BSF official Tim Byles feared his phone was hacked" By Angela Harrison

A key figure in a school building programme in England feared his phone was being hacked during an outcry over the government's decision to scrap it.

The government says "a senior education official" complained of "politically motivated" nuisance calls last July.
The BBC understands that the official was Tim Byles, then the chief executive of the body running the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme.
The government is not naming the official involved.
It was in July last year that Education Secretary Michael Gove announced he was ending the £55bn BSF programme, leading to the cancellation of 700 projects and to several legal challenges.
He said the scheme was wasteful and inefficient.
Within days, Mr Gove had to apologise to MPs and to local councils over errors which meant some councils were wrongly told their projects were going ahead when in fact they had been cancelled.
Mr Byles was at that time the chief executive of Partnerships for Schools - the body charged by the Labour government with running the BSF programme. He resigned in May.
In July last year there had been a feeling among some at the organisation that the media was being briefed against it, in order to blame it for the errors.
The BBC has approached Mr Byles for comment but has so far not received a response.
Details of the allegations are revealed in letters released by the government.
This was after the matter was raised in the House of Commons on Wednesday in the emergency debate on the phone-hacking crisis, when the prime minister was again criticised for making the former News of the World editor Andy Coulson his head of communications.
Then, the former Labour Minister Nick Raynsford asked: "Will the prime minister confirm that a year ago, during the period when Mr Coulson was director of communications, the cabinet secretary was alerted to evidence of illegal phone hacking, covert surveillance and hostile media briefing directed against a senior official in the government service?"
The prime minister replied that he would look very closely at what Mr Raynsford had said, but added that "in the period that Andy Coulson worked at No 10 Downing Street as head of communications, there was no complaint about the way he did his job".
'Media harassment' Now letters dated 21 July, about the allegations, have been released by both the Cabinet Office and the Department for Education.
A letter from the top civil servant at the Department for Education, Sir David Bell, to the Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell says: "In July 2010, a senior official raised concerns with me about media harassment.
"He complained that he was receiving a large number of phone calls from journalists. He also mentioned receiving calls where no-one actually spoke to him."
Sir David says the matter was referred to the department's security officer and that the official involved "suspected his mobile phone had been tampered with, for the purpose of intercepting calls".
The individual then took the matter up with the police and his phone company, Mr Bell said, but neither "was able to identify any malpractice".
'Political motivation' At the end of the letter, Mr Bell says he spoke to the individual involved after Mr Raynsford's comments to MPs and that he had "confirmed that at no time did he ever suggest, or even consider, that the telephone calls he received without anyone speaking on the line came from political special advisers at 10 Downing Street.
"The official did though surmise that there was some political motivation behind the calls," the letter ends.
Sir Gus - in a letter to Mr Raynsford - says "at no point did the individual mention covert surveillance to that Department [education] or to me No 10 special advisers in his concern about phone tampering".
Mr Raynsford later rejected suggestions by Sir Gus that the concerns about phone hacking were the result of a "genuine misunderstanding".
He told the BBC he could not reveal who the official was, but that what had happened had been "disgraceful"- and had included people rifling through the official's rubbish.
He said the victim had been subject to "nasty and intensive interest by the media and to hostile media briefings and hacking".
"It's a serious matter which should never happen again," he said.

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UK cuts interest rate on Republic of Ireland loan

The UK has cut the rate of interest on the £3.26bn loan it gave to the Republic of Ireland last year.

It comes after eurozone ministers agreed to reduce the rates Ireland, Greece and Portugal pay on their European Union-led bail-outs.
The UK gave its loan to Ireland late last year, at the same time as the EU and International Monetary Fund agreed to support the country.
The UK has trimmed the rate on the loan from 5.8% to 3.5%.
This is broadly in line with the reduction in interest Ireland will now have to pay for the EU bail-out funds.
Chancellor George Osborne said: "I've been arguing for some time that the interest rates charged for eurozone loans were too high.
"I'm pleased therefore they have now reduced those rates.
"That enables Britain to cut its rate on its loan to Ireland, while ensuring all of the benefit goes to Ireland and not to higher interest rates paid to euro area governments."
Mr Osborne added that the UK would "still be more than covering the cost of our borrowing".

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Swine flu jab 'narcolepsy risk'

A swine flu jab has been linked to rare cases of a sleeping disorder and should be the last line of protection for young people, European regulators say.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said Pandemrix should only be given to children and teenagers at risk of H1N1 flu if other jabs are unavailable.
More than six million doses of the vaccine have been given in the UK.
Ten suspected cases of narcolepsy linked to the vaccine have been reported to the UK's drug regulator.
Pandemrix, made by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), was the most widely used in the UK during the 2009/10 flu pandemic.
However, the vaccine is no longer in use and the remaining stocks will be destroyed this autumn.
The EMA's investigation followed reports, mainly from Finland and Sweden but also from Iceland and the UK, of children and adolescents suffering the sleep disorder narcolepsy, which causes people to fall asleep suddenly and unexpectedly.
It said studies had shown a six to 13-fold increased risk of narcolepsy in children and adolescents vaccinated with Pandemrix compared with unvaccinated children.
In a statement, the EMA said it had "noted that the vaccine is likely to have interacted with genetic or environmental factors which might raise the risk of narcolepsy, and that other factors may have contributed to the results."
Unknown factors Overall, Pandemrix has been given to more than 31m people worldwide.
In a statement, GSK said it had received reports of 335 cases of narcolepsy in people vaccinated with Pandemrix by the start of July.

The company added: "GSK is committed to patient safety and will continue to work closely with the EMA and other national regulatory organisations in the best interest of patients."

A spokesperson for the UK's drug regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said: "The annual seasonal flu vaccines have not been associated with the development of narcolepsy, and there are no new safety concerns associated with these vaccines.
"These vaccines remain recommended for protection against seasonal influenza."
She added: "The MHRA has been fully involved in the European safety review of Pandemrix vaccine.
"It is possible that other geographical factors in Sweden and Finland, at the time of the pandemic, have contributed to the cases of narcolepsy seen after vaccination with Pandemrix.
"These factors remain unknown, and further studies are ongoing to explore this.
"The regulatory action for Pandemrix vaccines recognises the potential seriousness of H1N1 infection and ensures that the vaccine remains a licensed alternative to protect children and adolescents in need of protection against H1N1, if seasonal vaccines are not available."

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India's BJP 'put pressure on anti-corruption judge'

India's main opposition BJP wanted the Karnataka chief minister's name dropped as a key suspect in a report on illegal mining, a former judge told the BBC.

Judge Santosh Hegde, the state's anti-corruption chief, said he refused to bow to pressure from Dhananjay Kumar, a former BJP cabinet minister.
Mr Kumar admits meeting Justice Hegde, but denies asking him to omit BJP Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa's name.
Mr Yeddyurappa denies profiting from illegal mining.
"So far they have not submitted the report," he told India's Times Now channel in Mauritius, where he is on holiday. "So many things may be media speculation."
Justice Hegde says the alleged mining scam cost the state $400m (£250m).
He says other members of the state's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, as well as politicians from the Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) parties also profited from illegal mining.
Illegal mining has allegedly been rife for years in Karnataka. It produces about 45 million tonnes of iron ore a year and exports more than half of it to China.
'Laughed'
"Dhananjay Kumar came to my house and asked me not to name the chief minister in the report," Justice Hegde told the BBC Hindi service.
"I laughed. I said no pressure would work on me."
Mr Kumar admitted that he and other party leaders had met the judge, but said that at no point did he try to raise the issue of illegal mining. He challenged the judge to prove his allegation.
Meanwhile, Karnataka Governor HR Bharadwaj has vowed to take action on the report, which is due to be submitted in the next few days. Parts of the report were leaked this week.
"Justice Hegde is a competent man. Whatever he recommends, I will go according to it," Mr Bharadwaj told reporters.
The BJP, too, is waiting for the report to be submitted before it decides its course of action. Its embattled chief minister is also facing charges of corruption and nepotism in land deals and is being investigated separately by the courts.
Correspondents say the BJP appears reluctant to act against Mr Yeddyurappa, who is from the influential Lingayat community. His departure from his post could bring down the party's only government in southern India.
The affair is highly embarrassing for the BJP after months on the offensive against India's governing Congress party, which itself is embroiled in a series of damaging corruption scandals.

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Indian army officers killed in Siachen fire

Two Indian army officers burned to death when their shelter caught fire in the disputed Siachen glacier area of the Himalayas, the army told the BBC.

Two soldiers were injured when they tried to rescue the officers on Thursday night, an army spokesman said.
An inquiry has been ordered into how the fire started, he added.
Siachen borders the Pakistani- and Indian-administered portions of disputed Kashmir and is regarded as the world's highest battlefield.
India believes that the glacier is of vital, strategic and diplomatic value.
The two countries agreed a ceasefire deal over the Siachen glacier in 2003 but thousands of troops are deployed in the region.

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A court in the Spanish capital Madrid has jailed Garikoitz Aspiazu, a former military leader of the Basque separatist group Eta, for 377 years.

Aspiazu, arrested in France in 2008 and moved to Spain in May, was convicted of a role in the attempted assassination of a mayor in 2002.
At the time of his arrest, the man who went by the alias "Txeroki" (Cherokee), was the most wanted Eta fugitive.
More than 820 deaths have been blamed on Eta over 40 years.
Aspiazu was convicted of involvement in a bomb attack on the mayor of the northern town of Portugalete, Esther Cabezudo, the Spanish news agency Efe reports.
He was captured in a pre-dawn raid on a rented apartment in the French Pyrenees spa resort of Cauterets in November 2008.
Born in 1973, he personifies the radical young generation who took control of Eta over the past decade.

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Serbia extradites Goran Hadzic to Hague court

War crimes suspect Goran Hadzic has been flown from Serbia to face the UN court at The Hague.

A police motorcade, sirens blaring, was earlier seen leaving the Belgrade jail where Mr Hadzic was being held.
Before being taken to the airport, Mr Hadzic, 52, was allowed to see his sick mother in northern Serbia.
Mr Hadzic led Serb separatist forces during Croatia's 1991-1995 war and was arrested on Wednesday after seven years on the run.
The plane carrying Mr Hadzic has now landed in Rotterdam.
Last fugitive Mr Hadzic was a central figure in the self-proclaimed Serb republic of Krajina in 1992-1993, leading the campaign to block Croatia's independence from Yugoslavia.
He faces 14 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including persecution, extermination and torture.
He is held responsible for the massacre of almost 300 men in Vukovar in 1991 by Croatian Serb troops and for the deportation of 20,000 people from the town after it was captured.
After the war, Mr Hadzic lived openly in the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad until 2004, when the Hague War Crimes Tribunal indicted him and he disappeared.

Mr Hadzic is the last fugitive of 161 indicted for war crimes during the break-up of the former Yugoslavia.

Serbian Justice Minister Snezana Malovic said she had signed the order for Mr Hadzic's extradition on Friday, Associated Press reported.

EU membership
BBC correspondent Mark Lowen in Belgrade says Mr Hadzic's extradition is a defining moment for Serbia.
He says the country hopes it will allow it to draw a line under the war crimes story and move closer to European Union membership.
For years prosecutors in The Hague complained that Belgrade was not doing enough to track down top war crimes suspects, including Mr Hadzic. That criticism delayed progress in Serbia's EU bid.
His arrest comes less than two months after Serbia caught former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic.
Serbian President Boris Tadic told reporters on Wednesday that Mr Hadzic had been detained in the mountainous Fruska Gora region, north of Belgrade, near his family home.
Serbian prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic said the breakthrough in the hunt for Mr Hadzic came when he tried to sell a stolen painting by Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani.

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Derry police in 'sham wedding' arrests blunder

A Castlederg man has rejected an apology from the police after they interrupted his wedding on suspicion it was "a sham marriage".

The police wrongly arrested Neil McIlwee and his pregnant fiancee, Yanan Sun, moments before the ceremony at the Guildhall in Londonderry on Tuesday.
Chief Inspector John Burrows said the police had acted in good faith, but sometimes they got things wrong.
Mr McIlwee said "sorry" would not make up for the distress caused.
The couple were taken to a police station, forced to dress in forensic clothing and separated.
They were held for five hours and only released when their solicitor got involved. They were married the next day in nearby Castlederg.
The police told the couple they were acting on an anonymous tip-off.
They have accepted that they made a mistake and have apologised.
'Mess-up' However, Mr McIlwee said: "It just doesn't add up - something on that scale based on an anonymous letter and some paperwork faxed through about two hours before the wedding. It just doesn't happen like that.
"So there's a lot of questions that need [to be] answered and there's a lot of people responsible for this mess-up.
"An apology? It's just no good - apologies won't give us our day back. It won't make everything better."
Mr McIlwee's solicitor Karina Breslin Carlin said: "I do have concerns that the Borders Agency have taken the view here, that if it's alleged this is a sham marriage, it's a great opportunity to go into this wedding ceremony and see how many Chinese nationals are there who may not have the correct paperwork in order.
"You can't replace a man's wedding day, you can't replace a bride walking in on her wedding day to assembled guests. They will never get that moment back, they'll never get those memories back."

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Angry Birds maker Rovio sued over app patents

Rovio, the Finnish maker of the Angry Birds game, is being sued by a licensing company for infringing its patents.

Lodsys has said that Rovio and other developers violated its patents with games on Apple's iOS platform and Google's Android.
Lodsys is embroiled in lawsuits with other big technology companies, including Apple.
Rovio said it had not received any direct contact regarding the complaint.
"As soon as we receive more information we will take appropriate action," a spokesperson said.
Angry Birds is one of the most popular game applications.
Rovio marketing chief Peter Vesterbacka said last week that the game had surpassed 300 million downloads.
Lodsys, a company that licenses patents but does not have any other business, added five new defendants to a suit filed in May with a US district court in Texas.
Along with Rovio, it named Electronic Arts, Take-Two Interactive which makes Grand Theft Auto, Atari and others in the list of companies it says are violating its patents.
Take-Two declined to comment. Electronic Arts and Atari were not immediately available for comment.

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Syrians defy crackdown to protest over Assad regime

Protesters appear to gather in Kusweh City. The BBC is unable to verify this footage.

Tens of thousands of Syrians have again taken to the streets for Friday protests, in defiance of the massive crackdown against them.

One human rights activist thought as many as 1.2 million people were taking part across the country.
Security was tight in the capital Damascus, with checkpoints set up, communications cut and arrests made.
There are reports of gunfire and tear gas being used against several demonstrations.
Activists say at least one person has been killed in Aleppo in north-west Syria, and another in the central city of Homs.
Police reportedly used batons as well as tear gas break up a protest in the mainly-Kurdish city of Qamishli.
Marches were also taking place in other Kurdish towns, in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor, in the southern town of Sueweida and in the north-west province of Idlib.
There were also reports of demonstrations in Homs, 160km (100 miles) from Damascus, which has been subject to a massive military crackdown in recent days.
Activists say at least 50 people have been killed in Homs - which has been at the heart of the four-month uprising - since Saturday.
'Completely isolated' Observers say the heavy military presence in Damascus is in response to last Friday, which saw some of the largest protests since the anti-government uprising began in March. Around 30 people were killed.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the districts of Qabun and Rukneddin had a heavily military presence, with barricades and checkpoints set up at entrances and exits.
"Rukneddin is completely isolated," the group's Rami Abdel Rahman told the AFP news agency. "Thousands of security officers are patrolling and conducting searches of homes and making arrests."
One activist in Damascus, Abu, told the BBC that communications and electricity in Harasta and Duman districts have been switched off.
He said that the security agents appeared to be changing tactics - "kidnapping people from streets and coffee shops" rather than arresting activists in their homes.
And Abu predicts the crackdown will increase in the lead up to Ramadan.
"Ramadan is soon and, in Ramadan, each day is like a Friday," he said. "We believe the government is trying to stop the activists before Ramadan."
International journalists have been denied access to Syria so it is difficult to verify reports.
Human rights groups say that about 1,400 civilians and 350 security forces personnel have died in the four months of protest.
The government blames the unrest on "armed criminal gangs" backed by a foreign conspiracy.

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Venezuela's Chavez undergoes chemotherapy in Cuba

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says he has completed the first course of chemotherapy in Cuba.

Mr Chavez said he was now preparing for the second of various phases of the treatment.
He was previously in Cuba in June, where he had a tumour removed.
Before returning to the island for the chemotherapy on Saturday, he delegated some of his presidential powers to his ministers.
That was the first such move from the Venezuelan president since he took office 12 years ago.
But he has resisted opposition calls to hand over all powers during his absence.
'Bombardment' In a phone interview broadcast live on Venezuelan state television, Mr Chavez vowed to win the fight against his cancer.
"This first cycle has been completed successfully," he said.
"There are various cycles in this battle to finally defeat and eliminate any risk of the presence of malignant cells in this body, which is going to turn 57 years old," said Mr Chavez, referring to his birthday next week.
He has not given precise details of where the tumour was found, only that he was operated on in the pelvic region.
He compared the treatment to "a bombardment against the illness".
They were his first televised remarks since leaving for Cuba on Saturday.
During the interview, he also mentioned next-year's presidential election.
Mr Chavez said he was confident of winning a fourth term in power.
"I will live, I promise you. And we are headed for the great victory of 2012," he said.
During his 12 years in power, Mr Chavez has built up deep support among the poor by spending on social programmes.
But there are growing problems, including high inflation, frequent electricity shortages and a lack of affordable housing.

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China: Bus fire in Henan kills dozens

Chinese state TV shows images of the burnt out wreckage of the bus

A bus has caught fire on a highway in central China, killing at least 41 people on board, state media say.

The Xinhua news agency reported that six passengers and the driver had escaped the inferno in Xinyang City, in the province of Henan.
State television said that the bus had 35 sleeper berths, suggesting it had been overcrowded.
The cause of the fire is not yet known, but state TV said the bus was also carrying hazardous goods.
The BBC's Martin Patience in Beijing says some of the survivors reportedly heard an explosion at the back of the vehicle, which started the fire.
Xinhua said a police officer had described the bodies inside the bus as "carbonised", saying they could only be identified by DNA tests.
The fire happened at 0400 local time (1000 GMT), on a section of the highway linking the capital, Beijing, to the southern city of Zhuhai.
Officials are heading to the scene of fire from Beijing to begin an investigation.
China has a poor road safety record - in 2009, almost 70,000 people died in road accidents.

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Kenya burns ivory in fight against poachers

Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki has set on fire nearly five tonnes of ivory worth $16m (£9.9m) to curb poaching.

Mr Kibaki said the burning - only the third of its kind in Africa - showed the continent's determination to fight "criminal networks".
The ivory was seized in Singapore and sent to Kenya where DNA tests showed it came from Malawi and Tanzania.
The countries agreed earlier this year to jointly stop the trade, which conservationists say is increasing.
At a ceremony in the Munyani region of eastern Kenya, Mr Kibaki used a long stick with a ball of fuel-doused cloth at the end to light the tall pyre of tusks.
'Clear message' Some 335 tusks and more than 40,000 ivory carvings went up in smoke.
"We cannot afford to sit back and allow criminal networks to destroy our common future," Mr Kibaki said.
"Through the burning of contraband ivory, therefore, we are sending a clear message to poachers and illegal traders in wildlife about our collective resolve to fight this crime in our region and beyond."

 

The contraband burnt in Munyani represents 10% of Kenya's ivory stockpile

The BBC's Wazir Khamsin in Munyani says the ivory that went up in flames on Wednesday represents only 10% of Kenya's stockpile.
The destruction of the ivory stockpile followed an agreement in May by Malawi, Tanzania and Kenya to strengthen law enforcement efforts to end wildlife smuggling.
The burning was the first involving the three countries, after Singapore agreed to return the stockpile nearly 10 years after it was seized.
In 1989, Kenya burnt its own stockpile of seized ivory, while Zambia torched tusks three years later.
Africa has nearly 500,000 elephants, but the World Wildlife Federation (WWF) says they are increasingly threatened.
"We share the view of most experts that illegal or poorly regulated domestic ivory markets in some countries - Thailand, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo, in particular - are the main drivers of this increased elephant poaching," the WWF says.
Commercial trade in ivory has been banned since 1989 under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites).

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Malawi anti-Mutharika protesters buried in Mzuzu

Eight anti-government protesters killed in Malawi have been buried in a mass grave after the authorities initially refused permission for the funerals.

They were buried in the northern city of Mzuzu, where half of the deaths recorded during the two days of protests occurred.
Western governments have condemned the violence, which has led to 18 deaths - many reportedly shot by police.
Protesters say the government has caused Malawi's worst economic crisis.
Prices have shot up, while there are shortages of fuel and foreign exchange after donors cut off aid, accusing President Bingu wa Mutharika of ignoring human rights.
Moses Mkandawire, director of the Church and Society rights group, told AFP news agency that authorities had wanted the burials to take place individually in each person's home village.

The protest organisers had said those killed in Mzuzu should be buried in the city's "Heroes Acre" but this was rejected by local authorities, who said the dead had been "looters".

Heroes Acre is the name given to the site where Malawi's famous pro-democracy campaigner Chakufwa Chihana was buried near Zolozolo cemetery.
Mr Mkandawire said the government itself had promised to arrange transportation for the bodies.
Rising cost of living The protests began on Wednesday, with organisers saying Malawi was facing a "series of catastrophes".
There has been unrest in the capital, Lilongwe and the biggest city, Blantyre, as well as Mzuzu.

The protest organisers accused the government of failing to listen to the concerns of people, and they feared Malawi was turning into an "autocratic kleptocracy".

Colby Mkupa, a civil servant, waiting for hours in a queue for petrol in Lilongwe told AFP news agency that he wants Mr Mutharika to go before elections planned for 2014.
"He will destroy this country. This bunch of [academic] doctors, they've completely failed," he said.
The UK's Minister for Africa, Henry Bellingham, said the violence highlighted London's concerns about Mr Mutharika's rule.
"Any attacks or reprisals against demonstrators, opposition leaders or the media are absolutely unacceptable," he said.
Mr Mutharika - who was elected in 2004 - said he was prepared to enter into dialogue with the opposition but they should stop "sending your boys" on the streets to cause chaos.
"By allowing these people to demonstrate violently, have we solved our problems? Do we have fuel or forex [foreign exchange]? Is this democracy? Not so," he said in a national address on Thursday.
Several buildings and businesses belonging to members of the security forces and government allies have been attacked during the violence.
The government passed an austerity budget recently, raising taxes to reduce dependence on aid.
Several donor countries have cut aid recently, accusing the government of mishandling the economy and not respecting human rights.
Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world, with an estimated 75% of the population living on less than $1 (60p) a day.

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Pilot whales die after Highland beaching

Fifteen whales have died and many others have become stranded at Kyle of Durness, on the north Highland coast.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) said the whales were believed to be from a pod of as many as 60.
The long-finned pilot whales may have been hunting prey or had sought a place to rest.
Rescuers trying to save the pod said the whales had perished when they stranded at low tide. About 35 beached as the water in the sea loch receded.
Some 20 of them were refloated to deeper water using inflatable pontoons as the water returned, but the remainder had died, the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) charity said.
'Narrow channel' It said many of the whales had stranded on their sides, on top of each other and upside down and were breathing in sand.
A further 20 are thought to be in deeper water and not in imminent danger.
On Friday three pilot whales, including a calf, beached on the shore of the loch.
A Royal Navy bomb disposal team training in the area offered its help in any rescue effort.
Scottish SPCA inspectors also headed for the scene.
Highland Council countryside ranger Donald Mitchell and nine coastguard volunteers monitored the situation.
Mr Mitchell said that at low tide only a narrow channel of sea remained.
Kyle of Durness opens out into Balnakeil Bay.
On Friday, Charlie Phillips, a Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) field officer, said: "It is going to be tricky.
"It is a remote and difficult place to get to."
Mr Phillips added: "The whales may have come in from the Pentland Firth, following prey or trying to find somewhere to rest."
Marine strandings He said a young female pilot whale was found at Scourie, in Sutherland, a few weeks ago.

A small group of onlookers watch rescuers try to refloat the stranded animals

SAC vet Dr Andrew Brownlow of the Scottish Agricultural College (SAC), who leads the Scottish Marine Animal Strandings Scheme, drove to the scene.
The college said: "Should any of the whales fail to make it back out to sea and do not survive, Dr Brownlow will lead post mortem examinations with the aim of identifying what has caused them to come ashore.
"This enables the Strandings Scheme to monitor trends in causes of marine strandings which in turn allows identification of any new or developing hazards to marine mammals in Scottish waters."
In May, two pilot whales were found dead in a Hebridean loch after experts feared more than 60 of the animals had been at risk of becoming beached.

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David Cameron condemns Norway attacks

Prime Minister David Cameron has said he was "outraged" at the attacks in Norway which have reportedly left at least 80 people dead.

He said he has spoken to the country's PM Jens Stoltenberg to express the UK's condolences and offered assistance in tracking down the perpetrators.
A bombing in Oslo severely damaged government offices and a gunman is said to have opened fire at a youth camp.
Diplomats say they are checking whether any British nationals are affected.
Around 250,000 British tourists visit Norway every year, the Foreign Office says on the Norway travel advice section of its website.
And according to the UK Embassy in Oslo, there are also between 25,000 and 30,000 Britons resident in the country.
Mr Cameron said: "My thoughts are with the wounded and those who have lost friends and family, and I know everyone in Britain will feel the same.
"These attacks are a stark reminder of the threat we all face from terrorism.
"I have called Prime Minister Stoltenberg this evening to express my sincere condolences and to let him know that our thoughts are with the Norwegian people at this tragic time.
"I have offered Britain's help, including through our close intelligence cooperation."
The UK's ambassador to Norway, Jane Owen, told the BBC: "We are in touch with the Norwegian government at all levels and also with the police who are trying to work very hard to establish what has happened.
"We are also in very close touch with hospitals and other services to try and establish whether there are any British citizens affected we can help."
She added it was believed to have been the first attack of its kind in the country but said: "The Oslo government, however, has been aware for a long time of the potential danger and threat and have been working to combat it. And we indeed have been working very closely with them on the terrorism agenda."

At least seven people were killed in the bombing and 10 more are known to have died at the camp for young members of the Labour Party in Utoeya, an island outside the capital.

Police arrested the suspected gunman at the camp and the government have confirmed that he is Norwegian. No group has said it carried out the two attacks but police say they are linked.
Foreign Secretary William Hague said Britain stood "shoulder-to-shoulder with Norway and all our international allies" after the "horrific" attack.
"Our embassy stands ready to provide assistance to any British nationals who may have been caught up in the attack."
Scotland's finance secretary John Swinney also sent a message of condolence to Norway.
He said: "I have spoken with David Windmill, the honorary consul general, this afternoon and conveyed on behalf of the Scottish government our deepest sympathy and condolences."

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Bombardier supporters to march in Derby over train deal

Thousands of people are expected to demonstrate in Derby later in support of the UK's last train manufacturer.

Bombardier plans to cut 1,400 jobs - just under half its workforce - after it missed out on a £1.4bn government contract for carriages.
German firm Siemens will build carriages for the Thameslink route, prompting anger from unions.
A poll of more than 25,000 adults for the Unite union showed 88% wanted the government to reconsider its decision.
On Friday Bombardier UK's chairman Colin Walton said he would be supporting the march, claiming there was still time for public pressure to make a difference.
'Loud and clear' Unite's assistant general secretary Diana Holland said: "This is a wake-up call for the government. It's time to face facts and admit excluding Bombardier from the Thameslink contract is disastrous.
"More than 1,400 people will lose their jobs and Bombardier's future is at risk. There is still time for a rethink to save Britain's last train maker and repair this colossal error of judgement.
"Thousands of people will make their message loud and clear today - support Bombardier, support Derby, support British manufacturing."
However, David Cameron, who met with Derbyshire MPs this week, has insisted the decision cannot be changed.
The government has said it is legally bound to continue with the Thameslink project with German engineering giant Siemens as preferred bidder.
The march is due to start at Bass' Recreation Ground at 10:00 BST, moving via the Cornmarket before a rally on Cathedral Green.
Three thousand people are currently employed at the Derby facility.

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Sunday Mirror phone-hacking claim revealed by Newsnight

Evidence of possible phone hacking at the Sunday Mirror newspaper has been found by the BBC's Newsnight.

The programme spoke to a journalist who worked on the paper in the past decade who claimed to have witnessed routine phone hacking in the newsroom.
The source said celebrities including actress Liz Hurley and footballer Rio Ferdinand were targeted.
Trinity Mirror said its journalists work within the criminal law and Press Complaints Commission code of conduct.
'Dark arts' The source told Newsnight's Richard Watson: "One afternoon in the newsroom I saw Liz Hurley's phone being hacked and a reporter listen to her mobile phone messages and take a note of what was said.
"It was a Thursday and I was told that there wasn't much on there - just something about lunch from another woman, so they would keep trying before the weekend to see what they could find."
The programme's source said the technique of phone hacking was used on a daily basis.
"Designated reporters would be doing it pretty much every day," they said.
"One reporter who was very good at it was called the 'master of the dark arts'.
Voiceover artist "At one point in 2004 it seemed like it was the only way people were getting scoops.
"If they didn't just randomly hack people in the news, they would use it to stand up stories that people had denied."
The source claimed the Sunday Mirror hired a voiceover artist to imitate famous people in order to get information about them.
"I was told he had successfully managed to get health records too," the source said.
"He was such a god of a voiceover artist that he could pretend to be famous people or failing that he'd pretend to be their lawyer or someone related to them.
"I was told that we had got [actress] Leslie Ash's medical records from the 'dark arts'."
'Followed extensively' Meanwhile, BBC home affairs correspondent Tom Symonds said a former Daily Mirror journalist James Hipwell has told an Australian newspaper he is willing to testify that in the late 1990s Mirror journalists were told to go through the voicemails of celebrities to look for stories.
Hipwell has served time in prison for writing about companies whose shares he owned.
Trinity Mirror Group said in a statement: "Trinity Mirror's position is clear. Our journalists work within the criminal law and the Press Complaints Commission code of conduct."
The BBC has also learned that the News of the World hired a private investigator to follow Labour MP Tom Watson while he attended his party's conference in Brighton in 2009.
A source close to the now defunct Sunday tabloid said the paper was attempting to write a story about the MP but nothing was published.
There is no suggestion that Mr Watson's mobile phone was hacked.
"Politicians were being followed extensively," said the source who worked for the newspaper for several years but asked not to be named.
News International, which published the News of the World, said it would not comment.
In other developments:

• Prime Minister David Cameron said James Murdoch "clearly" needed to answer questions from MPs after his evidence on phone hacking was challenged
• Strathclyde Police are to investigate claims of phone hacking and breaches of data protection in Scotland. Its inquiry will centre on allegations that witnesses gave perjured evidence in the perjury trial of ex-MSP Tommy Sheridan
• John Yates, who resigned from his role as assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police on Monday, issued High Court proceedings for libel against the London Evening Standard over aspects of its reporting of his conduct in the phone-hacking investigation
• The Law Society will write to the judge leading the inquiry into phone hacking asking him to investigate after revealing that police have warned solicitors their phone messages might have been hacked
• The Solicitors Regulation Authority launched its own investigation into the role of solicitors in the events surrounding the crisis
• Labour MP Chris Bryant, who is suing over allegations his phone was hacked, wrote to non-executive directors of News Corporation asking for James and Rupert Murdoch to be suspended by the company's board
• Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg confirmed he did raise questions about Mr Cameron's decision to bring ex-NoW editor Andy Coulson into No 10 as his director of communications
• The BBC learned the FBI plans to contact actor Jude Law following claims his mobile phone was hacked during a visit to the US. News International denies the claims.

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Stepping Hill Hospital: Nurse charged after deaths

A nurse has been charged by police investigating the deaths of five patients at a Stockport hospital.

Rebecca Leighton, 27, is accused of six counts of causing damage with intent to endanger life or being reckless as to whether life was being endangered.
The Crown Prosecution Service says she is alleged to have tampered with medical products, saline ampoules and saline bags at Stepping Hill Hospital.
Ms Leighton is due to appear before Manchester magistrates on Saturday.
The 27-year-old nurse, of Buxton Road, Heaviley, Stockport, also faces one count of theft of medicine from the hospital.
She was arrested on Wednesday by police investigating the deaths of Tracey Arden, 44, Arnold Lancaster, 71, George Keep, 84, Derek Weaver, 83, and Vera Pearson, 84.
'Shocked and appalled' Mr Weaver, from Stockport, died on Thursday after suffering a hypoglycaemic episode on 11 July - a day after he was admitted from his interim care home with breathing problems.
Multiple sclerosis sufferer Ms Arden, of Heaviley, died on 7 July and retired photographer Mr Lancaster, of Romiley, died on 11 July.
Mr Keep, of Cheadle, died on 14 July after being admitted to the hospital with a broken hip, while on the same day Mrs Pearson also died.

 

A 41-year-old man remains in a critical condition

Police said saline solution at the hospital had been contaminated with insulin, which can cause low blood sugar.

A 41-year-old man remains critically ill in hospital.
Police are also looking at the treatment of eight other patients since 7 July.
Nazir Afzal, Chief Crown Prosecutor for CPS North West, said: "These are serious charges that relate to allegations that Rebecca Leighton tampered with medical products, saline ampoules and saline bags in Stepping Hill Hospital and by doing so endangered the lives of patients.
"We will continue to work with police and provide advice as they continue their detailed inquiries."
Chris Burke, chief executive of Stockport NHS Foundation Trust, said: "We are aware that Greater Manchester Police have charged the 27-year-old female suspect.
"Our thoughts are with the families affected by this incident.
"All of the staff here are extremely shocked and appalled by what has happened and we have ensured there is appropriate support available."

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DADT: Obama certifies gay military ban repeal

US President Barack has announced the ban on openly gay people serving in US military is to end on September 20.

His certification on Friday of the repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" (DADT) law comes seven months after it was overturned in the US Congress.
The Pentagon had asked for time following the repeal to prepare troops for the arrival of openly gay comrades.
Mr Obama's move affirmed the Pentagon had declared it was ready to accept openly gay troops.
'Served in silence' "I have always been confident that our dedicated men and women in uniform would transition to a new policy in an orderly manner that preserves unit cohesion, recruitment, retention and military effectiveness," Mr Obama said in a statement.
"As of 20 September, service members will no longer be forced to hide who they are in order to serve our country. Our military will no longer be deprived of the talents and skills of patriotic Americans just because they happen to be gay or lesbian."
With the certification, Mr Obama signalled that he, Defence Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen have officially confirmed that the military is prepared, following extensive training and preparation, to implement December's repeal of the law.
"This Pentagon certification received by the White House this afternoon is welcomed by gay and lesbian service members who have had to serve their country in silence for far too long," Aubrey Sarvis, an Army veteran and executive director of the Servicemembers Legal Defence Network, which advocated the law's repeal for 17 years.
"The troops and their commanders are ready."
Under the US policy of DADT, established in 1993, gay people could serve in the military but could not acknowledge their orientation. The military was forbidden to inquire but was permitted to expel service members found to be gay.
More than 13,000 service members have been dismissed under the policy.
The end of DADT fulfils a campaign pledge made in 2008 by President Barack Obama, who signed it into law in December.
Britain, Israel and dozens of other countries allow gay personnel to serve openly.

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Anthony Sowell found guilty of murder of 11 women

A sex offender who lived among the remains of 11 dead women at his home in Cleveland in the US state of Ohio has been convicted of killing all of them.

Anthony Sowell was found guilty of aggravated murder, kidnapping, tampering with evidence and abuse of a human corpse in the 11 deaths.
The 51-year-old former US Marine could face the death penalty.
The bodies were found after police went to arrest Sowell in October 2009 on a sexual assault allegation.
He showed little emotion on Friday as the jury returned their verdict of guilty on 82 counts after more than 15 hours of deliberation.
Police criticised The trial heard how the women's bodies had been disposed of in refuse bags and plastic sheets, then dumped around Sowell's house and backyard.

 

Relatives of the victims sobbed in court, as did some of jury

Nearly all of the women had been strangled and were nude from the waist down.
Cleveland's police force was accused of failing to properly investigate when the women began disappearing in 2007 as most of them were impoverished drug addicts.
All of the victims were black, as is Sowell.
During the trial, several women gave testimony of alleged attacks by Sowell, who was previously convicted of attempted rape in 1989.
One woman told the court she had been raped by Sowell, and that she had seen a headless body in his home.
Sowell's sentencing begins on 1 August.
Until the discovery of the bodies, many in the neighbourhood believed the bad smell was coming from a nearby sausage shop.
The family-owned shop spent $20,000 (£12,260) on plumbing and other maintenance in attempts to get rid of the odour.

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'Eighty dead' in Norway shooting

At least 80 people died when a gunman opened fire at an island youth camp in Norway, hours after a bomb attack on the capital, Oslo, police say.

Oslo police are questioning a 32-year-old Norwegian man in connection with Friday's attacks.
The man was arrested on tiny Utoeya island outside Oslo, where police say he opened fire on teenagers.
Earlier, the number of dead from the island shooting spree, which is among the world's most deadly, was put at 10.
The Oslo bomb attack killed at least seven people. Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, whose offices were among those badly hit by the blast, described the attacks as "bloody and cowardly".
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack but the suspect is reported by local media to have had links with right-wing extremists.
'Posed as policeman' Hundreds of young people were attending the summer camp organised by the ruling Labour Party on Utoeya island.
Eyewitnesses described how a tall, blonde man dressed as a policeman opened fire indiscriminately, prompting camp attendees to jump into the water to try and escape the hail of bullets.
Some of the teenagers were shot at as they tried to swim to safety; police say they discovered many more victims after searching the area around the island.
"It goes without saying that this gives dimensions to this incident that are exceptional," police director Oystein Maeland is quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.
Police warned the death toll may rise further as rescue teams continued to scour the waters around the island.
The gunman is reported to have been armed with a handgun, an automatic weapon and a shotgun.
"He travelled on the ferry boat from the mainland over to that little inland island posing as a police officer, saying he was there to do research in connection with the bomb blasts," NRK journalist Ole Torp told the BBC.
"He asked people to gather round and then he started shooting, so these young people fled into the bushes and woods and some even swam off the island to get to safety."
One 15-year-old eyewitness described how she saw what she thought was a police officer open fire.
"He first shot people on the island. Afterward he started shooting people in the water," youth camp delegate Elise told the Associated Press news agency.
Mr Stoltenberg had been due to visit the camp on Saturday. Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store, who visited the camp on Thursday, praised those who were attending.
"The country has no finer youth than young people who go for a summer camp doing politics, doing discussions, doing training, doing football, and then they experience this absolutely horrendous act of violence," he said.
'Despicable violence' In Oslo, government officials urged people to stay at home and avoid central areas of the city.
Shards of twisted metal, rubble and glass littered the streets of central Oslo left devastated by Friday's enormous explosion.
Windows in thebuildings of the government quarter were shattered and witnesses described how smoke filled the atmosphere around the blast site.
There are also concerns that more victims may still be inside buildings hit by the initial massive explosion.
Emergency services have had difficulty accessing these buildings amid concerns about further possible explosions as well as fears the blast may have left buildings unstable.
The US has condemned the "despicable acts of violence" in Oslo, while the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, said the "acts of cowardice" had no justification.

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Large Hadron Collider results excite scientists, By Paul Rincon

The Atlas experiment is one of two multi-purpose experiments at the LHC

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has picked up tantalising fluctuations which might - or might not - be hints of the sought-after Higgs boson particle.

But scientists stress caution over these "excess events", because similar wrinkles have been detected before only to disappear after further analysis.
Either way, if the sub-atomic particle exists it is running out of places to hide, says the head of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern), which runs the LHC.
He told BBC News the collider had now ruled out more of the "mass range" where the Higgs might be.
The new results are based on analyses of one inverse femtobarn of data, gathered as the vast machine smashes beams of protons together at close to light-speed.
Scientists from two different experiments (Atlas and CMS) based at the LHC are scouring the wreckage of these collisions.
One of their primary goals is to search for hints of the Higgs, which is the last missing piece in the Standard Model - the most widely accepted theory of particle physics.
Without the Higgs, physicists cannot explain why particles have mass. But despite the best efforts of scientists working on both sides of the Atlantic to detect it experimentally, the boson remains a theoretical sub-atomic particle.

Rolf-Dieter Heuer, director-general of Cern, said the amount of data gathered was a factor of 20 greater than had been amassed at the same time last year.

"With one inverse femtobarn, you cannot cover the entire mass region which is allowed for the Higgs boson," Professor Heuer told me.
"However, the experiments can now - unfortunately - exclude quite a large part of this allowed mass region."
Physicists think the Higgs will most probably be found in the low-mass region - between 114 GeV (gigaelectronvolts) and 140 GeV. While the gigaelectronvolt is a unit of energy, in particle physics, mass and energy can be interchanged because of Einstein's equivalence idea (E=MC2).
Professor Heuer said that searches at low masses had picked up small fluctuations "here and there", but that this was expected because physicists were analysing small numbers across a number of different "channels".
"The whole thing becomes more interesting the more data we collect," he explained.
News of the surplus of interesting events - seen by both the Atlas and CMS teams - were outlined at the European Physical Society's HEP 2011 conference here in Grenoble, France.
One candidate noted by the Atlas team occurs at the higher mass of 250 GeV and has reached the 2.8 sigma level of certainty. A three-sigma result means there is roughly a 1 in 1,000 chance that the result is attributable to some statistical quirk in the data.
Five sigma means there is about a one-in-one-million chance that the "bump" is just a fluke and is the level generally required for a formal discovery.
Another Atlas fluctuation occurs between 130 GeV and 150 GeV and is at the 2.5-sigma level.
Professor Dave Charlton, who works on the Atlas experiment at the LHC, called the excess of events "intriguing".
But the particle physicist from the University of Birmingham, UK, told BBC News these "could go up to three sigma, or they could disappear".
HEP 2011 runs until 29 July in Grenoble.

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Heatwave breaks records in parts of US and Canada

One New Yorker says being outside is like "sitting in a sauna all day long"

A heatwave has baked eastern parts of the US and Canada, as temperatures on Friday surged to record-breaking highs in some parts.

The mercury in Newark, New Jersey, reached 108F (42C), the highest ever recorded in the city.
In Canada, an extreme heat alert remained in effect, a day after two dozen cities and towns broke their previous single-day heat records.
At least 22 deaths have been blamed on the heat.
Across the US alone, where nearly half of the population was under a heat advisory, more than 220 heat records have tumbled.
Sewage spillage Many regions in the central US and parts of the eastern seaboard have seen heat indexes - a combination of temperature and humidity - topping 43C.

Is there any chance of a drop in temperatures in the coming days?

Airports near Washington and Baltimore hit 40.5C (105F); Boston 39.5C (103F); Portland, Maine, and Concord, New Hampshire, 38.5C (101F); and Providence, Rhode Island, 38C (100F).
Philadelphia - where bathers at public swimming pools were asked to leave every 30 minutes to allow a new crowd to enjoy a cooling dip - saw temperatures of 40C (104F).
New York City hit 40C (104F), just 1C short of its all-time high, although with the oppressive humidity, it felt like 45C (113F).
As New Yorkers roasted in the heat, health officials warned them to stay out of the water at four beaches on New York Harbor after a sewage treatment plant damaged by fire began pumping raw waste into the Hudson River.
Several hundred homes and businesses in New York were hit with temporary blackouts.
Voltage was reduced in several neighbourhoods in the city and suburbs to keep underground cables from overheating.
Teenager dies On Friday, the medical examiner's office in Chicago listed heat stress or heat stroke as the cause of death for seven people.

An 18-year-old landscape gardener who died on Thursday night in Louisville, Kentucky, had a temperature of 43C (110F), a coroner said.

In Canada, temperature records were broken in a cities across Ontario and Quebec on Thursday, including the hottest ever July temperature in Toronto, at 37.9C (100.2F).
Asphalt and concrete pavements and buildings in cities were "re-radiating" the heat, forecasters said.
Eli Jacks, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, told the BBC: "This is an exceptionally strong ridge of high pressure that really has an exceptional scope and duration."
The combination of high heat and humidity make it hard for the human body to cool itself - because sweat does not evaporate efficiently, he added.
Officials in the central state of Missouri say 13 people have died, and there have also been fatalities in neighbouring Oklahoma, including a three-year-old boy.
In the south, more than three-quarters of Texas is suffering from drought amid the worst dry spell in the state for decades.
High temperatures - the number one weather-related killer in the US - claim 162 lives on average in the country each year.
The most severe heatwave in modern North American history took place during the Great Depression in 1936. The heat that summer was blamed for more than 5,000 deaths in the US and Canada.

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Republican House Speaker John Boehner quits debt talks

Republican House Speaker John Boehner has walked away from crunch debt ceiling talks at the White House with US President Barack Obama.

Mr Obama said Mr Boehner had rejected an "extraordinarily fair deal" that would have included $650bn (£400bn) of cuts to entitlement programmes.
The president said he had been willing to take "a lot of heat" from his party.
Mr Boehner told a news conference afterwards that Mr Obama had "moved the goal posts" by demanding a tax hike.
President Obama said he wanted a meeting with congressional leaders, including Mr Boehner, at the White House at 1100 (1500 GMT) on Saturday.
'Left at the altar' The negotiations are aimed at avoiding what analysts say would be an economically catastrophic US debt default on 2 August.
"It is hard to understand why Speaker Boehner would walk away from this kind of deal," President Obama said at a news conference on Friday evening.

John Boehner: "Dealing with the White House is like dealing with a bowl of Jell-O"

"There are a lot of Republicans who are puzzled as to why it couldn't get done."
As well as cutting $650bn from Medicare, Medicaid and other entitlements, the president said he was offering to slash $1tr in discretionary spending, while seeking $1.2tr in revenues, which could have been achieved by raising income tax rates.
In a rebuttal news conference later on Friday evening, Mr Boehner said they had been close to a deal until Mr Obama had demanded $400bn in tax increases on top of about $800bn in revenues that would have been reaped through a comprehensive rewrite of the tax code.
"Dealing with the White House is like dealing with a bowl of Jell-O," Mr Boehner said.
He told reporters he did not think his relationship with Mr Obama had been "irreparably damaged", and that he would attend Saturday's meeting.
White House correspondents said Mr Obama looked visibly angry as he told reporters he, too, thought a deal had been close until Mr Boehner did not return a phone call made by the president earlier on Friday.
"I've been left at the altar now a couple of times," Mr Obama said of the talks with Mr Boehner.
For the first time, Mr Obama publicly countenanced the possibility of the US not meeting its financial obligations.
"If we default, then we're going to have to make adjustments," he said.
Moments later, the president added he remained confident the $14.3tn limit on US borrowing would be raised by the 2 August deadline.
Mr Obama also said he was "fed up" with political posturing.

In a letter to the Republican rank and file, Mr Boehner said: "A deal was never reached, and was never really close.

He wrote: "I have decided to end discussions with the White House and begin conversations with the leaders of the Senate in an effort to find a path forward."
With the clock ticking down toward a national default after weeks of deadlocked negotiations, former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, a Republican, told reporters on Friday that inaction would result in dire consequences.
"Failing to raise the debt ceiling would do irreparable harm to our credit standing, would undermine our ability to lead on global economic issues and would damage our economy," he said.
Meanwhile, the Democratic-led US Senate rejected a "cut, cap and balance" bill passed by the Republican-led House, which would have severely cut public spending and forced the government to balance its budget.
Republicans have been unwilling to consider raising new taxes to counter the growing budget deficits.
The Democrats have been opposed to cutting popular healthcare and welfare programmes for pensioners and the poor.

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Mars rover aims for deep crater" By Jonathan Amos

Nasa's next Mars rover will be aimed at one of the planet's deepest craters.

The MSL-Curiosity vehicle weighs almost a tonne and is the size of a Mini Cooper, and will carry instruments to study whether Mars had the conditions in the past to support microbial life.
The US space agency has selected an equatorial depression called Gale Crater to investigate that question.
The rover will launch from Florida in November and will arrive at the Red planet in August 2012.
Gale Crater is about 155km in diameter, and its lowest point is about 4.6km below datum, the reference point on Mars from which all other elevations are measured.
The landing zone will be much narrower than the crater's width. But Nasa has high confidence the rocket-powered descent system designed for Curiosity can put it inside a target zone less than 20km across.
If this skycrane, as it is known, works as planned, the rover will be delivered close to the central peak of the crater. This is a huge mountain that contains layers of deposits that should offer an impressive view of millions of years of Martian geological history.
At its base, the robot should find abundant quantities of clay minerals that will give fresh insight into the very wet early epoch of the Red Planet. Above the clays, the deposits change to sulphates, which relate to a period in time when Mars was still wet but was beginning to dry out.
Curiosity is currently being prepared for its November launch at Nasa's Kennedy Space Center.

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Sony insurer seeks PlayStation Network hack opt-out

Sony faces a court battle over how it will pay for legal claims made in the wake of a massive data breach.

One of the company's insurers has asked a judge to rule that it is not liable for losses related to the cyber attack.
In April, Sony discovered that hackers had gained access to 77 million accounts on its PlayStation Network.
The firm agreed to pay anyone who lost-out financially as a result of the incident, but it is still being sued by a number of users.
PlayStation Network was shut down worldwide for more than a month while Sony reviewed its security procedures.
Claim game Zurich American Insurance has now gone to court in New York seeking a declaration that it does not have to help Sony with current or future legal action related to the data breach.
Legal papers filed by Zurich reveal that 55 separate class action lawsuits are pending in the US because of the breach.
Also underway are investigations by state and federal regulators that could also end-up before the courts.
Sony has made claims on several of its insurance policies, including one with Zurich, to help pay its legal bills and provide compensation.
However, Zurich argues that the policy it set up for Sony does not cover the part of the business that suffered the breach or the sort of damage the theft caused.
Specific clauses in the policy also rule out Zurich providing cover, it said.
Sony declined to comment because the matter is the subject of pending litigation.
In financial statements, Sony said it expected costs for the breach to top 14bn yen (£109m) this year. The figure does not include any costs for compensating customers.

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Mohamed Bin Hammam expects Fifa to find him guilty

Suspended former Fifa presidential candidate Mohamed bin Hammam believes he is likely to be found guilty of bribery allegations.

Fifa's ethics committee has begun a two-day hearing to rule on claims the Qatari tried to bribe Caribbean delegates to vote for him as president.
"It seems likely that Fifa has already made its decision weeks ago," he wrote in a blog.
"None of us should be surprised if a guilty verdict is returned."
Bin Hammam, 62, pulled out of the presidential race in the wake of the allegations and was provisionally suspended on 29 May.
He continued: "I want you all to know that my legal team and I remain confident that the case and the evidence presented against me are weak and unsubstantiated. They are flimsy and will not stand up to scrutiny in any court of law; that has been clear throughout this process and it remains to be so.
"If we believe earlier press statements made by or on behalf of different Fifa officials or those working for them, then despite the weakness of the case against me, I am not confident that the hearing will be conducted in the manner any of us would like.

"Following the events since my suspension, it now seems impossible for them to say that they were wrong, although I wish they would have the courage to correct their mistake.
"Rest assured, though, that justice will eventually prevail whether through the Fifa ethics committee, the Court of Arbitration of Sport or, if necessary, through other courts or legal proceedings in courts where we will be equal and no special privileges will be granted to either party."
Bin Hammam and former Fifa vice-president Jack Warner were suspended when a leaked report revealed four Caribbean Football Union associations were either offered money, or saw the offence occur, during a meeting in May.
It is alleged bribes of US$40,000 were paid or offered to each of the 25 associations who attended the meeting.
Fifa's ethics committee's preliminary report into the case was reported to have found "comprehensive, convincing and overwhelming" evidence against both Warner and Bin Hammam.
Bin Hammam's withdrawal from the presidential race allowed incumbent Sepp Blatter to be returned unopposed as head of football's governing body.

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Phone hacking: PM says James Murdoch has 'questions to answer'

David Cameron says James Murdoch "clearly" needs to answer questions from MPs after his evidence on phone hacking was challenged.

Labour's Tom Watson wants a police probe after the evidence was disputed by two ex-News of the World executives.
The News International chairman had said he was not "aware" of an email suggesting hacking went wider than a "rogue" reporter at the firm's paper.
But ex-NoW editor Colin Myler and legal manager Tom Crone said they told him.
In a statement later, Mr Murdoch, said: "I stand by my testimony to the select committee."
Mr Murdoch appeared before MPs on Tuesday alongside his father Rupert Murdoch, chairman of NI's parent company News Corporation.
Following Thursday's statement by Mr Myler and Mr Crone, committee chairman John Whittingdale said Mr Murdoch had agreed to write to the committee on various points he had been unable to address at the hearing.
He said: "I'm sure if the statement suggests there's conflict between what Colin Myler is saying and what he said, we will ask him to answer that as well."
Speaking during a visit in Warwickshire, the prime minister said: "Clearly James Murdoch has got questions to answer in Parliament and I'm sure he will do that.
"And clearly News International has got some big issues to deal with and a mess to clear up, that has to be done by the management of that company."
Labour leader Ed Miliband said: "People will want to look at the comments that were made and want to resolve the different versions of events that we've seen.

In April 2008, James Murdoch authorised the payment of an out-of-court settlement of more than £600,000 to Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, over the hacking of his phone.
Mr Watson said he was going to formally bring the matter of James Murdoch's disputed evidence to the attention of Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers, who is leading Operation Weeting, the investigation into phone hacking.
The Metropolitan Police later confirmed Mr Watson's request for an investigation into the disputed evidence "was being considered".
The West Bromwich MP told the BBC: "This is the most significant moment of two years of investigation into phone hacking.
"If [Colin Myler and Tom Crone's] statement is accurate it shows James Murdoch had knowledge that others were involved in hacking as early as 2008, it shows he failed to act to discipline staff or initiate an internal investigation, which undermines Rupert Murdoch's evidence to our committee that the company had a zero tolerance to wrongdoing."
The MP added: "More importantly, it shows he not only failed to report a crime to the police but because there was a confidentiality clause involved in the settlement it means that he bought the silence of Gordon Taylor and that could mean he is facing investigation for perverting the course of justice."
He said: "There is only going to be one person who is accurate. Either James Murdoch, who to be fair to him is standing by his version of events, or Colin Myler and Tom Crone."
'Proper governance' In 2007, the News of the World's royal editor Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were jailed for hacking. But the email in question was marked "for Neville" and Mr Watson's line of questioning was believed to be an attempt to see whether it implied that the News of the World's chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck also knew about such practices.
At the committee hearing on Tuesday, Mr Watson asked Mr Murdoch: "When you signed off the Taylor payment, did you see or were you made aware of the full Neville email, the transcript of the hacked voicemail messages?"
Mr Murdoch replied: "No, I was not aware of that at the time."
He went on: "There was every reason to settle the case, given the likelihood of losing the case and given the damages - we had received counsel - that would be levied."
In their statement issued on Thursday Mr Myler and Crone said: "Just by way of clarification relating to Tuesday's CMS select committee hearing, we would like to point out that James Murdoch's recollection of what he was told when agreeing to settle the Gordon Taylor litigation was mistaken.
"In fact, we did inform him of the 'for Neville' email which had been produced to us by Gordon Taylor's lawyers."
In another development, Labour MP Chris Bryant, who is suing over allegations his phone was hacked, has called for James and Rupert Murdoch to be suspended by News Corp's board.
In a letter to the non-executive directors of the firm, he said Rupert Murdoch's refusal to accept responsibility for what happened at the News of the World "would suggest that there is no proper corporate governance within the company".
Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has confirmed he did raise questions about Mr Cameron's decision to bring ex-NoW editor Andy Coulson into No 10 as his director of communications.
He told the BBC: "But as Cameron has said himself, it was his decision and he said, 'I have received the assurances I sought' and on that basis I want to give Andy Coulson a second chance and that's his decision."
The BBC has also learned the FBI plans to contact actor Jude Law following claims his mobile phone was hacked during a visit to the US. News International denies the claims.

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Deadly heatwave settles across US and Canada

One New Yorker says being outside is like "sitting in a sauna all day long"

A punishing heatwave has settled over central and eastern parts of the US and Canada, pushing temperatures as high as 37C (99F) and causing up to 22 deaths.

The US weather service warned of "dangerous" levels of heat and humidity creeping east on Friday, with no relief in eastern states until Sunday.
As much as 50% of the US population was under a heat advisory, officials said.
Meteorologists have put the temperatures down to a "dome" of high pressure in the atmosphere.
Many regions in the central US and parts of the eastern seaboard have seen heat indexes - a combination of temperature and humidity - topping 43C.
Air sinks The blistering heat has also hit parts of Canada, with temperatures in Toronto expected to top 35C on Friday, according to Environment Canada.

Is there any chance of a drop in temperatures in the coming days?

At 38C (101F), Syracuse in New York State has already witnessed its hottest day since 1936, forecasters say.
"This is an exceptionally strong ridge of high pressure that really has an exceptional scope and duration," Eli Jacks, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, told the BBC.
"The air is sinking, as it sinks it compresses and gets warmer. It also dries out, so few clouds form to block the high early-summer sun," he said.
The combination of high heat and high humidity make it hard for the human body to cool itself - because sweat does not evaporate efficiently, he added.
Across the central and eastern US, people and animals alike have been struggling to keep cool amid the oppressive heat and humidity.
As the heat peaks in major population centres on the east coast, the number of deaths is expected to rise, officials warn.
Officials in the central state of Missouri say 13 people have died, and there have been fatalities in neighbouring Oklahoma, including a three-year-old boy.

In the town of Hutchinson in Kansas three elderly people were found dead in separate homes.

In Minnesota - a northern state known for its frigid winters - farm livestock have been dying from heat stress at a rate not seen in three decades, the Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper reported. Turkeys have been hit especially hard, the paper reported.
In South Dakota, as many as 1,500 head of cattle have died in the heat, state veterinarian Dustin Oedekoven told Reuters news agency.
More than three-quarters of Texas is suffering from drought amid the worst dry spell in the state for decades.
Urban areas have opened cooling centres for the poor and elderly, and the National Weather Service has warned people in normally cool areas to be especially cautious.
Seattle shivers Philadelphia has deployed police officers to manage hot, irritated crowds at the city's public swimming pools.

 

Across the US, people found ways to keep cool - like standing in front of a mist spray

Electricity company Con Edison said scattered power cuts were likely in New York in the next several days amid a surge in usage of air conditioning units.
The city's fire chiefs have hired additional crews and officials have placed mobile fountains around the city to allow people to refill water bottles.
In Nashville, Tennessee, hospital staff have reported several cases of heat exhaustion and heat stroke.
Chicago is experiencing unhealthy smog levels caused by the heat. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency asked the city's residents to reduce polluting activities, such as mowing lawns and keeping the engines running on stationary vehicles.
Forecasters said the damage caused by the heat could be worse that that brought about by a heatwave in Chicago in 1995, when more than 700 people died over three days.
Asphalt and concrete pavements and buildings in cities were "re-radiating" the heat, forecasters say.
By Friday, the high pressure system moving east is expected to bring thunderstorms with hail to the north-eastern US.
Meanwhile, as half of the country's 310 million residents sizzle, states in the north-western region of the country were experiencing abnormally cool temperatures.
"I didn't know it could be this cold in July. It is absolutely freezing here in Seattle," said one user on Twitter.
During the past month, Seattle has only experienced three days with temperatures hitting the 27C (80F) mark, with most days falling in the (mid-60s, according to the city's Sea-Tac Airport measuring station.
High temperatures - the number one weather-related killer in the US - claim 162 lives on average in the country each year.
The most severe heatwave in modern North American history took place during the Great Depression in 1936. The heat that summer was blamed for more than 5,000 deaths in the US and Canada.

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Greece aid package boosts stock markets

Shares have risen following the eurozone's agreement designed to resolve the Greek debt crisis.

UK and French markets gained more than 1% in morning trading, before slipping slightly, while Japan's Nikkei closed up 1.2%. US stocks opened flat.
Eurozone leaders agreed a new package worth 109bn euros ($155bn, £96.3bn).
Private lenders will also be asked to contribute and, as a result, the Fitch ratings agency said it would consider Greece in "restricted default".
'Unthinkable'
German Chancellor Angela Merkel hailed the accord and said it was her country's duty to support the single European currency.
"It is our historical duty to support the euro," Mrs Merkel said.
"The euro is good for us, the euro is part of Germany's economic success, and a Europe without the euro is unthinkable."

Relief at the deal offset any concerns about banks losing out as a result the planned debt restructuring.

Banking shares continued to rise after Thursday's sharp gains, with France's Credit Agricole and the UK's Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays all up more than 3%.
"The deal removes one of the concerns related to the overall market... and EU finance ministers understand the risk associated with a possible default and that they're willing to step up and support weaker countries," said Robert Pavlik, a strategist at Banyan Partners in Florida.
Bond yields, which reflect the risk investors attach to government debt, fell across the eurozone, particularly those in Greece and Portugal.
Eurozone leaders hailed the comprehensive agreement.
Greece's Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said the deal would provide "great relief for the Greek economy".
Package measures The eurozone agreement is a comprehensive package designed not only to resolve Greece's debt crisis but to prevent contagion to other European economies, thereby shoring up the euro in the process.

Many people feel there are even tougher times ahead

The package includes:

• 109bn euros in new loans to Greece
• Various options to extend Greece's repayment terms and reduce the amount it repays on existing loans
• Voluntary private sector participation in these options, so that banks share taxpayers' burden
• Doubling the length of repayment terms for the Irish Republic and Portugal, both of which have received financial assistance previously
• Additional powers granted to the European Financial Stability Facility to buy up bonds and to make credit available to countries such as Spain and Italy that are not at immediate risk of insolvency.

The Institute of International Finance (IIF) - a global trade body representing big banks and other major lenders - said the planned debt restructuring would target participation by 90% of Greece's private sector lenders.

Source: Eurostat. Government debt expressed as a percentage of economic output.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said private lenders would contribute a total of 135bn euros of financing to Greece.

This is expected to provide some 50bn euros of debt relief to Greece.
Three of the four options offered to lenders to swap or relend existing debts would extend Greece's repayment terms by 30 years, while the fourth would do so by 15 years.
They all offer a much lower interest rate than Greece's current 15%-25% cost of borrowing in financial markets.
Two of the options would also involve "haircuts" - reducing the amount of debt Greece has to repay.
The terms of the deal imply a loss to Greece's lenders equivalent to 21% of the market value of their debts, said the IIF.
But because the contributions are "expressly voluntary", the International Swaps and Derivatives Association said that the deal should not trigger payments on default-swaps designed to protect against a default.
'Right signal' Fitch ratings agency said it would consider Greece to have defaulted on its debts once old bonds had been swapped for new bonds.
Although the agency welcomed the agreement as a positive step, it said it would have no choice but to declare a default once the swap had been made.
"An exchange that offers new securities with terms that are worse than the original contractual terms of the existing debt, and where the sovereign is subject to financial distress, constitutes a default event under Fitch's [ratings criteria]," the firm said in a statement.
Other ratings agencies have previously threatened to declare a default in the event of a debt restructuring.
Observers suggest they are under considerable political pressure not to do so, as if they do it could severely undermine confidence in both the eurozone economy and its banks.

Herman Van Rompuy: "This situation was... threatening the stability of the eurozone"

The ECB and France had been particularly opposed to a restructuring and involving the private sector, but it was ultimately insisted on by Germany.
Mr Sarkozy played down the significance of the banks' participation in the aid package.
"If the rating agencies are using the word you just used (default), it is not part of my vocabulary. Greece will pay its debt," he told reporters.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso indicated plans to rein in the power of the agencies.
"We... endorsed the plan of reducing over reliance on external credit ratings," he said, adding that policymakers would come forward in the autumn "with further proposals".

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