was postponing his scheduled visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories as a sign of the Obama administration's anger at Israel's refusal to stop building Jewish homes in East Jerusalem.

Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu has refused to draw a line under a crisis that erupted last week when, during a visit by US vice president Joe Biden, Israel announced plans for 1,600 new housing units in an Orthodox Jewish suburb beyond the pre-1967 border. Israel's ambassador to the US has described the ensuing row as the worst between the US and Israel for 35 years.

Yesterday an Obama administration source told the Guardian that the White House and US state department were intent on pushing Israel into substantive peace talks with the Palestinians and would not shy away this time as they did when the last effort ended in embarrassing failure in September.

"No one gets anywhere by accusing each other. We are hoping to lay the foundations for negotiations," the source said. In order to get negotiations under way, the US is demanding that Netanyahu cancel or freeze plans to build 1,600 planned Jewish homes in Palestinian East Jerusalem. But Netanyahu, speaking at a meeting of his own Likud party, showed no signs of backing down. "The building in Jerusalem, and in all other places, will continue in the same way as has been customary over the last 42 years," he said.

The Israeli ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, expressed alarm about the extent of the confrontation. The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth quoted the normally cool Oren, an academic-turned diplomat, as saying: "Israel's ties with the United States are in their worst crisis since 1975 ... a crisis of historic proportions."

Oren was called to the state department last week in a rare rebuke for a diplomat from a country the US normally regards as one of its strongest allies.

The White House has steadily built up the heat on Israel over the last few days, with the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, berating Netanyahu in a 45-minute call on Friday and David Axelrod, the chief White House adviser, describing Israeli behaviour as an insult yesterday.

The US wants Israel not only to backtrack on the East Jerusalem building plans but to enter into talks with the Palestinians on substantive issues and not just talks about talks, as Israel wants. Washington also wants Israel to make gestures towards the Palestinians, such as releasing Palestinian prisoners and withdrawing more Israeli forces from Palestinian territory.

• Middle East
• Israel
• Palestinian territories
• Binyamin Netanyahu
• Joe Biden
• Hillary Clinton
• United States
• US foreign policy

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The story of John and Kay Ure, whose festive dinner was delayed by 30 days when they were separated by snow, is to be made into a Hollywood movie

Securing a festive turkey is not always the most straightforward of tasks. For a couple living in the extreme north-west of Scotland last year, it proved near impossible. Now, the story of how they finally managed it could be made into a Hollywood film.

John and Kay Ure live in the Cape Wrath lighthouse keeper's cottage at the most north-westerly point of the UK mainland. When Mrs Ure set out on 19 December for a trip to the shops, she faced the kind of journey which would convince the ambitious festive chef to plump for a nut cutlet instead.

First, Mr Ure drove his wife the 11 miles to a jetty where their boat was moored, and the pair crossed the Kyle of Durness sea loch together. Then Mrs Ure took a 100-mile bus journey to Inverness, where she managed to buy a turkey before the shops closed. But on the return trip, she was thwarted by snow which stopped her completing the final 11-mile leg of her journey.

In the end, the unfortunate Ures had to spend Christmas separately, with Mrs Ure in a friend's caravan and her husband at home in the company of their six dogs. The awful weather conditions meant they could not be reunited for 30 days.

Now Furst Films, the company behind The Matador and The Cooler, is to pay the couple £40,000 for the rights to their story, an offer John said had come as a complete surprise.

"We thought it was a joke until we Googled them and found out they'd won a few Golden Globes," he told the BBC. "It's not just about the turkey, it's about our life story and how we came to be here. People find it intriguing that we're living this kind of lifestyle up here but we're used to it and it's a pleasant way to live."

He added: "This Christmas I'm going to be better prepared, and keep the wife on a shorter lead."

• Weather
• Scotland

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The Self Care Campaign is telling people not to see their GP with minor ailments. As a doctor, take my advice – ignore this

The Times leads today with the not-very-exciting headline that people go to their GP too often with minor complaints. The "story" is based on a letter in the paper signed by a host of signatories who have set up the Self Care Campaign. The chief executive of Diabetes UK is among the leading lights of the group.

The signatories, who include some very eminent and sensible doctors, are publishing a manifesto saying that people should be encouraged to manage their minor ailments on their own and not visit the GP with them.

They have produced a report based on an analysis by IMS Health. IMS Health's website says "virtually every major pharmaceutical and biotechnology company is a client of IMS", while the report is funded by the Proprietary Association of Great Britain, which represents manufacturers of over-the-counter medicines.

The aim is to discourage people going to the GP so they will look after themselves when they have a self-limiting illness. Nothing wrong with that. But nowhere in the worthy-sounding letter to the Times, or its front-page article, does it mention that this is an agenda driven by a trade organisation representing international drug companies that want to sell you cough and cold remedies over the counter.

The upshot of the Self Care Campaign report is that:

· In 2009, 18% of visits to the GP were deemed to be for "minor ailments", a steady rise since 1987 when only 10% were characterised as minor.

· These common minor ailments now account for a fifth of visits to the GP.

· They cost £2bn a year.

· Nearly half of these visits were by 16- to 59-year-olds, not the young or elderly.

· In 2007, there were 51.4 million GP visits for a minor ailment alone, and 90% of those people came away with a prescription.

But here are a few thoughts.

In my experience as a GP, there is almost always a good reason that brings someone to see me. If a person only presents the minor ailment, it may be that they don't feel comfortable enough to talk about the real reason they came, like depression. Our cancer survival rates lag behind the rest of Europe in some key areas. People's reluctance to present their symptoms to the GP is cited as a significant cause.

One person's "minor" is another's "major". A cough is usually minor and self-limiting, but is also a key feature of TB and lung cancer. The public can be told that a cough lasting more than six weeks needs investigation, but the sudden onset of a severe cough in someone who never gets one and has no other features suggestive of a viral illness, may require immediate attention.

Older people often preface any visit to the GP with the words, "Sorry to bother you." There is still a culture that our health service, paid for by tax payers, bestows care as a beneficent gesture rather than providing an efficient, customer-friendly service. That's why going to the GP is rarely as satisfactory as going to John Lewis.

A visit with a "minor" ailment provides the chance to have your blood pressure checked, be reminded that a cervical smear is due or be offered help to quit smoking. Most preventive health measures in primary care are carried out in this opportunistic way. The health (and cost) benefits of preventing smoking-related disease or treating high blood pressure to prevent heart disease or a stroke, need to be offset against the savings made by telling people to stop "bothering" their GP.

People are not stupid. If they go to their GP once with a self-limiting viral cold and are told they don't need antibiotics, they won't bother to go the next time they have the same symptoms. GPs need to stop treating minor illnesses inappropriately. There is no need for a national pamphlet campaign with patronising advice about buying over-the-counter remedies and staying warm.

• Health
• GPs
• NHS
• Pharmaceuticals industry
• Health & wellbeing

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Martin Amis suggests to Dubai English-language newspaper that his sister, an alcoholic who died in 2000, "might still be alive" if she had converted to Islam

Martin Amis might have expressed negative views about Islam in the past, but the author told an Abu Dhabi newspaper this week that he believed that if his sister, Sally, an alcoholic who died in 2000, had converted to the religion she might still be alive.

Interviewed by Abu Dhabi English-language newspaper The National, Amis said he wished his sister had converted to Islam. "To this day I have this wish – she was always religious and she converted to Catholicism. I wish she had converted to Islam. She might still be alive because of the continence of Islam, the austerity, the demands it makes on you. I just sort of helplessly think it every now and then. She would only be 56 now and she'd still be here," said Amis, who is in Dubai to take part in the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature.

Sally Amis, whom the author has described as "pathologically promiscuous", died aged 46 after periods of depression and alcoholism. Her brother believes that the structure of Islam might have saved her life. "She was such an uncontrollable girl that there was even talk of her joining the army when she was 17 or 18 because we all sensed that she needed a really tight structure, an ésprit de corps of shared belief," he told The National. "Islam in its way gives you that, a collectivity that she could have been a part of, which incidentally forbade alcohol and premarital sex. She might have had a chance. She would have had to embrace it earlier than she embraced Catholicism."

Amis courted controversy in 2006 with his comment to a newspaper that "there's a definite urge – don't you have it? – to say the Muslim community will have to suffer until it gets its house in order". The National reported that the author "seemed somewhat penitent" over the remarks during an event at the literary festival, where he was interviewed by author and broadcaster Paul Blezzard.

"It was a rash remark made at a terrible time. Ten years on from September 2001, we have still not got a usable word for what we mean. People think you are talking about Islam but you are not. 'Islamism' is hopeless because it has got too many letters in common with Islam. I suggest we call it al-Qaida," said Amis. "What I said was that there was an urge. No one can tell me that there was not. By the next day, I had changed my mind because that is collective punishment, but people were saying that. More than 95% of Muslims are horrified by this ridiculous, nihilistic wing and should not be connected verbally or otherwise with these extremists."

After Blezzard joked that there had been a sweepstake over how long it would take Amis to get through immigration when he arrived in Dubai, the author said he had "met with nothing but extreme courtesy in this country".

• Martin Amis

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IPCC looking at how officers handled case of mother who killed herself and disabled daughter after years of abuse by youths

Ten Leicestershire police officers are under investigation over the way they handled the case of Fiona Pilkington and her daughter Francecca Hardwick, who were found dead in a burned out car after suffering years of abuse from yobs, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said today.

An inquest last September found that police errors and inaction were partly responsible for driving the vulnerable single mother to kill herself and her severely disabled daughter.

Returning a verdict of suicide on Pilkington, 38, and unlawful killing for her 18-year-old daughter, whose bodies were found in a blazing car on a layby in October 2007, the jury decided that the police action "contributed" to the deaths, notably the failure of officers to connect dozens of separate calls for assistance.

The IPCC said it had served advisory notices on 10 officers informing them that their conduct was under investigation.

"This complex inquiry is going back over police contact with Fiona Pilkington, her daughter and neighbours over a period of several years. We are assessing information from family members, neighbours, the authorities involved, records of police contact, and the accounts of relevant police officers themselves," the IPCC said in a statement.

The inquest jury heard Pilkington contacted police on no fewer than 33 occasions in seven years in which youths throwing stones and shouting abuse had kept her a virtual prisoner in her home in Barwell, near Hinckley in Leicestershire.

Asked how police were responsible, the jury said: "Calls were not linked or prioritised."

The IPPC subsequently launched an investigation into the way the "distressing" case was handled, in particular, how seriously the police responded to Pilkington's calls for help.

The commission added that substantial work was still left to do: "We are progressing this rigorous investigation as swiftly as possible and will make our findings public in due course."

The inquest verdict also held the local council partly accountable for failing over a period of years to take action against the young gangs, and criticised the county social services department for not referring Pilkington for professional help after she said she felt suicidal.

The coroner, Olivia Davison, said: "I am concerned about the evidence I have received in this inquest about the process for gathering and recording information from victims of antisocial abuse."

Separately, the jury blamed poor sharing of information between the police and councils for contributing to the deaths, but also noted Pilkington had neither "sought nor accepted" help on occasions.

Pilkington's blue Austin Maestro was found in flames on a layby by the side of the A47 near the family's home on the night of 23 October, 2007. Inside the car, which had been set ablaze with petrol, were the severely burned bodies of Pilkington and Francecca. The inquest was told that Pilkington probably took the family's pet rabbit in the car as well to soothe Francecca, who had a mental age of about four.

The six-day hearing heard a mass of evidence, at times deeply harrowing, of the way in which gangs of teenagers and children, some as young as 10, had kept Pilkington, Francecca and Pilkington's son, Anthony, who has milder learning difficulties, "under siege".

• Police
• Crime
• Disability
• Learning disability
• Mental health
• Asbos
• Social care

James Sturckeguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Alpine music festivals are booming - and the season has only just started. Tom Robbins picks the best parties on the piste

In the spring of 2000, a group of 200 people, including a few DJs and their record bags, set off in coaches for a week's ski holiday in the small French resort of Risoul. As they skied by day, and took over the resorts bars and clubs for parties by night, few of them probably realised that they were witnessing the start of a new phenomenon – the alpine music festival. That was the first ever Snowbombing, an event that has grown every year and now attracts 5,000 revellers and big name acts like Dizzee Rascal, Grandmaster Flash and Fatboy Slim. And Snowbombing's success has now spawned so many copycats, that an alpine festival "season" is emerging, starting this week and continuing until mid-April. This week sees two brand new festivals – the Big Snow Festival in Arinsal, Andorra and the Little World Festival in Meribel, France. But while you've left it too late for those, there's still time (and tickets left) for these parties on the piste:

1. Altitude Festival, Méribel, France

20-26 March, altitudefestival.com

Organised by Marcus Brigstocke, Altitude's USP is its mix of music and top stand-up comics. This year's headlining comedians include Andrew Maxwell, Al Murray and Rich Hall; music comes from Newton Faulkner and DJ Yoda.

Tickets: Rather than a package, you just buy tickets to the events you want to attend, which typically costs €20 - €25 each (£18-£22). More than 30 tour operators offer packages to Meribel.

2. The Brits, Laax, Switzerland

21-26 March, britishsnowtour.com/brits

Devotees may argue the Brits has been going a lot longer than Snowbombing (21 years to be exact), but it's only more recently that its grown from a mainly sport-focused event into a full-on festival. It's orginal purpose remains – the Brits are the British Snowboard and Freeski Championships, with daily competitions for the nation's best riders in disciplines such as half-pipe, slopestyle, big air and ski/boardercross - but now there's a huge amount of partying bolted on.

Tickets: Packages including seven nights' accommodation, six-day lift pass, wristband giving access to all events and a woolly hat, cost between £230 and £646 depending on your hotel (the Rocks resort has sold out, but Riders Palace and Signina hotel are still available). You book via the Laax tourist office on +41 81 927 7777, but full details are on the website. Fly to Friedrichshafen on Ryanair, from where it's a 90-minute drive to Laax. The tourist board run transfer buses which leave an hour after every incoming flight.

3. Derby de la Meije, La Grave, France

31 March - 2 April - derbydelameije.com

La Grave is known as Europe's most hardcore resort – a mountain that's entirely off-piste and has just three lifts. But at the end of the season it lets its hair down with a huge party. It's nothing like Snowbombing – there are no big name acts here, and most attendees are locals or visitors who've been coming for years, but there's a great atmosphere. The main event is the race on Good Friday - an open-to-all sprint from the very top of the mountain to the very bottom (more than two vertical km descent, entirely off-piste) – but there are parties every night and a carnival atmosphere in the car park at the base of the cable car.

Tickets: Entering the race costs €25, everything else is free. For accommodation try the Skiers Lodge or contact the tourist office. Fly to Grenoble, from where public buses run to La Grave (on the way to Briancon), taking around two hours.

4. Snowbombing, Mayrhofen, Austria

5-10 April, snowbombing.com

The original, biggest and – if full-on raving is what you're after – best. There's some kind of live music or DJ playing from midday till 5am most nights. Snowbombing takes over all the clubs in the resort, converts a few other buildings into impromtu venues, and also puts on parties in more unusual settings, including a wooded clearing on the outskirts of the village, and a giant igloo at the top of the mountain. In recent years organisers have tried to match the DJs with more live bands, so this year as well as Fatboy Slim, 2manydjs and Krafty Kuts, there's Editors, Doves, Friendly Fires and De La Soul. In all there are more than 100 acts.

Tickets: Packages of festival wristband and five nights' accommodation range from £279 per person for a self-catering flat to £399 for a four-star hotel. Snowbombing also arrange transfers from Munich, Salzburg and Innsbruck airports.

5. Yeti, Nassfeld, Austria

5-10 April, yetifestival.com

Brand new for this year, the Yeti is being put together by the people behind the Secret Garden Party and club nights Secretsundaze. It's based around the Cube, a giant steel, concrete and glass hotel sleeping up to 640 on the edge of the village of Nassfeld. Inside it feels like a futuristic youth club and there's a 1,000-people capacity nightclub in the basement. (A word of warning: with no carpets sound echoes around the inside of the Cube, so if you want to sleep at all, bring earplugs). Music comes from Eddy Temple-Morris, James Priestley and Stuart Patterson.

Tickets: Packages including five nights' accommodation half-board, festival pass and lift pass cost from £399. Fly to Klagenfurt with Ryanair, from where it's one hour and 15 minutes to Nassfeld – the festival is laying on transfers.

6. Caprices Festival, Crans Montana, Switzerland

7-10 April, capricesfestival.ch

Crans Montana is a small, upmarket Swiss ski resort, home to the likes of Roger Moore and numerous retired bankers. So it's something of a culture clash that none other than Derrick May will be playing here on 9 April, the Detroit DJ credited with pretty much inventing house music and who created the legendary house tack, Strings of Life. May's presence is a giveaway that even though it's almost unknown in the UK, Caprices is a huge event – the biggest winter music festival in Switzerland. Don't expect the lairy fancy-dress antics of Snowbombing, but there's a vast and eclectic line up, from May and Carl Cox, to the Gotan Project and Amy Macdonald.

Tickets: You can buy tickets by the day, from 69CHF (£43) or a four-day pass for 249CHF (£155). Packages are available, from around 730CHF (£454) for four nights in a hotel, four-day festival pass and lift pass. Fly to Geneva, then take the train to Sierre (two hours) from where there's a funicular railway running to Crans Montana in 20 minutes.

7. Zermatt Unplugged, Zermatt, Switzerland

13-17 April, zermatt-unplugged.ch

The name is misleading – with Billy Idol on the bill, this certainly isn't all about acoustic folk songs. This will be the fourth year the classic mountain resort has ended the season with a festival, and the acts booked to play keep getting bigger. As well as Idol, this year's line up includes Lionel Richie and Newton Faulkner. Gigs take place in a big marquee or various clubs.

Tickets: Are sold to the individual concerts – tickets to Lionel Richie start at 120CHF (£75), Billy Idol 78CHF (£49). Numerous operators have packages to Zermatt, or see the tourist board website for hotels. Fly to Zurich and take the train direct to the resort (three hours, 15 minutes).

8. Telus World Ski Festival, Whistler, Canada

16-25 April, wssf.com

It's already had the Olympics, but Whistler's really big party is still to come. The Telus festival is a full 10 days of events, and has grown into North America's biggest ski and music festival. There are freestyle competitions in the day, afternoon concerts, and club nights. There's not the range of acts that you get at European festivals, but the final afternoon's gig by Arrested Development will close the season in high style.

Tickets: The best thing is that entry to most events, including the afternoon concerts and club nights is free. Numerous operators have packages to Whistler, including specialists such as Ski Independence and Ski Safari.

• Skiing
• Snowboarding
• Festivals
• Winter sports
• Top 10s
• Festivals

Tom Robbinsguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

· Inquiry should span Republic's borders, says committee
· Families welcome report after Panorama programme

A public inquiry should be established to examine if vital intelligence on the Real IRA was shielded from detectives investigating the Omagh bomb massacre.

The Northern Ireland affairs committee at Westminster made the recommendation following their investigation into how the Omagh atrocity was handled.

Families of the victims welcomed the cross-party committee's report but Michael Gallagher, whose son Aidan died in the bombing, said any inquiry should span the Irish border and explore allegations that the Republic's security forces made errors in the Omagh investigation.

Twenty-nine men, women and children were killed in the 1998 explosion – the biggest single act of mass murder in the Troubles. No one has ever been successfully prosecuted over the bombing in the County Tyrone market town.

Last year, four men were found liable for the bombing in a landmark civil case taken by the victims' families.

The parliamentary committee launched an inquiry into the security services' role following claims in a BBC documentary that the government's listening station GCHQ had monitored suspects' mobile phone calls as they drove to Omagh from the Irish Republic on the day of the atrocity in August 1998.

The Panorama programme said this information was never passed to Royal Ulster constabulary detectives assigned to the case.

While a subsequent review by the intelligence services commissioner, Sir Peter Gibson, rejected many of Panorama's assertions, the committee chairman, Sir Patrick Cormack, said the bereaved still needed answers.

"Far too many questions remain unanswered," he said. "The criminal justice system has failed to bring to justice those responsible for the Omagh bombing.

"The least that those who were bereaved or injured have the right to expect are answers to those questions."

Sir Patrick also criticised the government for refusing to give the committee sight of the commissioner's full report, which has been classified for security reasons.

After reviewing the edited summary, committee members agreed with Sir Peter's claim that information obtained by GCHQ was not monitored in "real time" and therefore could not have prevented the bombing.

But it raised concerns about the data flow after the attack, in particular whether names of the suspected bombers were known and, if so, why they were not passed to police officers.

In particular, the inquiry said there was a need to establish the part played by RUC Special Branch – the police's anti-terrorism unit – and whether it was handed data by GCHQ but failed to pass it on to RUC colleagues in the Crime Investigation Department (CID) who were working on the Omagh case.

As well as calling for a fresh examination of the intelligence, the committee's report also:

· Found that questions remain about whether the bombing could have been pre-empted by action against terrorists who carried out earlier bombings in 1998.

· Called for a definitive statement on whether the names of those thought to have been involved in the bombing were known to the intelligence services, Special Branch, or the RUC in the days immediately after the bombing, and if so, why no arrests resulted.

· Asked the government to justify the argument that the public interest is best served by keeping telephone intercepts secret rather than using them to bring murderers to justice.

· Called on the UK's intelligence and security committee to reconsider how any intercept intelligence was or was not used.

· Recommended that the government considers providing legal aid for the victims of terrorism if they bring civil actions against suspected perpetrators once criminal investigation has failed to bring a prosecution.

Panorama claimed that intelligence officers had tracked the movements of the bombers' car and a scout car on their way to Omagh.

However, in his review intelligence commissioner Sir Peter said technology was not advanced enough in 1998 to do that and insisted the vehicles were not being followed in "real time", meaning the information could not have prevented the bombing.

"The portrayal in the Panorama programme of the tracking on a screen of the movement of two cars, a scout car and a car carrying a bomb, by reference to two 'blobs' moving on a road map has no correspondence whatever with what intercepting agencies were able to do or did on 15 August 1998," he said in his review.

Sir Peter said information on the bombers taken from telephone intercepts examined in the wake of event was passed to police. But he did not reveal whether this data included written transcripts of the phone calls.

He added: "Throughout 1998, before, on and after 15 August, GCHQ ensured that intelligence from any interception that might have been relevant to RUC Special Branch for its operational purposes was promptly being made available to them."

He also said there was no evidence before him that police in the Republic had warned the RUC of a likely attack.

Sir Peter was one of a number of witnesses who gave evidence to the committee during its inquiry.

Others who faced the MPs' questions included Panorama reporter John Ware, victims' relatives Michael Gallagher and Godfrey Wilson, former PSNI chief constable Sir Hugh Orde and detectives who investigated the bombing, former police ombudsman Baroness O'Loan, and Jason McCue, the lawyer who represented the families in the civil action.

• Omagh bombing
• Northern Ireland
• Northern Irish politics
• Ireland

Henry McDonaldguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Shadow defence secretary remortgaged his second home to pay for redecoration and claimed higher interest payments on expenses

The shadow defence secretary, Liam Fox, today lost his appeal against a ruling that he should pay back £22,500 of expenses.

Fox had repaid the cash, by far the highest amount in the shadow cabinet, before the decision. The contentious claim, for £22,476.03, related to his decision to remortgage his second home to pay for redecorations and claim the higher interest repayments on his expenses.

He said his claims represented value for money because he could have charged the taxpayer for the decorating bills directly.

But Sir Paul Kennedy, the former high court judge hearing MPs' appeals against orders to pay back expenses claims, dismissed Fox's appeal.

"What you claimed was not recoverable under the rules then in force," Kennedy said. "I entirely accept that, like many others, you could have made other claims if the fees office had rejected your claims for mortgage interest, and that you may well have spent some of what you raised by increasing your mortgage on your constituency home, but the evidence is imprecise, and my terms of reference only allow me to interfere if I find special reasons in your individual case showing that it would not be fair and equitable to require repayment, either at all or at the level recommended."

Some 392 former and current MPs were ordered to pay back £1.2m after an inquiry by the former senior civil servant Sir Thomas Legg last month examining the last five years of MPs' personal expenses.

Kennedy rejected some or all of Legg's demands for repayments in 44 out of 75 cases, reducing the repayment bill by £180,000. But the remaining appeals, the results of which were published today, concerned 14 MPs, including Fox, who said they had not received Legg's correspondence within the time limit and so were given special dispensation to challenge the audit team's findings after missing the original deadline. Nine of the 14 appeals were allowed in whole or in part by Kennedy and the amount of money to be recovered was reduced by £24,351.93. Shahid Malik, the junior communities minister, lost his appeal against the decision that he had overclaimed expenses including exceeding the guideline prices on a television, for which he paid £1,050, and an armchair, for which he paid £730.

Kennedy said: "What matters is not what the item is or was worth, but what the reviewer considers that it would be reasonable for the public to pay towards an item of that kind ... I have no remit to redraw the line."

Among the appeals upheld was that of Geoff Hoon, the former defence secretary. Legg had ruled that Hoon overclaimed mortgage interest by £1,013.13 in 2008-09. But Kennedy said that the former cabinet minister had underclaimed a total of £1,746.73 in four of the five years covered by the review, so "it would not be fair and equitable in your case to require any repayment".

Paul Clark (Lab, Gillingham and Rainham), George Mudie (Lab, Leeds East), Alison Seabeck (Lab, Plymouth Devonport) and Andrew Tyrie (Con, Chichester) also had their appeals upheld in full.

John Lyons (former Lab, Stathkelvin and Bearsden), Alan Simpson (Lab, Nottingham South), Denis McShane (Lab, Rotherham), and John Lyons the former Labour MP for Stathkelvin and Bearsden, all had their appeals partially upheld.

• MPs' expenses
• Liam Fox
• Conservatives

Haroon Siddiqueguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Tim Hayward meets Guy Watson, founder of the Riverford vegetable box scheme

Shehani FernandoTim Hayward

Shell employs around 8,500 staff in the UK, but there are no details on where the axe will fall

Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell announced a further 1,000 job cuts today as the Anglo-Dutch firm admitted it had been slow to respond to the global slump.

The group, which has 100,000 staff worldwide, cut 5,000 posts last year and had already announced a further 1,000 job losses for this year.

Chief executive Peter Voser said the group would axe another 1,000 posts by the end of 2011 as he presented his strategic update for the firm.

"The company had become too complicated and slower to respond than we'd like. So we are sharpening up," he said.

Shell gave no details on where the cuts would fall. It employs around 8,500 staff in the UK at sites including Aberdeen, London and the Stanlow refinery in Ellesmere Port, which is up for sale.

Voser said Shell is entering a "new period of growth" as he pledged to turn around years of underperformance and grow production 11% to 3.5 million barrels a day by 2012.

• Royal Dutch Shell
• Oil and gas companies
• Job losses

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

· Kidnappers left Sahil Saeed 40km away from Jhelum
· High commission describes his recovery as 'fantastic news'

The five-year-old British boy kidnapped on holiday in Pakistan nearly two weeks ago has been found, British officials and his family confirmed today.

Sahil Saeed was snatched from a house in the Punjab region of the country on 4 March, after robbers held his family hostage at gunpoint.

He is believed to have been recovered by police after being dumped by kidnappers in Kharian, about 40km from Jhelum the town in the Punjab province where he was taken.

"Sahil is in police custody," said the boy's grandfather Raja Basharat, speaking to Pakistani media. "God willing, they will bring him to our house. The whole family has gathered here waiting."

Sahil, from Oldham, was on holiday with his father Raja Naqqash Saeed, visiting family in Jhelum, when robbers broke into the house and took the boy away.

The British high commission in Islamabad said today he had been released and was safe, describing his recovery as "fantastic news".

"It brings to an end the traumatic ordeal faced by Sahil Saeed's family," said Adam Thomson, the British high commissioner in Islamabad.

"I would like to praise the high level of co-operation between the UK and Pakistani authorities and in particular I would like to thank the Jhelum police for their role in bringing about the safe return of Sahil."

Rana Sanaullah, the provincial law minister, said there had never previously been so much government effort put into such a kidnapping case. He said that Pakistani intelligence were also involved in the boy's recovery.

Sanaullah added, without explaining further: "He (Sahil) was safe and sound for the last four to five days. It was just a question of (securing) his custody."

Last week Sanaullah had mistakenly announced that Sahil had been recovered, mixing up the case with that of another kidnapped boy.

Raiders had struck as the pair were preparing to take a taxi to the airport for their flight home to the UK.

The kidnappers originally set a deadline of noon the next day for the money to be delivered.

After Sahil was taken, several men – including a taxi driver – were arrested.

His family suffered frustrations during the investigation, after Pakistani authorities said on several occasions they were close to securing the boy's release.

Sahil's mother, Akila Naqqash, begged for the safe return of her son back home in Oldham, telling the kidnappers at one point: "I just want my son back. All is forgiven, I will forgive you."

Naqqash Saeed returned to the UK at the start of last week, despite reports police in Pakistan wanted him to stay in the country as a witness.

Rehman Malik, Pakistan's interior minister, said that Sahil's father Naqqash had left Pakistan last week "against our wishes". He also repeated the allegation that "a family member was involved" in the kidnapping.

Raja Naqqash Saeed, Sahil's father, flew back to the UK last week. It remains unclear why he left Pakistan. The police in Pakistan had said they needed him to remain in the country, as the kidnappers might contact him directly.

Mr Malik indicated that the kidnappers had "let the boy go in a village".

"Obviously the pressure on them (the kidnappers) was very high," said Mr Malik. "All the phones they were using were being monitored,"

Initial reports suggested that the police had received an anonymous phone call telling them where Sahil had been left.

It is understood that the police is currently carrying out a series of raids in order to try to nab the kidnapping gang.

• Pakistan

Saeed Shahguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Gordon Brown's unpopularity is still harming Labour's election chances, according to an ICM poll for the Guardian today. Julian Glover says the gap between the two main parties has grown to nine points.

Our design critic Jonathan Glancey arges that the advent of high-speed rail is the ideal time to rebuild the Euston Arch, the monumental landmark that stood for 130 years outside the London railway terminal.

Schoolchildren are being monitored by CCTV cameras as frequently as inmates in prisons and passengers at airports, according to Salford university researchers. Reporter Jessica Shepherd says schools may be breaking the law.

How might the research currently being undertaken by British scientists change the lives of future generations? Impact is the name of an exhibition opening today at the Royal College of Art in Kensington, west London, which attempts to answer that question. Anthony Dunne, head of design interactions at the RCA, shows us round.

Relations between Israel and the United States are at 35-year low, according to the Israeli ambassador to Washington. His comments came after Israel's announcement - during a visit by the US vice-president, Joe Biden - of plans to build 1,600 homes in occupied East Jerusalem. Ian Black, the Guardian's Middle East editor, looks at Israel's options.

Jon DennisAndy DuckworthTim Maby

Labour figures past and present among those mourning former leader at funeral

It's a sad day in podland, and not just because Phil Brown has been relieved of his duties at Hull City.

On your brand new Football Weekly, we sing an ode to David Beckham, whose World Cup dream is over in the wake of a potentially career-ending achilles injury (although that cut under his eye looks fairly nasty too). James Richardson and a dangerously sleep-deprived Rob Smyth shed a tear.

Before we get to that, proper journalist Owen Gibson looks ahead to Chelsea's Champions League clash with Internazionale. Plus, there's all the usual gubbins about the Premier League title race – could it all come down to goal difference? – and the fight for fourth place. Can Tottenham Hotspur really hang on in the face of the crumbling challenge from Liverpool, Aston Villa, and Manchester City?

Finally, Sid Lowe tells us about a weekend of hat-tricks and theatrics in La Liga, and Rafa Honigstein rounds up all the action from the Bundesliga.

Have a listen and post your feedback below. We're also on iTunes, Facebook and Twitter, and if you enjoy this type of thing, get your daily dose of fooball with our tea-time email, The Fiver.

James RichardsonBen GreenRaphael HonigsteinSid LoweOwen GibsonRob Smyth