Police say Savile 'not protected'
By Anonymous on May 10, 2013 03:43 am 10 May 2013 Last updated at 01:17 ET A report into a police force's contact with Jimmy Savile has concluded there is "no evidence" he was protected from arrest or prosecution for any offences as a result of his relationship with the organisation or friendships with officers.
The report is the culmination of a review that began in January, looking at West Yorkshire Police's relationship with Savile.
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GB Olympian dies as boat capsizes
By Anonymous on May 10, 2013 02:55 am 9 May 2013 Last updated at 17:55 ET 
A sailor has died after a Swedish catamaran capsized during a practice session for the America's Cup in San Francisco Bay, local media report.
The San Francisco Fire Department said the person was one of two injured when the Artemis Racing catamaran capsized near Treasure Island.
They were brought ashore and one was pronounced dead a short time later.
Artemis is a Swedish team due to race two boats in the America's Cup being held in San Francisco this summer.
Reports said one of the crew had been trapped under the capsized boat for about 10 minutes.
The America's Cup website said support boats were at the scene to help in the recovery.
Read in browser » Thames airport 'should be rejected'
By Anonymous on May 09, 2013 07:00 pm 9 May 2013 Last updated at 19:00 ET 
Heathrow currently handles more than 69 million passengers a year
The government should reject the "Boris Island" Thames Estuary airport plan and expand Heathrow instead, a report by MPs has said.
Mayor of London Boris Johnson has argued for a new hub airport in the Thames Estuary.
Yet the House of Commons Transport Committee warned it would be hugely expensive.
The mayor insists London needs a new airport and the only possible place is east of London.
But the report also warned the new airport could mean the closure of Heathrow and could harm estuary wildlife.
The MPs argue a third runway at Heathrow is necessary instead and even suggest a fourth runway might have merit.
A third runway is opposed by both residents and councils in west London.
The committee said adding new runways to expand other existing airports was not a long-term solution.
Committee chairwoman Louise Ellman MP said: "Research we commissioned made plain that building an entirely new hub airport east of London could not be done without huge public investment in new ground transport infrastructure.
"Evidence to our inquiry also showed a substantial potential impact on wildlife habitat in the Thames Estuary.
"The viability of an estuary hub airport would also require the closure of Heathrow - a course of action that would have unacceptable consequences."
Mr Johnson said: "The committee is bang on the button in saying we need a proper hub airport.
"But, by suggesting that Heathrow should double its runways from two to four, the committee is putting four fingers up to hundreds of thousands of Londoners.
"London and the wider UK do need a hub airport that can operate 24 hours a day without constraint and the only place that is possible is to the east of London."
Read in browser » Fighter U-turn 'cost taxpayers £74m'
By Anonymous on May 09, 2013 08:04 pm 9 May 2013 Last updated at 20:04 ET 
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Jonathan Beale sees the new carrier taking shape in Rosyth
A government U-turn over fighter jets for the Royal Navy's new aircraft carriers cost taxpayers £74m, says the National Audit Office.
The decision to scrap an order for jump jets, which was later reversed, had been based on "immature data and flawed assumptions", it says in a report.
Labour says the report "lays bare this government's incompetence".
But Defence Secretary Philip Hammond says the U-turn will save money in the long run and is backed by the NAO.
"Not only did it save £1.2bn; it also means that by 2018, we will have fifth-generation stealth jets flying off the new Queen Elizabeth Class carrier," says Mr Hammond.
Continue reading the main story Analysis
Jonathan Beale Defence correspondent, BBC News
It's easy to be impressed by the scale of the two new Royal Navy carriers under construction. But Friday's report shows large sums of money have been wasted and there's probably more pain ahead.
It warns: "The highest risk phases of carrier construction and integration are yet to come." In a project of this scale, each wrong turn has a knock-on effect that can spark further delays and rising costs.
The NAO acknowledges the MoD rectified one wrong decision but then quickly made another. In an effort to balance the books, the MoD delayed investing in the early warning radar needed to protect the carrier - the "Crowsnest" fitted to helicopters.
The NAO says that means the first carrier won't be "fully operational" until 2022. It also highlights uncertainty surrounding the F35 Lightning jet that will eventually fly off the carrier.
It's still being tested while going into production. The MoD is having to guess how much each plane will cost.
So it's little surprise that the NAO expects the costs of the carrier programme to increase from the £5.5bn set aside.
"The decision to act quickly, once more information was available, is evidence of the department's decisive efforts to keep our equipment budget in balance while delivering state-of-the-art capability for our Armed Forces."
The MoD expects to write off £74m as a result of the U-turn but this could have been ten times higher if the decision had been made after May 2012, according to the spending watchdog.
Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office, said: "It is good that the MoD acted promptly once it became clear that pursuing the option to buy the carrier variant aircraft would cost a lot more money and add another three years to the whole programme.
"But to achieve value for money in this project, the department will have to manage significant technical and affordability risks and be consistent in sticking to the present plan."
Two years late The previous Labour government had placed orders for two new aircraft carriers to be equipped with the F-35B variant of the American-built joint strike fighter (JSF), which is capable of short take-off and vertical landing.
But the coalition announced in the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review that it favoured the F-35C version, which has a longer range and can carry more weapons.
By February last year, the estimated cost of converting the aircraft carriers for the F-35C, which needs catapults and arresting gear, had increased by 150%, from £800m to about £2bn, according to the NAO.
As a result, the MoD estimated that, over the next ten years, the Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing version originally ordered by Labour would be £1.2bn cheaper than the carrier variant.
The NAO report also casts doubt on the MoD's claim that the new carrier-based strike force will be fully operational by 2020, saying a decision to delay investment in Crowsnest, a helicopter-based early warning system, means it will be two years late.
Mr Hammond denied this, saying: "The department does not consider that the phased introduction of Crowsnest undermines the delivery of carrier-strike capability.
"Crowsnest will enter service in 2020, at the same time as HMS Queen Elizabeth and the helicopter-based radar system will be fully operational by 2022.
"Until then, its maritime surveillance capabilities will be augmented by other platforms and systems, including the state-of-the-art radar on the Type 45 destroyers, working together in a layered defence."
Shadow defence secretary Jim Murphy, for Labour, said the NAO report on the carrier strike force highlights the coalition's "incompetence".
He said: "Flawed ministerial decisions have wasted millions of pounds of taxpayers' money at a time of mass Service sackings and cuts to pensions and allowances.
"The aircraft carrier programme is essential to national security as it provides a floating mobile sovereign presence anywhere in the world. It is now clear that this was put at risk by ministerial mistakes.
"This report reveals that despite government claims to have balanced the equipment budget, part of the carrier capability remains unfunded and risk remains in the programme. There are real gaps in the government's budget and equipment plans.
"There must now be changes to risk assessment and decision-making processes within the department and real lessons learnt for future major project procurements."
Read in browser » Ohio 'kidnapper' could be executed
By Anonymous on May 09, 2013 06:15 pm 9 May 2013 Last updated at 17:10 ET 
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Tim McGinty, prosecutor: "These women desperately need a chance to heal before we seek further evidence"
Ohio prosecutors have said they plan to seek aggravated murder charges that could carry the death penalty, against the man suspected of imprisoning three women for about a decade.
The charges relate to alleged forced miscarriages suffered by one victim.
Ariel Castro, 52, was arraigned in court earlier for the kidnap and rape of Amanda Berry, 27, Gina DeJesus, 23 and Michelle Knight, 32.
Ms Berry escaped on Monday and was able to raise the alarm.
County prosecutor Tim McGinty said the murder charges were based on evidence from one of the women held captive in Mr Castro's house that he had impregnated her, then physically abused and starved her in order to induce miscarriages.
"This child kidnapper operated a torture chamber and private prison in the heart of our city," Mr McGinty told a news conference on Thursday.
Ariel Castro has been put on suicide watch and will be kept in isolation, his court-appointed lawyer Kathleen DeMetz told reporters.
The three women were all abducted after accepting rides from Mr Castro, according to a leaked police report.
Ms Berry, whose disappearance in 2003 the day before her 17th birthday was widely publicised in the local media, returned to her sister's home on Wednesday.
A few hours later, Gina DeJesus, who went missing in 2004 at the age of 14, was also brought home.
Ms Knight, who was 20 when she disappeared in 2002, remains in hospital.
Read in browser » Call to help summer-born pupils
By Anonymous on May 09, 2013 08:54 pm 9 May 2013 Last updated at 20:54 ET By Judith Burns BBC News education reporter 
All school tests should be marked on a sliding scale according to pupils age, says the study
Summer-born children should have their exam marks boosted to compensate for being almost a year younger when they sit tests, a report argues.
In England, pupils born in August are less likely to get good GCSEs or go to university than those born in September, the Institute for Fiscal Studies says.
Some may even drop out of school.
The age-adjusted scores should be used to calculate school league table positions, the authors argue.
The report draws on an array of official data, including the National Pupil Database, which contains details of every pupil in England.
Pupils born in August are 6.4 percentage points less likely than September-born pupils to achieve five GCSEs at grades A* to C, the study finds.
Mild special needs They are also around two percentage points less likely to go to university when they leave school, one percentage point less likely to attend a leading university and one percentage point less likely to complete a degree.
The study also says that summer-born pupils are 5.4 percentage points more likely to be assessed as having mild special educational needs by age 11 and finds that the differences go further than educational attainment alone.
"Our research shows that children who are relatively young in their year have lower self-confidence, lower belief in their academic ability, and are more likely to start smoking younger than their relatively older peers," said co-author Claire Crawford.
The authors argue that being 11 months younger than the oldest pupils in the year when they sit tests is the main driver of the differences in test scores.
It outweighs the effect of having had less time at school in areas where summer-born children start education later in the year.
The report says the solution is to "age-adjust" national achievement test scores, arguing that this "is a simple and straightforward way of ensuring that those born towards the end of the academic year are not disadvantaged by taking the tests younger".
The team analysed scores from the Key Stage 2 tests, which are taken by all pupils in their final year of primary school in England. Primary school league table positions depend on pupils achieving an expected standard.
Sliding scale They found that August-born pupils scored on average seven points less than classmates born in September.
They conclude that pass marks should rise for September-born children by three points: "So the oldest children would have to perform slightly better than they do at the moment in order to reach the expected level, which would now be an expected level for a given age rather than at a particular point in time."
The marks would change on a sliding scale, with the pass mark for children born in October and November rising by two points; for January and December-born children by one mark; staying the same for February and March children; and reducing by one point for those with April or May birthdays, by two points for those born in June or July, and by three points for those born in August.
The authors recommend that similar age-adjusted scores be extended to other school tests, from assessments of six-year-olds' reading skills to the crucial exams taken by 16-year-olds.
However, the authors acknowledge that the differences are most dramatic when children are first at school, and lessen as they grow older and the relative age gap reduces. There is no evidence that they persist into adulthood. So the exam results given to prospective employers should be absolute scores rather than age-adjusted, they concede.
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