Million join latest Brazil protests
By Anonymous on Jun 21, 2013 12:17 am 20 June 2013 Last updated at 12:09 ET 
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Brazil's protests in 90 seconds: "Essentially it all started here, on a bus"
Security is being increased in Brazil's biggest cities after protesters announced they would go ahead with mass demonstrations planned for Thursday.
Protesters in Sao Paulo said they would take to the streets "to celebrate" the reversal of a public-transport fare increase announced on Wednesday.
The protests, which were originally triggered by the increase, have since grown into a much wider movement.
Demonstrators are angry at corruption and spending on next year's World Cup.
Fenced off The authorities in the city of Rio de Janeiro have erected barricades around the state legislature building, which was vandalised during protests on Monday.
The state governor's office, Guanabara Palace, has also been secured by a double layer of barricades.
Workers have also fenced off the elevated walkways opposite the mayor's office and at central underground train stations.
Protesters told the BBC's Julia Carneiro in Rio they would not march to the city's Maracana stadium, which will be hosting a Confederations Cup match between Spain and Tahiti at the time.
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Previous matches have drawn protests, with demonstrators expressing their anger at steep ticket prices and the money spent on the Confederations Cup, the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Rio Olympics.
In the city of Fortaleza, which was hosting the Brazil v Mexico match on Wednesday, demonstrators carried banners reading: "A teacher is worth more than Neymar", in a reference to Brazil's star footballer.
'Significant benefits' On Thursday, the International Olympic Committee said it was confident the 2016 Olympics would bring major benefits to Rio de Janeiro and the country.
In a statement to the Associated Press news agency, the IOC said the Olympics would "bring significant benefits to the whole population of Rio, improving the city in terms of transport, infrastructure and social housing, as well as bringing a considerable sporting legacy for Brazil".
Continue reading the main story Analysis
Gary Duffy BBC Brasil, Sao Paulo
The controversy over bus and metro fares was only the issue that got the marchers on to the streets - it all seems much bigger than that now.
The objectives of this diverse protest movement are very broad, such as demanding better education and health services. A sluggish economy and inflation that is affecting the lives of ordinary Brazilians every day can be added to the mix.
Politicians with high salaries giving jobs and flights to relatives are widely scorned. Inequality and the huge cost of hosting the World Cup and the Olympics are key issues raised by demonstrators alongside corruption, crime and police brutality.
"We are always fully supportive of peaceful protest and remain confident in the ability of the games as a powerful catalyst for improving the world through sport," the statement continued.
In Sao Paulo, members of the Free Access Movement (Movimento Passe Livre) - which has been campaigning for better public transport - said they would march through the city on Thursday to celebrate the mayor's decision to reverse a 2 June fare increase.
Mayor Fernando Haddad said the reversal was a "big sacrifice", which meant other investments would have to be cut.
'Disgusted' Sao Paulo and Rio are the latest two cities to reverse the fare increases after similar moves by the authorities in Cuiaba, Recife and Joao Pessoa.
The fare rollback while welcomed by many has so far failed to quell the protests, with crowds blocking main roads in Sao Paulo and Brasilia, and protesters confronting police in Rio de Janeiro state shortly after the U-turn was announced.
"This means that our politicians have begun to hear our voices. This is something that has never happened before - in a non-election year, at least," Daniel Acosta from Sao Paulo told the BBC.
"It's a start. What happens now, nobody knows yet, but it gives us hope," he added.
But 18-year-old student Camila Sena said the protests had become much wider and the concession on fare prices would not change much.
"It's not really about the price [of transport] any more," she said while taking part in a protest in the city of Niteroi, near Rio de Janeiro, on Wednesday.
"People are so disgusted with the system, so fed up that now we're demanding change."
The current unrest is the biggest since 1992, when people took to the streets to demand the impeachment of then-President Fernando Collor de Mello.
President Dilma Rousseff has said she is proud that so many people are fighting for a better country.
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MPs to quiz CQC bosses on 'cover-up'
By Anonymous on Jun 21, 2013 03:23 am 21 June 2013 Last updated at 00:47 ET 
Investigations have focused on maternal and infant deaths at Furness General Hospital in Barrow
The current bosses of an NHS regulator are set to be summoned by MPs to discuss an alleged cover-up over the deaths of babies at a Cumbria hospital.
On Thursday the Care Quality Commission named the people accused of suppressing a report on its failings over the inspection of Furness General Hospital.
Commons health committee head Stephen Dorrell says he still wants to question the CQC's chief executive and chairman.
But chief executive David Behan has defended his handling of the crisis.
'Difficult circumstances' More than 30 families have now taken legal action against Furness General - run by Morecambe Bay NHS Trust - in relation to baby and maternal deaths and injuries from 2008.
Health select committee chairman Mr Dorrell said he wanted Mr Behan and CQC chairman David Prior to explain the CQC's failure to respond properly to the deaths to MPs.
The Conservative MP said: "Yet again this week it's been revealed, in the words of David Prior the chairman, to have been not fit for purpose.
"What's important to patients is that the people who are now in charge of the CQC have to demonstrate in public, convincingly and quickly, how they are going to build the effectiveness of this organisation so that it can deliver the regulatory function that we pay for and need."
But Mr Behan told BBC Newsnight he was doing his best in "very difficult circumstances", adding: "I'm demonstrating leadership.
"I've had dozens upon dozens of messages from members of staff who believe I'm acting in an appropriate way and actually creating an open and transparent culture in the CQC and are supportive of what I've been doing. I am part of leading CQC forward."
Mr Behan said the CQC had made its initial decision on naming those accused based on legal advice but admitted: "I think we got that wrong... we're putting that right.
"We said we'd review it, we've listened to the information commissioner and what we're doing is we're being open and transparent in accounting for what we did and that's why we've put these names out."
The CQC said the officials alleged to have been involved were former chief executive Cynthia Bower, her deputy Jill Finney and media manager Anna Jefferson.
They were all said to be present at a meeting where deletion of a critical report was allegedly discussed.
Ms Bower and Ms Jefferson have denied being involved in a cover-up.
Ms Finney has not yet commented. She has had her employment terminated from her new job, chief commercial officer at Nominet which controls the .co.uk web domain, because of the "increasing public scrutiny".
Meanwhile, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt is to give a speech later on the need to reduce sub-standard care in the NHS in England.
Mr Hunt is expected to say: "I want the NHS to be the world's safest health system. It has all of the tools to do this, and I believe it should aspire to nothing less."
But shadow health secretary Andy Burnham has accused the government of acting too slowly - and has called on Mr Hunt to implement the recommendations of the Francis Report into the Mid-Staffordshire hospital scandal.
Mr Burnham said: "From where we are now, full openness and transparency is the only way for the NHS to go.
"My main message to Jeremy Hunt is this - stop dithering and get on with implementing the key recommendations of the Francis report."
Read in browser » Greek state TV talks break down
By Anonymous on Jun 20, 2013 05:45 pm 20 June 2013 Last updated at 17:45 ET 
Some 2,700 workers at state broadcaster ERT stand to lose their jobs
Greece's governing coalition has again failed to agree on how to resume transmissions by state broadcaster ERT, shut down by the government last week.
Evangelos Venizelos, leader of junior partner Pasok, said there was now "an issue regarding the very existence... of the government".
PM Antonis Samaras wants to replace ERT with a smaller broadcaster.
Disagreement within the coalition over the issue has raised fears that the government might collapse.
'No common ground' On Monday Greece's top administrative court ordered that ERT could resume transmissions.
However, correspondents say there have been varying interpretations of the ruling by the court, the Council of State.
Mr Samaras and his two junior coalition leaders - Fotis Kouvelis of the Democratic Left and Mr Venizelos - met for a third time on Wednesday to try to resolve their differences. Mr Kouvelis and Mr Venizelos want public broadcasts to be restored.
After the talks broke up, Mr Venizelos said the situation was now "particularly crucial", adding: "There is an issue regarding the very existence and prospects of the government."
Mr Kouvelis said there had been "no common political ground".
The government - led by Mr Samaras's conservative New Democracy party - shut down ERT describing it as "a case of an exceptional lack of transparency and incredible extravagance".
However, the two junior coalition partners were furious that they had not been consulted.
The move also triggered protests across the country.
The Council of State upheld Mr Samaras's plan to replace ERT with a smaller broadcaster but said it should resume transmissions in the meantime.
Despite the ruling the station remains off-air.
The court is due to reconvene to debate the issue.
Read in browser » Labour ponders home building moves
By Anonymous on Jun 20, 2013 07:02 pm 20 June 2013 Last updated at 19:02 ET 
Labour says permission has been given for 400,000 homes that have not been built
Labour is considering giving councils more powers to make landowners go through with building projects, in an effort to tackle the housing shortage.
Leader Ed Miliband will say too many developers with planning permission for projects are "sitting on land" while it gains value instead of building on it.
The party is looking at giving local authorities in England "use-it-or-lose-it" powers over developers.
The government said confiscating land "will not help build a single house".
Mr Miliband will use his speech to Labour's National Policy Forum to say planning permission has been granted for 400,000 homes in England that have not been built.
Too many developers are holding on to land while it gains value, rather than pushing ahead with projects for which they have permission, he will argue.
'Hoarding' In his speech on Saturday, Mr Miliband will say "obstacles to housebuilding" must be overcome.
He will add: "Across our country, there are firms sitting on land, waiting for it to accumulate in value and not building on it. Landowners with planning permission, who simply will not build. We have to change that."
Mr Miliband will also say: "All options should be on the table, including giving local authorities real power to say to the worst offenders that they should either use the land, or lose the land.
"Permission to build should mean landowners build. If there is unnecessary hoarding, developers should be encouraged to do what they are in business to do, build houses."
The Labour leader will admit that governments over the past few decades have failed to deal with the issue of housing shortages.
This has pushed up prices, preventing millions of young people from buying a home, he will add.
Planning minister Nick Boles said: "Yet again Ed Miliband is too weak to offer a coherent policy. Most normal planning permissions already expire after a three-year period and councils don't have to renew them.
"Labour clearly learnt nothing from its failures in government as 400,000 homes represents less than two years' worth of the number of new homes that we need to build. And confiscating any land from development will not help build a single house."
Read in browser » MoD files explain UFO desk closure
By Anonymous on Jun 20, 2013 07:03 pm 20 June 2013 Last updated at 19:03 ET 
"Discoid" shapes were spotted in photographs of Stonehenge, according to the files
The Ministry of Defence closed down its UFO desk because it served "no defence purpose" and was taking staff away from "more valuable defence-related activities", newly released files show.
The desk was shut down in December 2009 despite a surge in reported sightings.
The disclosure came in National Archives files relating to reports of UFOs - Unidentified Flying Objects - between 2007 and November 2009.
They show UFOs were reported at several UK landmarks, including Stonehenge.
'No benefit' The latest tranche of declassified files covers the final two years of work carried out by the MoD's UFO desk.
The 25 files include reports alleging contact with aliens and UFO sightings near UK landmarks and detail the decision to close the MoD's dedicated desk and "hotline".
In a briefing for the then defence minister, Bob Ainsworth, in November 2009 a civil servant, Carl Mantell of the RAF's Air Command, suggested the MoD should try to significantly reduce the UFO work. He said it was "consuming increasing resource, but produces no valuable defence output".
He told Mr Ainsworth that in more than 50 years, "no UFO sighting reported to [the MoD] has ever revealed anything to suggest an extra-terrestrial presence or military threat to the UK".
His memo said there was "no defence benefit" in the recording, collating, analysis or investigation of the sightings, adding: "The level of resources diverted to this task is increasing in response to a recent upsurge in reported sightings, diverting staff from more valuable defence-related activities."
One photograph, dated October 2008, showed a suspected UFO near Blackpool, the files said
An official MoD statement from the time said the department had "no opinion on the existence or otherwise of extra-terrestrial life".
It went on: "In order to make best use of defence resources, we have decided that from December 1 2009 the dedicated UFO hotline answer-phone service and email address will be withdrawn. [The] MoD will no longer respond to reported UFO sightings or investigate them."
'Living with an alien' Among the 4,400 pages of documents released are:
- A letter from a school child in Altrincham, Greater Manchester, to the MoD, dated January 2009, asking if aliens exist after she had seen some strange lights, and including a drawing of an alien in a UFO waving
- A report received via the UFO hotline by someone who had been "living with an alien" in Carlisle for some time
- A report from a man from Cardiff who claimed a UFO abducted his dog, and took his car and tent, while he was camping with friends in 2007
- "Green, red and white lights" reportedly seen over the Houses of Parliament in London in February 2008
- "Discoid" shapes in photographs of Stonehenge, in an email dated in January 2009
- Photographs taken at Blackpool Pier which show an aircraft that had not been seen at the time the picture was taken in October 2008
The letter from a school child was sent after she saw strange lights
The files show the number of UFO sightings reported to the MoD trebled in the year the desk was closed.
According to a briefing in the files, during the years 2000-07 the ministry received an average of 150 reports per year.
But by November 2009, it had already received 520 reports that year, as well as 97 Freedom of Information requests on UFOs.
Possible reasons for the increase included the rising popularity for releasing Chinese lanterns during celebrations.
Dr David Clarke, author of the book The UFO Files, said the "last pieces of the puzzle" had been revealed with the insight into the final days of the UFO desk.
"The last files from the UFO desk are now all in the public domain. People at home can read them and draw their own conclusions about whether 'the truth' is in these files or still out there," he said.
Read in browser » Abduction teacher to be sentenced
By Anonymous on Jun 21, 2013 02:31 am 21 June 2013 Last updated at 02:31 ET 
Jeremy Forrest denied abducting the schoolgirl but wad found guilty on Thursday
A teacher who had a relationship with a 15-year-old schoolgirl and went on the run with her in France is due to be sentenced at Lewes Crown Court.
Jurors took less than two hours to convict Jeremy Forrest, 30, of child abduction on Thursday.
The prosecution said the maths teacher from Petts Wood, south east London, was a paedophile who groomed a vulnerable girl at the Eastbourne school.
Forrest gave no evidence in his defence during the eight-day trial.
But his lawyer Ronald Jaffa said the girl had been "desperate and suicidal" and Forrest had gone to France with her to prevent her coming to harm.
The court heard the pupil had just turned 15 when Forrest started having sex with her after she developed a crush on him at Bishop Bell C of E School.
'Indecent images' Forrest would pick the girl up in her school uniform and have sex with her in his car, in hotels and at his marital home, jurors were told.
The girl told a friend she had sex with Forrest up to eight times a night.
The court heard Forrest sent her "indecent images" of himself showing his naked torso with his hands down his underpants and she responded with pictures of her naked breasts.
Forrest and the girl were tracked down in Bordeaux
Eventually, fearing they were about to be discovered, Forrest booked them both on to a cross-Channel ferry from Dover to Calais last September before they spent a week on the run in France.
They were later tracked down in Bordeaux.
'Not Romeo and Juliet' Prosecuting, Richard Barton said Forrest's actions were an abuse of trust.
He asked what it was Forrest found attractive about young-looking vulnerable women.
And he said: "There is a word for it. It's called grooming - being caring, being kind, being close, gaining confidence, gaining the trust of that person and then you can do what you want to do with them."
Mr Barton also said it was not a case of Romeo and Juliet because they were not "equal" partners in what happened and Forrest had organised the situation.
But as the jury returned to court to deliver the verdict, Forrest turned to the girl and said: "I love you."
The girl sobbed in court and said to him: "I am sorry."
Sentencing is due to take place at 11:45 BST.
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