Islamist protest in Dhaka broken up
By Anonymous on May 06, 2013 02:49 am 5 May 2013 Last updated at 20:03 ET 
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Footage shows police using tear gas and rubber bullets against activists, as Jill McGivering reports
Police in Bangladesh have used stun grenades and rubber bullets to disperse a huge demonstration by Islamist protesters in the capital Dhaka.
Thousands fled as police took control of the central business district.
Up to half a million supporters of the group Hefazat-e Islam had gathered in the city to call for stronger Islamic policies. Rioters went on to set fire to shops and vehicles.
At least seven people were killed and 60 injured in clashes with police.
'Hang atheists' On Sunday, crowds of protesters blocked main roads, isolating Dhaka from other parts of the country.
Chanting "Allahu Akbar!" ("God is greatest!") and "One point! One demand! Atheists must be hanged", the activists marched down at least six main roads as they headed for Motijheel, AFP news agency reported.
Continue reading the main story 
Three people have been killed and more than 60 injured in continuing clashes between police and Islamist activists in Bangladesh's capital Dhaka
The clashes came as hundreds of thousands of Hefazat-e-Islam supporters held a rally in Dhaka to demand a greater focus on Islamic values
The group also rallied in Dhaka last month, calling for the death penalty for those who insult Islam, as well as the imposition of stricter Islamic education
Police used tear gas, rubber bullets and, in this instance, a broken piece of brick against protesters
The government, which describes Bangladesh as a secular democracy, has rejected the demands of the group
Continue reading the main story The area around the city centre's largest mosque turned into a battleground as police reacted to stone-throwing rioters with tear gas, rubber bullets and truncheons.
Early on Monday, a police spokesman said security forces had secured the area and were searching for protesters hiding in nearby buildings.
Hefazat-e Islam wants greater segregation of men and women, as well as the imposition of stricter Islamic education.
The movement draws its strength from the country's madrassahs, or religious schools.
The government, which describes Bangladesh as a secular democracy, has rejected the group's demand for a new law on blasphemy.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said current legislation was adequate.
Muslims make up nearly 90% of the country's population, with the rest mostly Hindus.
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UK block on overseas spouse pensions
By Anonymous on May 06, 2013 03:25 am 5 May 2013 Last updated at 23:23 ET 
UK pension allowances can be given to those who are overseas and married British citizens
The government is planning to stop giving people who live abroad a British state pension allowance based solely on the employment record of their spouse.
Pensions Minister Steve Webb said some of those claiming a married person's allowance had never visited Britain.
Some 220,000 overseas residents receive such payments - up from 190,000 a decade ago - at a cost of £410m a year.
The measure will be part of an overhaul of the state pension, to be included in the Queen's Speech on Wednesday.
The Pensions Bill will introduce a new flat rate pension based on individual contributions during a person's working life.
But current rules allow spouses to claim a "married person's allowance" based on their husband or wife's history of National Insurance contributions.
While increasingly rare in Britain, the practice has become a popular option for people who live overseas and who are married to British citizens.
Mr Webb said that sometimes these allowances are claimed by people who never set foot in this country, and that this was unfair and unsustainable.
Continue reading the main story New state pension
- Begins April 2016
- Worth £144 a week at current prices
- Flat rate
- 35 years of National Insurance contributions needed for full amount
- Not means tested
He told the Daily Telegraph: "Most people would think, you pay National Insurance, you get a pension. But folk who have never been here but happen to be married to someone who has are getting pensions.
"Say you are an American man and you marry a British woman, you can claim, if she has a full record of contributions, a pension of £3,500 a year for your entire retirement having never paid a penny in National Insurance.
"Most people would think that is not what National Insurance is for."
Once the pensions bill becomes law, any new claims from 2016 would be prevented.
But British pensioners and their families who currently live overseas and make such claims would not be affected.
The government's overhaul of the state pension system will see a single-tier pension - of £144 a week at today's prices - being paid to every qualifying new pensioner from April 2016 at the earliest.
While many people will gain as a result of the changes, some who currently pay in to a second state pension - which is being abolished - will lose out.
Read in browser » World's first 3D-printer gun fired
By Anonymous on May 06, 2013 02:38 am 6 May 2013 Last updated at 02:38 ET By Rebecca Morelle Science reporter, BBC World Service, Texas 
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The BBC's Rebecca Morelle saw the 3D-printed gun's first test in Austin, Texas
The world's first gun made with 3D printer technology has been successfully fired in the US.
The controversial group which created the firearm, Defense Distributed, plans to make the blueprints available online.
The group has spent a year trying to create the firearm, which was successfully tested on Saturday at a firing range south of Austin, Texas.
Anti-gun campaigners have criticised the project.
Europe's law enforcement agency said it was monitoring developments.
Victoria Baines, from Europol's cybercrime centre, said that at present criminals were more likely to pursue traditional routes to obtain firearms.
She added, however: "But as time goes on and as this technology becomes more user friendly and more cost effective, it is possible that some of these risks will emerge."
Defense Distributed is headed by Cody Wilson, a 25-year-old law student at the University of Texas.
Mr Wilson said: "I think a lot of people weren't expecting that this could be done."
The gun was assembled from separate printed components made from ABS plastic - only the firing pin was made from metal
3D printing has been hailed as the future of manufacturing.
The technology works by building up layer upon layer of material - typically plastic - to build complex solid objects.
The idea is that as the printers become cheaper, instead of buying goods from shops, consumers will instead be able to download designs and print out the items at home.
But as with all new technologies, there are risks as well as benefits.
Personal liberties The gun was made on a 3D printer that cost $8,000 (£5,140) from the online auction site eBay.
It was assembled from separate printed components made from ABS plastic - only the firing pin was made from metal.
Mr Wilson, who describes himself as a crypto-anarchist, said his plans to make the design available were "about liberty".
He told the BBC: "There is a demand of guns - there just is. There are states all over the world that say you can't own firearms - and that's not true anymore.
"I'm seeing a world where technology says you can pretty much be able to have whatever you want. It's not up to the political players any more."
Asked if he felt any sense of responsibility about whose hands the gun might fall into, he told the BBC: "I recognise the tool might be used to harm other people - that's what the tool is - it's a gun.
"But I don't think that's a reason to not do it - or a reason not to put it out there."
Gun control To make the gun, Mr Wilson received a manufacturing and seller's licence from the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
Donna Sellers, from the ATF, told BBC News that the 3D-printed gun, as long as it was not a National Firearms Act weapon (an automatic gun, for example), was legal in the US.
She said: "[In the US] a person can manufacture a firearm for their own use. However, if they engage in the business of manufacture to sell a gun, they need a licence."
Amid America's ongoing gun debate in the wake of the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, US congressman Steve Israel recently called for a ban on 3D guns under the Undetectable Firearms Act.
Groups looking to tighten US gun laws have also expressed concern.
Leah Gunn Barrett, from New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, has said: "These guns could fall into the hands of people who should not have guns - criminals, people who are seriously mentally ill, people who are convicted of domestic violence, even children."
3D printing technology has already been used by some criminal organisations to create card readers - "skimmers" - that are inserted into bank machines.
Many law enforcement agencies around the world now have people dedicated to monitoring cybercrime and emerging technologies such as 3D printers.
Ms Baines from Europol said: "What we know is that technology proceeds much more quickly than we expect it to. So by getting one step ahead of the technological developments, we hope and believe we will be able to get one step ahead of the criminals as well."
Read in browser » Police investigate speedboat crash
By Anonymous on May 05, 2013 10:35 pm 5 May 2013 Last updated at 22:35 ET 
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Jo Rawlings, Maritime and Coastguard Agency, says people nearby reported that "the boat was out of control for a short time"
Police have begun an inquiry into a speedboat crash off the north Cornish coast which killed a man and his daughter and injured four others.
The pair - a 51-year-old man and an eight-year-old girl - were among six people thrown from the boat in the Camel Estuary, off Padstow.
Four other family members are being treated for serious injuries in hospital.
They are thought to have been hit by the boat while it was out of control.
The four injured are a 39-year-old woman, a four-year-old boy and two girls aged 10 and 12. They suffered leg injuries of varying degrees of severity, John Oliver from South Western Ambulance Service said.
The boat is owned by the family, who are from London, police said.
Supt Jim Colwell of Devon and Cornwall Police said some of their injuries were "life threatening" as well as "life changing".
"The key lines of enquiry are primarily witness enquiries, those eye witnesses that were at the scene at the time and have already started to provide us with information as to what the circumstances were and what the boat was doing at the time of the incident," he said.
Supt Colwell added that a mechanical examination of the boat, with the involvement of the Marine Action Investigation Branch, would take place "just to make sure there were no factors to do with the vessel itself which may have caused this incident".
The sunny bank holiday weather had drawn a lot of visitors to the harbourside, and the surrounding waters of the Camel Estuary were said to have been calm on Sunday afternoon when the accident happened.
At about 15:50 BST, Falmouth coastguard received a number of reports from members of the public that six people had been thrown from a speedboat.
They reported seeing the boat "out of control for a short time" and striking some other boats, Jo Rawlings, from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, told the BBC.
'Heroic' coastguard Dog walker Simon Lewins, from Wadebridge, said he watched as a big, powerful boat going "a bit too fast" suddenly turned right, "depositing" people into the water.
"It kept going off in ever decreasing circles. The screams coming from the people in the water were pretty bad."
He said one of the coastguards then jumped in and managed to stop the boat and take it away.
"I tell you what, this guy is a hero," he told the BBC.
Coastguards then helped some of the injured as a helicopter landed on the beach, he added.
The injured were being treated at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said.
Matt Pavitt, the Coastguard sector manager for North Cornwall, said the injured four were "badly shaken up".
He added: "There appears to have been some interaction between the boat and the group of people in the water, which has resulted in a number of serious injuries".
Read in browser » Germany neo-Nazi trial set to begin
By Anonymous on May 05, 2013 11:52 pm 5 May 2013 Last updated at 23:52 ET 
Uwe Mundlos, Beate Zschaepe and Uwe Boehnhardt were believed to be the cell's only members
An alleged member of a German neo-Nazi cell is due to go on trial in connection with a series of racially motivated murders.
Beate Zschaepe, 38, is accused of being part of the National Socialist Underground (NSU), which killed 10 people, mostly of Turkish background.
She faces life in prison if convicted. Her lawyers deny the murder charges.
The case sparked controversy as police wrongly blamed the murders on the Turkish mafia for several years.
The head of Germany's domestic intelligence service was eventually forced to resign over the scandal.
Critics have accused authorities of turning a blind eye to the crimes of right-wing extremists, the BBC'S Steve Evans in Berlin reports.
Officials deny this, saying mistakes occurred because the murders were spread across different regions, each with different police and security agencies.
Execution style Ms Zschaepe is due to appear in a Munich court on Monday.
Ms Zschaepe faces life imprisonment in convicted
She is charged with complicity in the murders of eight ethnic Turks, a Greek immigrant and a German policewoman between 2000 and 2007, as a founding member of the NSU.
She is also accused of involvement in 15 armed robberies, arson and attempted murder in two bomb attacks.
Prosecutors say the aim of the execution-style killings was to spread fear among immigrants and prompt them to leave Germany.
The cell remained undetected until Ms Zschaepe gave herself up in November 2011, after police discovered the bodies of two of her alleged accomplices.
Uwe Mundlos, 38, and Uwe Boenhardt, 34, appeared to have shot themselves after a botched bank robbery.
Before turning herself in, Ms Zschaepe is alleged to have burnt the flat the three shared. Only then did the authorities conclude that the killings were the work of neo-Nazis.
They had previously treated families of victims as suspects.
As a result, the trial has taken on a meaning beyond the charges in court, as it is also puts the spotlight on attitudes towards the murder of members of ethnic minority groups, the BBC's Steve Evans in Munich says.
Read in browser » UK business confidence 'improving'
By Anonymous on May 05, 2013 07:04 pm 5 May 2013 Last updated at 19:04 ET 
Confidence is up, but questions over the economy remain
Confidence among UK businesses is continuing to improve, a survey suggests, despite slow growth in the economy.
The quarterly Business Confidence Monitor, released by a trade body for accountants, suggest confidence is at its highest level since 2010.
It also forecasts stronger economic growth in the second quarter.
Official estimates suggest the economy grew by 0.3% in the first three months of the year.
The accountants' trade body, ICAEW, and business advisory firm Grant Thornton said improved business confidence would boost the economy further, and they forecast growth of 0.6% in the second quarter.
"There is a gradual improvement in the economy and the recovery is starting to stand on more solid ground," said Michael Izza, chief executive of ICAEW.
"We should not be complacent though. There is still a degree of fragility and the economy is susceptible to knock-backs from events outside the UK."
Business confidence stood at its highest level since the third quarter of 2010.
Confidence was up across all sectors, and in all parts of the country, the survey indicated.
The IMF has questioned George Osborne's austerity plans
But the survey also found that plans for growth in business investment remained weak.
Consumer spending also remains under pressure, due in part to the fall in real-term earnings over the last year as wage increases stagnate and prices continue to rise.
The findings come despite recent questioning of the government's economic policies.
Last month senior figures in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) called on the Chancellor George Osborne to reconsider the pace of the government's austerity programme in the face of slower-than-expected growth.
An IMF delegation is due to arrive in the UK later this week for talks with the government, where the Treasury is expected to defend its policies.
The talks are part of the IMF's annual review of the UK economy, and will involve meetings with the Treasury, the Bank of England, the Office for Budget Responsibility, and independent economists.
The recent growth in the economy, and the avoidance of a triple-dip recession, is widely seen to have strengthened the chancellor's case for austerity.
He has also announced an expansion of the Bank of England's Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) in an effort to boost growth in recent weeks.
But the IMF is still widely expected to outline policy recommendations that favour growth over tackling the budget deficit, fearing that the speed and depth of cuts is preventing growth.
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