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G8 summit - day two: Politics live blog
Andrew Sparrow's rolling coverage of the final day of the G8 summit at Lough Erne, near Enniskillen in Northern Ireland, including David Cameron's final press conferenceAndrew Sparrow    
(Tue, 18 Jun 2013 07:25:54 GMT)

Weather experts to discuss unusual UK seasons
Meteorologists and scientists to try to figure out if icy winters and wet summers are due to natural variation or climate changeLeading scientists and meteorologists are meeting at the Met Office to discuss the UK's unusual weather patterns in recent years.Experts will discuss the reasons for 2010's icy winter, last year's washout summer and this year's spring, which is set to be the coldest in more than 50 years.Discussions at the Met Office in Exeter on Tuesday will seek to answer whether the unusual seasons were the result of natural variation or linked to the effects of climate change, such as melting Arctic sea ice.Stephen Belcher, head of the Met Office Hadley Centre and chairman of the workshop, said: "We have seen a run of unusual seasons in the UK and northern Europe, such as the cold winter of 2010, last year's wet weather and the cold spring this year."This may be nothing more than a run of natural variability, but there may be other factors impacting our weather. For example, there is emerging research which suggests there is a link between declining Arctic sea ice and European climate – but exactly how this process might work, and how important it may be among a host of other factors, remains unclear."The Met Office is running a workshop to bring together climate experts from across the UK to look at these unusual seasons, the possible causes behind them, and how we can learn more about those drivers of our weather."The meeting will assess the research done so far and discuss what needs to be studied in the future to get a better idea of what could be causing the weather extremes.Earlier this month the Met Office said below-average temperatures through March, April and May made it the fifth coldest spring in national records dating back to 1910 and the coldest spring since 1962.Provisional findings show the UK's mean temperature for the season was 6C (42.8F), while March was "exceptionally" cold, averaging 2.2C.Weatherguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds    
(Tue, 18 Jun 2013 07:18:32 GMT)

Charles Saatchi case: what is a police caution?
Caution given for assault on wife Nigella Lawson is not seen as part of criminal record but could show up on enhanced checksPolice cautions are given to save the expense and logistical difficulty of a full court hearing and happen when someone admits what is usually a relatively minor offence.Since 2003 they have come in two forms, a simple caution – the sort given to Charles Saatchi – and a conditional caution, the latter of which decrees the offender must follow a certain action, for example repairing criminal damage or going for drug treatment.A caution, which is imposed by police, sometimes after consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service, was formerly seen as part of a criminal record and had to be declared at job interviews. Since 2001 this has no longer been the case, although a caution will show on some enhanced criminal record checks.The guidelines over cautions for adults in England and Wales were set by the Home Office in 1994, following worries about a lack of consistency and their use for serious offences, even attempted murder or rape.In April the government announced it was again reviewing the use of cautions over fears they are again being over-used, and used for repeat offenders. According to the Magistrates' Association, a third of serious offences receive a caution and 11,000 people received cautions for violent crime in 2012.The justice minister, Damian Green, said the review could see cautions ruled out for certain offences.CrimeNigella LawsonLondonPeter Walkerguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds    
(Tue, 18 Jun 2013 07:09:00 GMT)

Council chief executive says the north lacks the power to shape its own destiny
Leaders believe the north of England needs an intermediate power between national and the local governmentLeeds city council's chief executive, Tom Riordan, has called for Whitehall to have a much closer relationship with local government or face "huge unease and a backlash" from those in the north of England who feel disempowered.His warning came at the Guardian's sixth Local Government Leaders Quarterly event in Leeds last week. Riordan said: "Whitehall needs to either get much closer to us through combined authorities and a new relationship in the cabinet or we will get huge unease and a backlash from the people against the disempowerment in this part of the world."He argued that local authorities in Cardiff and Glasgow had achieved a much closer relationship with their executive bodies, saying: "Local government needs a different relationship with Whitehall in which we are empowered."He also said that the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) needed to promote local government and its achievements in making huge savings while protecting frontline services. "We need the DCLG to very strongly make that case particularly in the spending review discussions. It needs to make that case not just for its own departmental spend but for spend we are responsible for across other Whitehall departments. We need a strong voice across the cabinet table for England."Riordan added that the Scottish referendum on independence would bring this topic into much sharper focus, particularly for those living in the north-east.Riordan spoke alongside Eamonn Boylan, chief executive at Stockport metropolitan borough council, Merran McRae, chief executive of Calderdale council and Michael Mousdale, partner at Trowers & Hamlins at the event, which focused on combined authorities and whether this model was the future for local government.Boylan, whose council is part of Greater Manchester's combined authority set up in 2010, said that this approach could help local government have a more substantial dialogue with central government. However, he added that it was not a panacea.He said there was a real difficulty making the architecture and relationship with central government work. He was backed up by Riordan, who said that it was not that civil servants and DCLG were trying to be difficult but that the system made it hard for community budgets and the single pot to work. There needed to be a different model, Riordan added, "probably more linked to Treasury than us via other departments. It's almost about thinking about local government as a department of state."McRae said combined authorities gave local government the chance to show central government what could be done. "Collaboration, agility and fluidity of how we work is the future of local government and the combined authority is one expression of that," she said. "It won't be the best expression for everybody and it won't always be the expression we need for a particular action but I think it will increasingly be part of intervention that we will use."All panellists agreed that combined authorities needed to reflect local circumstances. They said that while transport was a good starting point, combined authorities could also work in other areas. Boylan said he believed there was currently no appetite for planning to be controlled by a combined authority, while Mousdale said combined authorities could even work together to champion the arts, adding: "Culture and the arts can be a real tool for regeneration."• Want your say? Email sarah.marsh@guardian.co.uk to suggest contributions to the network. Not already a member? Join us now for more comment, analysis and the latest job opportunities in local government.Public service reformLocalismFinancePolicyPracticeCitiesLocal economiesLocal governmentLeedsLeadership and managementSarah Marshguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds    
(Tue, 18 Jun 2013 07:00:22 GMT)

Breaking Bad creator and Miranda Hart to speak at Edinburgh TV Festival
Vince Gilligan to deliver masterclass on US drama, with Hart taking part in Richard Dunn Memorial interviewVince Gilligan, the creator of Breaking Bad, and Miranda Hart have signed up to speak at the 2013 Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival.Gilligan will deliver a masterclass on his critically acclaimed US drama. The final eight episodes of Breaking Bad's fifth and final series will begin broadcasting shortly before the festival in August.Hart, the creator and star of BBC1 sitcom Miranda, will be taking part in the Richard Dunn Memorial interview.The festival, which this year has a line-up of more than 50 sessions, takes place from Thursday 22 August to Saturday 24 August.• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email media@guardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".• To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook.MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television FestivalTelevision industryMiranda HartBreaking BadTelevisionJason Deansguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds    
(Tue, 18 Jun 2013 06:29:01 GMT)

Millionaire art collector voluntarily attends police station after being seen grabbing Nigella Lawson by throat in restaurant
Charles Saatchi was on Monday cautioned for assault after a police investigation was sparked by the emergence of pictures showing him repeatedly grabbing his wife by the throat in a restaurant.The multimillionaire art collector had sought to downplay the images showing him grabbing Nigella Lawson around the neck, claiming that he was "attempting to emphasise my point".However, the Metropolitan police said last night that a 70-year-old man voluntarily attended a central London police station in the afternoon and accepted a caution for assault after an investigation by the community support unit at Westminster.A spokesman said police were aware of an article published at the weekend in the Sunday People, which included several pictures showing Saatchi with his hand around Lawson's neck as they sat outside Scott's restaurant in Mayfair.On one occasion, he raised a second hand towards her throat and on another pinched or grabbed her nose. She appeared upset and left the restaurant in tears.Saatchi said the pictures showed a "playful tiff". He told the London Evening Standard – for which he is a columnist – that the pictures gave a "more drastic and violent impression" of the incident than had been the case. "About a week ago we were sitting outside a restaurant having an intense debate about the children, and I held Nigella's neck repeatedly while attempting to emphasise my point," he said. "There was no grip, it was a playful tiff. The pictures are horrific but give a far more drastic and violent impression of what took place. Nigella's tears were because we both hate arguing, not because she had been hurt."He said the pair had reconciled by the time they got home. "We had made up by the time we were home. The paparazzi were congregated outside our house after the story broke yesterday morning, so I told Nigella to take the kids off till the dust settled."Asked to comment on reports that Lawson had moved out of the family home, her spokesman said: "I can clarify that she has left the family home with her children." Lawson has made no comment since the pictures emerged.A witness described the incident as shocking. "I have no doubt she was scared," the onlooker told the Sunday People. "It was horrific, really. She was very tearful and was constantly dabbing her eyes. Nigella was very, very upset."Lawson has previously described her husband as "an exploder". In 2007 she said: "I'll go quiet when he explodes, and then I am a nest of horrible festeringness."The pair were sitting outside Scott's when the pictures were taken. Witnesses told the Sunday People that Lawson attempted to placate her husband, putting her hand on his wrist and at one point leaning over to kiss his cheek. The witness said: "She raised her voice and got angry but at the same time was trying to calm him down, almost like you would try to calm down a child. The kiss was a strange thing. He was being intimidating, threatening."Heather Harvey, from Eaves, a charity that supports victims of domestic violence, said some of the language being used was shocking. "This is not a 'row', it is not a 'tiff', it is an incidence of domestic violence. There is an unfortunate myth that domestic violence only happens to a certain type of person, that it happens in dysfunctional families where people have been drinking. But it happens in every social class, and in every profession."She added: "It is shocking that this happened in a public place, and yet no one intervened. This is not acceptable behaviour."Last year Saatchi, co–founder of the Saatchi & Saatchi advertising agency, who has an estimated fortune of £100m, was pictured pressing his hand over his wife's mouth as they dined at Scott's.A spokesperson for Scott's said: "The staff at Scott's are aware of the allegations in the media today but did not see anything untoward happen within the restaurant. As this is now a police matter we cannot comment further." Last night Nick Griffin, leader of the British National party, was criticised for comments he made on Twitter about Lawson.LondonNigella LawsonBen QuinnAlexandra Toppingguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds    
(Tue, 18 Jun 2013 06:22:00 GMT)

Lib Dems under pressure to support Robin Hood tax in break with coalition
Labour calls on party to work towards consensus on financial transaction tax after 11 EU members vote in favourThe Liberal Democrats will on Tuesday face pressure to break ranks with their coalition partners by voting in favour of the principle of a financial transaction tax.Labour, which is to press for a Commons vote on the issue, called on the Lib Dems to help create a consensus on the so-called Robin Hood tax which would in turn encourage the US to support the measure.Chris Leslie, the shadow Treasury minister, will seek to embarrass the Lib Dems when he tables an amendment to a European Union document which will be presented to MPs after the decision of 11 EU member states to introduce the tax. The document notes that the government is mounting a challenge in the European court of justice against the EU proposal for an FTT which could involve a 0.01% levy on bond and share transactions.The Labour amendment has been worded carefully to make it more difficult for the Lib Dems to refuse to support it. The amendment calls on the government to support the principle of an FTT and to work with other global financial centres, including the US, to reach consensus on a "modest rate without creating negative economic consequences".Leslie said: "If Liberal Democrats agree with the concept of a financial transaction tax, then this is the moment for them to show their support. There should be cross-party agreement to get negotiations under way and find a consensus especially with the United States government."The time has come for George Osborne to get serious about a financial transaction tax. The chancellor's begrudging acceptance of the principle after that 2009 G20 in Pittsburg has not just withered away into general antipathy – he has done whatever he can to put a spanner in the works."Yet at a time when deficits are persistently high because of rock-bottom growth, leading economies including Britain and the United States need alternative revenue measures from continuing financial market speculation to relieve pressures on lower and middle income households and the public services they use. There are many lessons from the banking crisis, the most obvious of which is that the sheer globalised might of financial trading can overpower the plans and defences of individual nation states. Governments shouldn't just shrug and accept this fate – which is why George Osborne should champion a reform agenda to harness international financial markets so that they serve our societies and economies."Britain opted out of a scheme to introduce the FTT in the EU when 11 member states – Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Portugal, Greece, Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia and Estonia – announced earlier this year they had formed a "coalition of the willing". Their scheme would impose a levy on all euro transactions anywhere in the world.The chancellor announced in April that Britain is to take the case to the European court of justice because of fears of the "extra-territorial aspects of the European commission's proposals". The City of London has the largest amount of euro-denominated transactions in the world even though Britain is not a member of the single currency.Liberal DemocratsLabourLiberal-Conservative coalitionGeorge OsborneConservativesTax and spendingFinancial sectorEuropean UnionEuropeNicholas Wattguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds    
(Tue, 18 Jun 2013 05:00:03 GMT)

Moderate drinking during pregnancy 'does not harm baby's development'
Study shows children whose mothers had a glass of wine a day were able to balance as well as those not exposed to alcohol in the wombDrinking in moderation through pregnancy does not harm a baby's neurodevelopment, according to new research.Children whose mothers consumed the equivalent of a glass of wine a day were able to balance as well as those who had not been exposed to alcohol in the womb.Almost 7,000 10-year-olds were asked to take part in balance tests, which are an indicator of prenatal neurodevelopment.The drinking habits of their mothers had been recorded during and after pregnancy, with those who drank three to seven glasses of alcohol a week classed as moderate drinkers.But social advantage could be a large factor in the findings, as the research found mothers who were more affluent and better educated were more likely to drink in moderation. Mothers from a working-class background were more likely to abstain from alcohol through pregnancy, to drink heavily or binge drink.Professor John Macleod, from the University of Bristol's School of Social and Community Medicine, led the study, which has been published by the journal BMJ Open."Most of the women in this study either didn't drink at all or if they did drink, they didn't drink very much," he said."There weren't many heavy drinkers. We know that heavy drinking during pregnancy has bad effects on a developing foetus."The moderate drinkers consumed an equivalent of up to one glass of wine a day."When we compared moderate drinkers with women who didn't drink at all we actually found that in relation to a number of different tests of balance the children of moderate drinkers appeared to do better."However, we also found that the women who moderately drank compared to women who didn't drink tended to be more middle-class."They were more socially advantaged. Having a middle-class mum compared to having a working-class mum is likely to advance a child in a lot of ways."They may have better balance, they might do better at school. Having middle-class parents has advantages to a child that are nothing to do with alcohol."The 10-year-olds were part of the University of Bristol's Avon longitudinal study of parents and children (Alspac).Alspac has been tracking the long-term health of around 14,000 children born between 1991 and 1992 to women living in the former Avon region of the UK.Children of women whose alcohol consumption was recorded during pregnancy, at 18 weeks, and after pregnancy, at 47 months, underwent a 20-minute balance assessment at age 10.The assessment included a number of balance tests such as walking on a beam and standing on one leg for 20 seconds with eyes open and then closed.Researchers also asked the children's fathers how much alcohol they drank when their partners were three months pregnant.Over half consumed one or more glasses per week, with one in five drinking one or more glasses a day.In contrast, 70% of the mothers drank no alcohol while pregnant. One in four drank between one and seven glasses a week.Just 4.5% drank seven or more glasses a week. Around one in seven of these mothers were classified as binge drinkers, consuming four or more glasses at one time.The mothers were also assessed four years after the pregnancy and 28% said they did not drink at all, while over half consumed between three and more than seven glasses a week.Higher total alcohol consumption by mothers before and after pregnancy – and fathers during the first three months of pregnancy – was associated with better performance for the children, particularly for static balance.MacLeod said: "The way we investigated this further was to look at genes. People who carry a certain gene are far more likely not to drink alcohol on average."If it was really true that using a small amount of alcohol during pregnancy benefitted children's balance then we would expect those with mums who had the gene to have worse balance."We didn't see any evidence that babies of mothers with this gene had worse outcomes than those who drank."There was a weak suggestion that children of mothers with the gene had better balance but our study was too small to show this reliably."He said results showed that after taking account of influential factors such as age, smoking and previous motherhood, low to moderate alcohol consumption did not seem to interfere with balance.But better balance was associated with greater levels of affluence and educational attainment.MacLeod said: "In this group of mothers, moderate alcohol intake was a marker for social advantage which could be a key factor in better balance."It could possibly override subtle harmful effects of moderate alcohol use."The supposed benefits we saw are not the effects of alcohol, they are effects of middle-classness."The Royal College of Midwives said expectant mothers should still steer clear of alcohol.Professional policy adviser Janet Fyle said: "We recognise that this is useful research. However, there is also a large amount of evidence suggesting that the cumulative effects of alcohol consumption during pregnancy can harm the developing foetus."Our advice continues to be that for women who are trying to conceive or those that are pregnant it is best to avoid alcohol."PregnancyAlcoholHealth & wellbeingFamilyParents and parentingHealthguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds    
(Tue, 18 Jun 2013 05:00:01 GMT)

UK urged to accept responsibility for 1948 Batang Kali massacre in Malaya
Petition calls for apology, memorial and 'modest reparations' to families of 24 rubber plantation workers killed by British troopsA petition will be delivered to the government on Tuesday demanding an "honourable acceptance of responsibility" for the massacre of 24 unarmed rubber plantation workers by British troops during the anti-communist insurgency in Malaya in 1948.The petition, signed by 10,000 people, will be handed to the British high commissioner in Malaysia, Simon Featherstone. It will demand an apology and a memorial to those killed at Batang Kali and ask for "modest reparations".The case has been compared to that of elderly Kenyans who have been offered nearly £20m in costs and compensation after being tortured and abused during the Mau Mau uprising in the 1950s.High court judges last year questioned the official record given to parliament – that the Malaysians were shot when trying to escape in 1948. Allegations that there was a "deliberate execution of the men and it was 'covered up' by the Scots Guards and British army" could "properly be made on the evidence," the judges said.However, they argued that there were "obviously enormous difficulties in conducting an inquiry into a matter that happened over 63 years ago".John Halford, lawyer for the Malaysians, has offered to reach a settlement in place of a costly appeal of the high court ruling due to be heard in November."This incident took place in living memory – indeed some of the claimants in the case were present in the village as children," Halford said.Lim Kok, a claimant in the case, said: "I applaud the moral courage of the British government in admitting the torture of Kenyans and taking responsibility for putting that wrong right. But it is absurd that the very same government has remained mute on the slaughter in Batang Kali, which took away my father's precious life."Foreign policyMalaysiaAsia PacificMilitaryRichard Norton-Taylorguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds    
(Tue, 18 Jun 2013 05:00:00 GMT)

Junk food still marketed to children as companies bypass rules
Clampdown on marketing to British children through TV advertising is not enough to protect them, says WHO reportFood companies are accused on Tuesday by the World Health Organisation, the public health arm of the UN, of finding ways to bypass the rules on advertising unhealthy products to children and fuelling the obesity epidemic.Attempts by the authorities in Britain to clamp down on marketing to children through television advertising are not enough to protect them, a major report by the WHO says. There are tough rules on advertising during children's TV programmes but not on shows such as ITV1's Britain's Got Talent and The X Factor, which research shows are widely watched by younger viewers.Increasingly, food companies are also targeting children through computer games, mobile phones and social networks such as Facebook.The WHO report calls for tighter regulation across the whole of Europe of the marketing to children of foods high in fat, salt and sugar."Millions of children across the region are being subjected to unacceptable marketing practices," said Zsuzsanna Jakab, regional director of WHO Europe. "Policy simply must catch up and address the reality of an obese childhood in the 21st century."Children are surrounded by adverts urging them to consume high fat, high sugar, high salt foods, even when they are in places where they should be protected, such as schools and sports facilities."Britain has done more than some other European countries to guard children against advertising for unhealthy food, snacks and sweets, says the report, but it is not one of the six countries – Denmark, France, Norway, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden – that have fully implemented a European code on restricting marketing to children. There are, says the report, gaps and weaknesses in the UK regulations.There are strict rules to prevent foods with high salt, fat and sugar content being advertised on TV during children's programmes, and the broadcasting regulator, Ofcom, said this reduced children's exposure to advertising for crisps, sugary drinks, fried chicken nuggets and the like by 37% between 2005 and 2009. But, says the report, there has been an overall increase in advertising for junk foods at other times of the day "and children continued to be exposed to HFSS (high fat, salt and sugar foods) advertising, especially during TV programmes between 6pm and 10.30pm".This is what is called family viewing rather than children's TV.According to the Children's Food Campaign, the TV programme most watched by four- to 15-year-olds is Britain's Got Talent, which airs from 8pm to 9pm, with more than 1 million child viewers. Next most watched by children are The X Factor and I'm a Celebrity. Commercials running during Britain's Got Talent typically include ones for fizzy drinks and chocolate.The report says: "Overall these data suggest that despite full implementation of the regulation, children in the UK appear to be exposed to just as much food advertising as before full regulation."Food companies are increasingly using the internet and mobile phones to interact with children. Online advertising overtook TV advertising in the UK in 2009. Data from 2011 shows that 65% of children aged between five and seven in the UK used the internet on computers in their home, which rose to 85% of children between eight and 11.Advertisers are increasingly using social media sites such as Facebook and messaging services, which are popular with young people, says the report. Food companies have developed their own websites which are attractive to children, inviting them to become fans of the brand. There are no restrictions on the use of cartoon characters owned by a company to promote the products."Advergames" are increasingly popular, too. "Most major food companies have developed game-playing and fantasy video sites for young children," says the report. A Chewits site, for example, has an animated dinosaur seeking out sweets. Leaf International, which owns Chewit's, has said other parts of the website contain information on how the sweets should be consumed responsibly."Some sites offer videos or advertisements which, in countries such as Norway, Sweden and the UK, might be considered to be breaking the local regulations if the same advertisement were to be shown during children's TV," says the report.Many children have mobile phones – one in eight aged eight to 11 and one in 50 aged five to seven in the UK own a smartphone.Vending machines in schools are not allowed to contain junk food, but there are no restrictions on them in sports centres and other places children go, says the report. Food companies are allowed to sponsor events, such as the children's Amateur Swimming Association awards by Kellogg's and the Olympics, where Coca-Cola and McDonald's were big sponsors.The British Heart Foundation said junk food marketing to children was a major concern. "Even if there's no junk food in your kitchen cupboards, you can guarantee unhealthy products are finding their way into your home," said Simon Gillespie, the BHF's chief executive."Every day, children are faced with adverts for foods that are high in fat, sugar and salt – through the TV, computer, their smartphone or in print."Restricting TV advertising has helped to limit ads on kids' programmes, but some of the shows most watched by children, such as the X-Factor, are still fair game. Weak online regulation also offers retailers loopholes to reach children through 'advergames', downloads and competitions."As it stands, nearly one in three children in the UK are classed as overweight or obese. We desperately need a system that protects our children from sophisticated marketing campaigns, and helps parents to close the door on junk food advertising."The Advertising Association, a trade body, said: "Despite advertising's minimal role, there are strict content rules across all media in the UK to ensure food ads don't encourage unhealthy lifestyles – with an extra layer of protection for children. Effective self-regulation and a responsible industry will play important parts in helping to tackle obesity."A Kellogg's spokesperson said it was completely aware of the impact of its business, "which is why [we] are responsible about how we market our products, particularly to kids in the UK."In fact, we think we've got a good story to tell. So, we have no kid-targeted websites for Coco Pops or Frosties and our Facebook pages are locked to anyone below 16 years old. And, our on-pack promotions are for things like free adult tickets to Alton Towers."He added: "When you do see our advertising on kids TV, it is there because the products it is promoting meet the very strict regulations about what food can be advertised to children."The company says that its partnership with the Amateur Swimming Association is one involving the corporate brand, Kellogg's, and there is no branding for products such as Coco Pops.McDonalds reacted to concerns about involvement with the Olympics by insisting sponsorship was essential to the successful staging of the Games, while also announcing plans to launch campaigns focused on "activity toys" and vouchers for sports sessions.A Coca-Cola spokesperson said the company "takes seriously its commitment to market responsibly across the globe, across all advertising media, and across all of our beverages". "Our worldwide responsible marketing policy states that we do not target any of our marketing messages on TV, radio, internet, mobile phone and product placement mediums where children under 12 make up more than 35% of the audience."Our sponsorship of sporting events highlights our commitment to making a positive difference in all the communities we serve. We care about people's well-being and want to make a positive difference in their lives, both physically and emotionally. We also aspire to help people lead active healthy lifestyles through the beverage options we produce, the nutritional information we provide and our support of programs that encourage active, healthy living.We sponsor more than 280 physical activity and nutrition education programs in more than 115 countries. We are also the longest, continuous standing partner of one of the largest sports platforms in the world, the Olympic Games – proof of our commitment to using the power of our brands to encourage more people to become active through sport."Fast foodWorld Health OrganisationFood & drinkHealthThe news on TVChildrenSarah Boseleyguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds    
(Tue, 18 Jun 2013 01:02:00 GMT)

G8 organisers spend £50m on security but protesters stay away
Two day summit policed by 8,000 officers, all with special training in handling disorder, but so far only two arrests madeBy 2pm, when President Obama's armoured Cadillac – "the Beast" – swept through the centre of Enniskillen in a 20-vehicle motorcade, 50 police officers were lining the sides of the town's old bridge, with armoured Landrovers parked at either end and inflatable police dinghies buzzing slowly in the lough below."All that for one man?" said one bystander, as the small crowd, barely outnumbering the officers, turned and went back to their business with a grin and a shrug. The leaders of eight of the world's leading nations may be staying just a couple of miles away, but even by the standards of previous G8 summits, seasoned veterans said on Monday, the security arrangements around Lough Erne have been overwhelming.From a security point of view, David Cameron's choice of resort to host the gathering could scarcely have been bettered. A huge steel barrier costing more than £4m has been erected to cut off the small island on which the hotel sits, and every road surrounding the resort, including single-lane farm tracks, has been shut to all but a handful of local residents.Britain has spent an estimated £50m on security during the two-day summit, including £4m on temporary custody facilities at a former British Army barracks in Omagh, and £1.5m on training officers in handling disorder. But with no sign of dissident trouble or loyalist disorder on Monday afternoon, and with the number of anti-capitalist protesters still struggling to make double figures, the honour guard of officers had little to do but kick their heels and greet every passerby with a barrage of hellos.Northern Ireland presents particular security challenges, of course, which explains the 8,000 officers mustered by local chief constable Matt Baggott to police the summit – 4,400 from the Police Service of Northern Ireland, and 3,600 seconded from forces in England and Wales. They haven't had much to do, with just two arrests – one in Belfast, one in Fermanagh.Even a small-scale breach of a security cordon around the venue on Monday evening ended peacefully, when several dozen anti-capitalist protesters climbed over a line of razor wire more than a mile from the summit venue and crossed a field, before being turned back by shouted warnings from around 50 riot police and dispersing without incident.The overwhelming security presence was the only explanation Emma Goldman, from Swansea, a veteran of previous G8 protests, could come up with for the "mystifying" scarcity of protesters travelling from mainland Britain or further afield. "This is the biggest event on the planet at the moment, and yet there is nobody here," said Goldman, who had come with a few friends from her home in Swansea on Saturday.She said she suspected people had been reluctant to inflame the local political context and were fearful of dissident violence. "I have friends from Dublin who were involved in the Occupy protest, and they said their friends were afraid to come up in case there was an atrocity."By early evening, several hundred mostly local protesters were gathering in the town centre, representing a loose coalition of causes including anti-fracking groups, campaigners for Republican prisoners' welfare, and others protesting at public service cuts, for a march to the security barrier.The veteran Derry campaigner Eamonn McCann, one of the march's organisers, said numbers might be lower than previous G8 protests, but the demonstration's local character gave it particular legitimacy. "What's different between here and Gleneagles, for example, is that this is very much generated from below, rather than being whipped up by a few big names. It's representing people who are concerned about local issues, and who are discontented."G8PoliceNorthern IrelandEsther Addleyguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds    
(Mon, 17 Jun 2013 23:58:00 GMT)

Maria Miller warns internet firms on child abuse images
Culture secretary to insist on action at summit of ISPs as companies are accused of ignoring child abuse image problemInternet providers are to face unrelenting pressure to restrict access to "horrific" and illegal images of child abuse, the culture secretary, Maria Miller, will say on Tuesday at a summit with the world's leading ISPs.In a sign of the government's impatience with the likes of Google, Yahoo, Facebook and Twitter, sources say the firms must do more after acting as though "blind" to the problem of child abuse images.Miller said: "Child abuse images are horrific and widespread public concern has made it clear that the industry must take action. Enough is enough."In recent days we have seen these companies rush to do more because of the pressure of an impending summit. Imagine how much more can be done if they seriously turn their minds to tackling the issue. Pressure will be unrelenting."She will say that the companies summoned to the summit have a good record in removing illegal images when they are brought to their attention. But she will call on them to do more and use their technical expertise to ensure the images never appear online in the first place.One source said: "These are huge global companies at the cutting edge of technology. They should direct their technical expertise – coding and algorithms – to preventing the problem at source."Companies have acted blind towards the systemic problem of child abuse images. If they are allowed to act as though they are blind, then they do not have to take responsibility. They must be made to acknowledge the extent of the problem and take responsibility."Miller believes internet providers have shown there is room to act because they have made a series of commitments in the runup to the summit. Google has pledged £4m towards addressing the problem while TalkTalk and BT have promised splash pages which will pop up with a warning about pornographic content.Google has said it will donate to the Cambridge-based Internet Watch Foundation, a charity which collates warnings about illegal sites and has a team of analysts who have been under increasing pressure as the number of reports they receive has risen.One ISP, Virgin Media, will also call for rival companies to stop charging the police-run Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre (Ceop) for processing data requests about individuals believed to have accessed illegal abuse sites.Web firms are privately sceptical that the 90-minute meeting will deliver a silver-bullet solution for the propagation of explicit content, but they are united in the belief that the charities responsible for policing such material should be better funded."There is no simple technical fix to this problem and money alone cannot solve it either. If it could, it would have been done years ago," said one internet executive.The culture secretary also wants to do more to ensure parents can protect children by blocking access to legal pornography. Writing in the Mail on Sunday at the weekend, she said a code of practice on parental controls had been drawn up with the major internet providers.Miller and ministerial colleague Ed Vaizey will meet Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Facebook, BT, Sky, Virgin Media, TalkTalk, Vodafone, O2, EE and Three at the summit.Maria MillerISPsChild protectionSocial careInternetChildrenNicholas WattJosh Hallidayguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds    
(Mon, 17 Jun 2013 23:37:29 GMT)

ITV sitcom Vicious is cliched and outdated, says Barry Cryer
Veteran comedy writer says show about an ageing gay couple would make John Inman look restrainedITV sitcom Vicious, featuring Sir Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi as an ageing gay couple, has been accused of peddling homosexual cliches that would make "John Inman look restrained".Barry Cryer, the veteran comedy writer and performer, said Vicious had fallen into the trap of trying to be funny all the time rather than developing characters people could identify with."A sitcom with two old gays could be really good and moving. With two great actors in Sir Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi it should be fantastic," Cryer writes in the latest Radio Times. "But it was insult, insult, insult every other line. You don't believe in them … it made John Inman look restrained."Cryer, 78, whose credits include The Two Ronnies and The Morecambe & Wise Show, said Vicious was part of an era of "back-to-basic sitcoms" including Mrs Brown's Boys and The Wright Way which had forgotten the importance of "great characters trapped in a situation"."It's a serious business writing comedy. You don't necessarily need funny lines all the time. The key is to create characters. Characters people can identify with. But right now we've gone back at least 30 years in terms of format," he added. "The great sitcom writers of the past didn't think jokes were remotely important."Cryer said writers such as Ray Galton and Alan Simpson (Hancock's Half Hour, Steptoe and Son), Johnny Speight (Till Death Us Do Part) and Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais (Porridge) knew this instinctively and just wrote great characters. "It's straightforward stuff: character, character, character. You don't need jokes, you don't need funny lines. The humour will come because the secret to the truly funny sitcoms is simple – they are basically all about life."ComedyITV channelTelevisionJason Deansguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds    
(Mon, 17 Jun 2013 23:05:02 GMT)

Heathrow may seek public funding for expansion plan
Airport argues that scheme would still be cheaper for taxpayer than alternatives at Stansted or Thames estuaryHeathrow has admitted that the taxpayer may have to contribute funds for expansion plans that would mean at least one extra runway at Britain's largest airport and hundreds more flights over London daily. But the airport said a rejection of its proposals could consign a generation to economic stagnation.Heathrow said it was still considering its options before the deadline of 19 July for submissions to the government-appointed airports commission, but indicated that schemes for three or four-runway models could be put forward.It said that competing with rival hubs such as Amsterdam's Schiphol and Madrid would require having similar capacity of up to 800,000 flights a year, which would equate to a daily average of about 2,000 takeoffs and landings, compared with 1,288 at Heathrow in 2012.John Holland-Kaye, Heathrow's development director, said the airport "couldn't rule out" public funding for its plans, depending on the findings of the commission.The airport has previously been keen to stress that expansion would be paid for by private investment. But Holland-Kaye said it would still be cheaper than alternatives at Stansted in Essex or the Thames estuary. "It's fairly intuitive that there would be greater need for taxpayer support going east," he said.The London mayor, Boris Johnson, has put the bill for a new hub at £70-80bn, including public funding of £25bn.A Heathrow report titled Best Placed for Britain noted that 202 of the UK's top 300 companies had headquarters within 25 miles of its site, compared to seven for Stansted and two for a possible Thames estuary airport. It said twice as many people lived within an hour's journey of Heathrow, whether by car or public transport.Heathrow warned against assuming that the jobs it sustained could be easily transplanted or that the site would quickly be regenerated if the airport was replaced. It pointed to the decades that elapsed while even prime central London locations such as Battersea and Bankside power stations lay unused, while Hong Kong airport is yet to be redeveloped after 15 years.The airport is increasingly confident that the political debate has turned. Holland-Kaye said: "The mood has changed. The economic downturn has brought a bit of a reality shock, encouraging people to think about how we can rebuild the economy in the short term, and plan long-term to remain an economic powerhouse. We can't take for granted that we will have the same economic success unless we do the right thing with our national infrastructure."Travel & leisureLondonAirline industryTransport policyGwyn Tophamguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds    
(Mon, 17 Jun 2013 23:05:01 GMT)

Hormone breakthrough offers hope of safer fertility treatment
Healthy baby born to woman who was given naturally occurring hormone kisspeptin to stimulate egg productionThe first baby in the world to be born to a woman who was given a naturally occurring hormone to stimulate egg production instead of the usual fertility drugs could herald a safer era of IVF treatment, scientists believe.The baby, a healthy boy weighing 7.15lbs, was born in April. His mother took part in a trial run by Hammersmith hospital and Imperial College in London designed to ensure that the hormone, kisspeptin, was capable of stimulating the ovaries and maturing the eggs just as well as the normal treatment.The hope is to spare women from the potentially life-threatening condition of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome. Although the numbers of women who suffer from this complication is relatively small – about 5% get moderate OHSS and 1% get it severely – the worst affected become very ill and will spend two to six weeks in hospital. The women who are most at risk are the 5-10% who have a condition known as polycystic ovary syndrome.No drug company was involved in the research because there is not obviously a big market for the treatment. The study was funded by the Medical Research Council and the National Institute for Health Research, whose concern was safety."We have shown that kisspeptin can be used effectively in patients undergoing IVF treatment to more naturally stimulate the release of reproductive hormones and result in a healthy baby," said Professor Waljit Dhillo, of Imperial College London, who led the work."The results of the study are very encouraging and whilst we are primarily looking at women most at risk of developing OHSS, there is the potential that kisspeptin could be used across all IVF treatments as a more natural alternative."Geoffrey Trew, consultant in reproductive medicine and surgery at Hammersmith hospital, said: "We're absolutely thrilled that this study has resulted in the birth of a healthy baby boy. Each year thousands of couples in the UK start families using IVF treatment and if we can work towards eliminating the risk of OHSS, using the naturally occurring hormone kisspeptin, we can hopefully help even more women and make the treatment potentially safer. This is a very exciting breakthrough."The results of the study were presented at a conference of the Endocrine Society in San Francisco. In the study, doctors gave 30 women kisspeptin and successfully induced egg production in 29 of them. Embryos developed in 28, and 11 women tested positive for pregnancy 12 days after the embryo was transferred.The study enrolled women who were not at risk of OHSS in order to test whether the hormone would work as well as the routine drug. "The group of women we chose had more normal ovaries," said Trew. "They are not the ones we think it should be beneficial to." Another study will now be undertaken in women who are at risk.Kisspeptin is safer because it is a naturally occurring hormone that stimulates the body to produce the reproductive hormones. HCG, the drug normally used to stimulate egg production, is also produced naturally, but only by pregnant women. Its effect can sometimes be too powerful.Richard Fleming, scientific director of the Glasgow centre for reproductive medicine and a former chair of the British Fertility Society, said that although it was easier today to identify women at risk of OHSS, there was still a need for safer drugs for them."There are some women who would not identify as being high responders [at risk of OHSS] but who do [suffer from it]. I think there is encouraging potential here. I would say watch this space."Geeta Nargund, a fertility expert who specialises in "soft" and drug-free IVF, and medical director of the Create Health clinic, said: "This is a potentially exciting development because any means of avoiding OHSS is desirable. However, any potential side-effects and risks to women and children will need to be investigated. There are currently other ways of avoiding OHSS such as drug-free in vitro maturation (IVM) or mild IVF with GnRH agonist as an ovulation trigger."There is an urgent need to reduce risks and costs associated with current IVF drugs. If this new drug is effective in achieving this and increasing the success of IVF, it could be of tremendous benefit to women seeking fertility treatment."Fertility problemsHealthMedical researchReproductionSarah Boseleyguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds    
(Mon, 17 Jun 2013 23:05:00 GMT)

In praise of … Northern Ireland's G8
There is something genuinely heartening about a world event of this kind happening in Northern IrelandThere are plenty of reasons to be cynical about the G8 summit – including the improbability of effective agreements on tax or Syria in the communiqué. And the huge security lockdown and trompe l'oeil prettifications of depressed parts of Northern Ireland for the benefit of global visitors are reminders – if they were needed – that such summits have their civil liberty price and their shameless dimensions. All the same, there is something genuinely heartening about a world event of this kind happening in Northern Ireland. It goes without saying that such a gathering would have been unthinkable for much of the past half-century. Anyone who watched or heard the Belfast schoolchildren whom Barack Obama took time to address on Monday could not have been unmoved by the sense that these young people's future can be better than the province's past. Summits certainly have their dark sides, but they can be inspiring too.Northern IrelandG8BelfastEditorialguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds    
(Mon, 17 Jun 2013 22:10:27 GMT)

Hugh Muir's dairy: Revealed – the misery of the government's welfare assessments
Leaked email depicts system under strain• A tough job doing Iain Duncan Smith's bidding as he strives to scalp the welfare bill. Calls for tough love in spades from the health professionals employed by private contractor Atos, the ones who say yea or nay to those who seek state assistance. So if the strain is showing, that's no surprise. And strain there is, as we see from a leaked email from one of the medical experts employed by Atos to sort the strivers from the skivers. He was exhorted to put in that little bit more effort. His reply is now prized by all those under the cosh. "Our task is becoming ever more complex and ever more futile as we bend over backwards to satisfy the demands of a government that wants and needs cuts to the welfare budget," he tells the company. He wants to do his job professionally. Atos, he claims, "wants us to do a job they can defend within an unrealistic time frame". It's thankless, he tells them. "I have to justify my very existence to people at Atos who neither know me, nor support me, nor care. Meanwhile my workload increases and my remuneration decreases as each year goes by." It is, he says, "without doubt the most incompetent, inefficient and uncaring organisation with which I have ever been involved". The company doesn't comment on leaks, it says, having the "proper processes" to deal with such things. But it is clear the tide of misery affects everyone. Except, perhaps the secretary of state.• Things seem little better at the Ministry of Justice, where it appears that officials seek to undermine Chris Grayling's plan to privatise probation services. They can't oppose him directly, but there must be something seditious about the decision to call the new payment mechanism Straw Man. And who'd have thought they would get away with calling the payment system FFS? It stands for Fees for Service in Whitehall-speak, apparently. Something much, much ruder to everybody in the outside world.• A busy time, meanwhile, at the Old Vic, where the Tennessee Williams play Sweet Bird of Youth is doing good business. Another triumph for its guiding hand Kevin Spacey, who surveys the scene and pronounces himself well pleased. At the press night, he said the Sweet Bird was one of the best things the Old Vic had done, and that it was high time he focused on Tennessee Williams. "As an American I'm a little embarrassed it took us 10 years to do this." Kim Catterall, the star, had "worked her ass off", he said. Indeed, many contributions come together, not least that of long-time sponsor, Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Hat tip to them. "Fantastic to be able to say not all bankers are cunts." Next stop, rehabilitation.• An age since we checked on Mike Hancock, the libidinous MP for Portsmouth South, who resigned the Liberal Democrat whip earlier this month, the better to contest civil allegations that he became over-familiar with a constituent. He has pledged to vigorously contest the claims and to re-establish his good name. And as he is a selfless type, one can safely assume that all the parliamentary questions he has been asking of late about legal aid are entirely coincidental. The demands of public service are relentless, aren't they?• An update, finally, on the continuing Euro-tussle between Tories and Ukipians, both of whom wish to name a meeting room after Margaret Thatcher. Wise heads in the European parliament must judge next month which of them gets the prize. How did it come to this? All quite strange, for as we reported a fortnight ago, Ukip was the first to make the application. The Tory bid was not submitted for another month. And it now appears that the Tories only made their move after being tipped off and invited to do so by officials at the European parliament. Why would the Eurocrats do that? No one can understand it. Yes, Godfrey Bloom, Ukip MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber, did brand Martin Schulz, the parliamentary president, an "undemocratic fascist". And Nigel Farage did liken Herman van Rompuy, president of the European council, to a "damp rag". But save for those – and a fair few other lapses – we thought Ukip and the Brussels establishment rubbed together rather well. Twitter: @hugh_muirWelfareDisabilityAtosHugh Muirguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds    
(Mon, 17 Jun 2013 22:00:01 GMT)

Technology that traced Osama bin Laden now used to extend life of cakes
Hyperspectral imaging to be employed to study deterioration of sponges and cupcakes and prolong their shelf lifeIt took 10 years and an elite unit from America's navy seals to hunt down Osama bin Laden. Now the technology used to track the most elusive terrorist in history is at the centre of another top mission to help to enhance the life of cakes in British bakeries.Strathclyde University has been awarded a grant to examine how the imaging used on the helicopters that surrounded Bin Laden's Pakistan compound in 2011 might be used to perfect cupcakes, Victoria sponges and a host of other staples of the British diet.They are working with a British food company, Lightbody, to try to accurately plot the deterioration of a cake and formulate a recipe with the best fat, sugar and liquid proportions for taste and shelf life."With hyperspectral imaging, you can tell the chemical content of a cake just by taking a photo of it. That allows the baker to optimise the process for shelf life and taste. It tells you what's going on, how the sugars are breaking down, how the fats are breaking down. If bakers can get the formula right, they can extend the shelf life and sell their cakes further afield," said Stephen Marshall, professor of image processing at the university.In a military context, hyperspectral imaging captures hundreds of values in the electromagnetic spectrum which enable scientists to identify objects without sending them to a laboratory.A hi-tech snapshot creates an electromagnetic "fingerprint" of the objects which can be used to identify minerals, crop disease, and movements of people and vehicles under military surveillance.In the hunt for Bin Laden, it would have identified movements of people and vehicles simply by capturing changes in the grounds surrounding the terrorist's compound.Strathclyde and Lightbody received a grant of £25,000 from the Interface Food & Drink, a Scottish fund designed to forge links between business developers and academic research.Howell Davies of Interface said: "You can basically take a picture of something and analyse the product without taking it away for testing in a lab. You can see things that you can't see with the human eye."Food scienceCakeBakingFood & drinkUniversity of StrathclydeHigher educationScotlandLisa O'Carrollguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds    
(Mon, 17 Jun 2013 21:40:47 GMT)

Co-operative Bank to list on stock market in rescue deal
Bank agrees 'bail in' with City regulator to raise £1.5bn, with bondholders taking a loss on their investmentsThe Co-operative Bank is to have its shares listed on the stock market for the first time as part of a deal to plug a £1.5bn capital shortfall and stave off nationalisation after its troubled merger with Britannia Building Society four years ago.As a result of an agreement hammered out with the Prudential Regulation Authority, the bank's bondholders – including 7,000 private investors – will be asked to take losses in return for shares in a move that has raised concerns about the future of the co-operative movement and the bank's ethical ethos.Although the bank was already a public limited company owned by the Co-operative Group – the country's biggest mutual, which owns grocers, funeral homes and pharmacy chains – it will end up with shares listed on the stock exchange under a complex "bail in" of bondholders in October.The "bail in" is a new, largely untested method for helping banks raise capital and will allow the Co-op to avoid having to raid other parts of its business. It is the route the authorities are now adopting, after the wave of taxpayer bailouts in2008-09.The bank, which has 4.7 million customers but has stopped lending to businesses, had run low on capital after incurring losses on commercial property loans largely granted by Britannia before the 2009 merger between the two organisations. Some £14.5bn of loans, largely granted by Britannia, have been put into a non-core bad bank to be sold off or run down.Until April, Co-op had been in talks to take over 632 branches from Lloyds Banking Group, which would have put more capital into the enlarged bank. Lloyds' bosses will appear before the Treasury select committee of MPs on Tuesday to face questions on this so-called Verde deal, which the government had hoped would inject more competition into a high street dominated by the big four banks.The Co-op has installed new management at group level and at the bank but on Monday none would discuss the past. However, the new chief executive of the bank, Niall Booker, conceded that the capital-raising exercise would probably not have been needed if the Britannia deal had not taken place. Booker, a former HSBC executive, started last week. His predecessor left in May after ratings agency Moody's downgraded the Co-op's investment rating to junk status."It's apparent that with the Britannia deal came some bad loans that needed to be worked out and it's equally apparent that the franchise strength lies in the retail and SME [small and medium enterprises] segment of the Co-op," Booker said.Euan Sutherland, the former B&Q boss who has been chief executive of the overall Co-op Group for six weeks, refused to say whether bonuses would be clawed back from departed directors. "The time will come when we are able to look back at what happened," he said.The newly installed group finance director, Richard Pennycook, hired from supermarket chain Morrisons, was reluctant to stand by accounts issued by the bank. "We'll take the fifth amendment on that," said Pennycook, who added that an important step was being taken to solve a "pretty unstable" situation.Some 5% of the bonds affected – some of which pay 13.5% interest – are held by retail investors, whose average investment was £1,000 each. The precise detail of their losses will not become clear until full details of the "exchange offer" are published before October, when the shares will be listed in London.The abortive deal with Lloyds helped shed light on the scale of the Co-op's problems. When Lloyds chief executive António Horta-Osório and chairman Sir Win Bischoff give evidence to MPs on the episode on Tuesday they may face questions about government interference after a Conservative MP, David Davis, wrote to the Times saying the Treasury should explain its role. Mark Hoban, City minister at the time, is known to have held 30 meetings to smooth the deal.Despite assurances by the Co-op that the deal would not affect its approach to business and customers, Andre Spicer, professor of organisational behaviour at Cass Business School, said the bail in was a profound change in the business model of the bank."This change is likely to clash with the co-operative ethos of the bank and, in the longer term, this might undermine what has made the Co-op attractive to its staff and customers," Spicer said.Once the bank's shares are listed on the stock market, the Co-op Group will retain a majority holding of around 75%. The Co-op Group will contribute £1bn to bolster the bank – some £500m through selling off insurance businesses and another £500m by issuing bonds to existing bondholders. The bank's bondholders will raise the other £500m through the exchange offer while the bank has until the end of the year to reach a higher capital threshold than rivals of 9%.The results of an industry-wide exercise by the PRA, which uncovered a £25bn capital shortfall, will be published on Thursday.Co-operative GroupBankingBanks and building societiesPrudential Regulation Authority (PRA)Lloyds Banking GroupBondsJill Treanorguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds    
(Mon, 17 Jun 2013 21:30:00 GMT)

G8 summit: judgment awaits on David Cameron's challenge
Prime minister makes progress on US-EU trade deal, but Syria will be the real test of his mettleIn the elaborate, etiquette-riddled role of world summit host, two things matter: first, that you can put on a good show for your fellow leaders, projecting something unique about your country's culture; and second, that you can demonstrate that you have a coherent and distinctive political agenda. The G8 as an institution, after all, is an anachronism – a body without legitimacy or power, in the words of David Miliband last week.So David Cameron's choice of the remote Lough Erne golf course in Northern Ireland to host the G8 seemed an unfortunate one. The resort hotel is extravagant, debt-ridden and in administration – arguably an accurate symbol of the British economy.Such is the pared-down No 10 operation these days that members of Cameron's staff were up all night fixing last-minute hitches, such as transport for the leaders. Panic broke out when it seemed that low cloud would delay the helicopters taking world leaders from Belfast International to the site of the summit.Yet in the end, David Cameron's first day hosting the summit can be counted a success, even if the final judgment will rest on what is agreed overnight.The visuals certainly worked well in the morning, when Barack Obama in Belfast addressed young students about the chic island of Ireland, urging them to recognise that peace is harder than war.An Obama-Cameron visit to an Enniskillen integrated primary school, of which the highlight was a mural painting competition, proved a rather prouder moment for Britain than the Obama-Cameron table tennis match in 2011, in which the prime minister seemed unable to hit a ball.By mid-afternoon, as Cameron strode down a long pathway to greet his guests individually at the vast lakeside resort, the leaders were in their shirt sleeves, if not in actual sunlight. As they entered the hotel, Cameron had arranged for them to be boxed around an intimate 6ft wooden table large enough to accommodate the ever present representatives from the European Union, José Manuel Barroso and Herman Van Rompuy.Like every G8 summit host, Cameron had begun preparing his agenda as long as a year ago – trade, tax and transparency. But he had feared as recently as Friday that one of his precious Ts was about to collapse. He was concerned that he would be unable to announce the launch of the EU-US trade talks at the summit's outset, saying in a weekend interview with the Guardian that there was no point in imposing artificial deadlines.The French had been holding out to protect their film and cultural interests from the invasion of homogenised Hollywood – but in the end, a deal was struck, and at the launch of the summit, Cameron, Obama and the EU agreed that talks on a transatlantic trade and investment deal would begin in Washington next month.A somewhat tougher task for Cameron was due to come at the intimate evening dinner for the 10 leaders, when Cameron was to explore whether there was any basis for a peace conference on Syria. It was a last chance to see if there was a peaceful way to end what William Hague described as "the worst humanitarian disaster of the 21st century".The prime minister's main aim was to find out if Russia could agree with the rest of the G8 on the terms of a peace deal. Based on his conversations with Obama and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, Cameron was trying to prise from his guests whether they collectively agreed on extra humanitarian aid to Syria, going after the extremists inside the country, the "red line" of chemical weapons, and, finally, the most divisive issue of all – who would agree to the transition to a new government with executive powers, code for the removal of Assad as president.In making this the basis of the conversation, Cameron was deliberately setting to one side the contentious issue of sending arms to the rebels. However, if there was no agreement by the time the Bushmills was served, and the evening fire was starting to cool, the thinking was that Putin would be left isolated. The military option would return to the forefront.If that is not enough for the G8 to digest, Cameron will open his third and final front today over lunch on Tuesday on giving political backing to a long-term push on a new international corporate tax regime. Much of this work will ultimately be passed to the OECD and to the Russian-chaired G20 summit in St Petersburg in September.But at this summit Cameron is being pressed by the aid agencies to make a last effort to persuade his fellow G8 leaders to back the idea of public registers of beneficial ownership of companies. So far, Cameron has only committed the UK to a register of beneficial ownership available to UK tax authorities. It is a technical issue, but for the aid agencies, it is vital that the register of true owners is made public.In a last appeal to the G8, Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary general and chair of the Africa Progress Panel, issued a call for action, saying the G8 must establish registries on the ownership of companies and trusts in all tax jurisdictions, and that the registries need to be publicly available. He said: "The impact for G8 governments is a loss of revenue, but in Africa, it has direct impact on the lives of mothers and children."By Tuesday evening, the judgment will be made on Cameron's international statesmanship. The assessment overnight is that he is still in there with a fighting chance to secure the agreements he seeks – but it is going to be an extraordinary test of his still relatively unknown diplomatic skills.The G8 menuAs tweeted by David Cameron Kilkeel Crab, Prawn and AvocadoRoast fillet and braised shin of Kettyle beef, violet artichokes, Comber new potatoes plus seasonal vegetablesApple crumble, with Bushmills whiskey custard and a selection of cheeses from the British Isles.G8David CameronBarack ObamaEuropean UnionEuropeBelfastNorthern IrelandMiddle East and North AfricaInternational tradeTax avoidanceSyriaPatrick Wintourguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds    
(Mon, 17 Jun 2013 21:22:54 GMT)

Severn Trent's Tony Wray receives 29% pay increase
Chief executive of water company Severn Trent sees pay rise to £1.34m, up from £1.03m last yearTony Wray, the chief executive of water company Severn Trent, which rejected a takeover bid earlier this month, has picked up a 29% pay increase. Wray saw his total pay rise to £1.34m in 2013, up from £1.03m last year, according to the company's annual report.Wray, appointed to the top job in 2007, earned a basic salary of £552,000 in 2013, but took home an additional £546,000 bonus, split between cash and shares, as well as £223,000 in cash for pension contributions and a £15,000 car allowance.Earlier this month an international consortium of bidders pulled the plug on an offer for Severn Trent, after the British utility rejected the bid, which valued the business at £9.5bn.Martin Kane, chief executive of Severn Trent Services, the water company's international arm, saw his take-home pay soar by 50% to £755,000. Shareholders may raise eyebrows at a £44,000 payment to Kane to cover the UK tax he paid on part of his US pay package. Kane earned a basic salary of £250,000, topped up by a £144,000 cash bonus and the same again in shares. He was also awarded almost £50,000 of benefits to cover his US living expenses and medical insurance, and received £7,000 worth of tax advice.Severn TrentUtilitiesJennifer Rankinguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds    
(Mon, 17 Jun 2013 20:04:43 GMT)

The first world war was far from futile | Gary Sheffield
Planning next year's first world war centenary, we shouldn't rely on Wilfred Owen's version of eventsIn announcing details of the official programme of commemorations for the centenary of the first world war, Maria Miller, the culture secretary, was careful to say the government would simply "set out the facts" about the origins of the conflict without any interpretation. I am not the only historian to be uneasy about this. The government, through its silence, is tacitly endorsing the popular view of the war as a futile one, a belief that is sharply at odds with most modern scholarship, and with how it was perceived at the time.Britain went to war with Germany in August 1914 for similar reasons to those which the country fought Hitler's Germany in the second world war: to prevent an authoritarian, militarist, expansionist enemy achieving hegemony in Europe and thus imperilling British security. Most historians argue that Germany and Austria-Hungary were primarily responsible for initiating the war (recent attempts to blame Russia are not wholly convincing). Whoever started it, the fact is that in 1914-18, Germany waged a war of aggression that conquered large tracts of its neighbours' territory. As has often been pointed out, there were distinct continuities between the policy and strategy of imperial Germany and its Nazi successor. In the first world war, German refusal to seriously contemplate handing back the fruits of its aggression rendered null any attempt to bring about a negotiated peace. Not until Germany was clearly losing on the battlefield in 1918 did Berlin show any flexibility over this issue, and by then it was too late.This was not a "cabinet war", remote from the concerns of ordinary people. Niall Ferguson's argument of the late 1990s that Germany was essentially benign and Berlin's victory would have led to "the Kaiser's European Union" has failed to convince the academic mainstream. Rather, the first world war was an existential struggle, just as much a war of national survival for the British as the second world war. If Britain and its allies had lost, it would have meant the end of liberal democracy on mainland Europe. As it was, civilians were kept docile in German-occupied France and Belgium by the routine use of terror. Forced labourers were deported to Germany under terrible conditions. Unlike Hitler's regime, the Kaiser's was not consciously genocidal, but it was aggressive and brutal enough. In 1918 the British army was fighting a war of liberation.If Germany had won the first world war Britain, although probably safe from invasion thanks to the Royal Navy, would have been reduced to a state of siege, shut out of Europe. As British planners recognised during the first world war, had London been forced to come to terms with a victorious Germany, any peace could only have been temporary. Sooner or later Germany would have renewed the war and Britain and its empire would have been at a terrible disadvantage.There is plenty of evidence that most ordinary British people understood what was at stake and, just as in 1939-45, more or less willingly committed to the struggle. The idea of mass war enthusiasm in August 1914 has been shown to be something of a myth. Instead, as the gravity of the situation became clear, there was a more nuanced response. One of the reasons why the support of the working classes for the war was so strong, even among those that lived in poverty, was the knowledge that they were better off than their parents and grandparents had been, and so had something to lose. The juxtaposition of the harsh terms imposed by Germany on Russia in March 1918, far harsher than those of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, and the major German offensive of the same month, which seemed to bring the Allies to the brink of defeat, stiffened resolve among the industrial working classes. The war was seen as terrible, but defeat was worse.Today, horrified by the casualties of 1914-18, (which were consistent with losses of other belligerents), we tend to see the conflict in terms of what the war poet Wilfred Owen called the "pity of war". This is right and proper, but we should not lose sight of why the war was fought and the significance of the fact that it was Britain and its allies, and not Germany, that emerged victorious. Like all wars, it was tragic, but it was certainly not futile.First world warBritish ArmyGermanyGary Sheffieldguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds    
(Mon, 17 Jun 2013 20:00:02 GMT)

Country diary: Millthorpe, Derbyshire: Valley where Edward Carpenter, gay rights campaigner and socialist, walked
Millthorpe, Derbyshire: There is an intangible sense of lost history here and the ghost of Carpenter is hard to shake offStarting life, Millthorpe Brook tumbles off Flask Edge on the eastern fringe of Totley Moor and then buries itself in a deep-cut valley, travelling in a mile or so from austere grandeur to somewhere lush and secret.Tucked away on the edge of Sheffield, Millthorpe still feels remote, even though the suburban tide pushed out by postwar construction ends just over the hill among the housing estates of Totley and Dronfield.West of Fox Lane, past a familiar ash tree and into the oaks and beeches, I find the bluebells have hung on longer here, threaded with stitchwort and broken up with patches of garlic on the banks of the stream itself.There is an intangible sense of lost history in this valley: a section of broken wall whose controlling purpose is now forgotten; a vast bank of rhododendrons under Smeekley Woods suggesting a horticultural masterplan run wild.One Millthorpe ghost in particular is hard to shake, that of Edward Carpenter, early socialist philosopher, pacifist and vegetarian and a courageous gay rights campaigner, who lived just downstream of here, and must have walked this path many hundred times.Other pioneers on the left largely discounted Carpenter for his mystical views and passion for sandals. Orwell dubbed him an "outer-suburban creeping Jesus". But on a day like today, it is quite difficult to disentangle the dry facts of material inequality from the warmth of the sun or the smell of bluebells and the moist earth.Scrambling up through Bank Wood, I pause to catch my breath near a huge oak, anchored to steep ground above the brook, a landmark for all the birds getting on with the day's business.In its shadow, a few feet from where I'm standing, is an old birch and I catch sight of a blue tit, bill crammed with grubs, whirring to a stop near its nest in the trunk. It pauses there, just for a fraction of a second, its black, impassive eye fixed on me, while its mate emerges from the nest on the next grub-run for chicks who must soon be gone.SheffieldBirdsWildlifeAnimalsRural affairsEd Douglasguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds    
(Mon, 17 Jun 2013 20:00:01 GMT)

MoD serves news outlets with D notice over surveillance leaks
BBC and other media groups issued with D notice to limit publication of information that could 'jeopardize national security'Defence officials issued a confidential D notice to the BBC and other media groups in an attempt to censor coverage of surveillance tactics employed by intelligence agencies in the UK and US.Editors were asked not to publish information that may "jeopardise both national security and possibly UK personnel" in the warning issued on 7 June, a day after the Guardian first revealed details of the National Security Agency's (NSA) secret Prism programme.The D notice, which was marked "private and confidential: not for publication, broadcast or use on social media", was made public on the Westminster gossip blog, Guido Fawkes. Although only advisory for editors, the self-censorship system is intended to prevent the media from making "inadvertent public disclosure of information that would compromise UK military and intelligence operations and methods".The warning was issued by defence officials in the UK as the BBC, ITN, Sky News and other newspapers and broadcasters around the world covered the surveillance revelations disclosed by the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. The leaks, reported extensively in the Guardian and also the Washington Post, have made headlines on both sides of the Atlantic for more than a week.However, it is not clear what impact the warning has had on media coverage of Snowden's revelations relating to British intelligence. William Hague, the foreign secretary, who is reponsible for GCHQ, was not asked when he appeared on Monday's BBC Radio 4 Today programme about reports that the spy agency was involved in monitoring communications made by foreign delegates at the G20 summit in London 2009. Instead the subject was discussed in an item aired towards the end of the programme at 8.45am.A BBC spokeswoman declined to comment on the D notice, but pointed out that the broadcaster did cover the G20 surveillance story on its radio news bulletins. She said the BBC believed it had "afforded the story" what the broadcaster described as "the appropriate level of coverage" among other significant news items, "including the ongoing G8 summit, the sentencing of Stuart Hall, the Co-op Bank bailout and the Ian Brady hearing".According to the Guido Fawkes website, the warning said: "There have been a number of articles recently in connection with some of the ways in which the UK intelligence services obtain information from foreign sources."Although none of these recent articles has contravened any of the guidelines contained within the defence advisory notice system, the intelligence services are concerned that further developments of this same theme may begin to jeopardise both national security and possibly UK personnel."CensorshipUK security and counter-terrorismBBCJosh Hallidayguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds    
(Mon, 17 Jun 2013 19:54:58 GMT)

President Barack Obama in Northern Ireland for the G8 summit and David Beckham's tour of China
The Guardian's award-winning picture team rounds up the most eye-catching images of the dayMee-Lai StoneFiona ShieldsNicholas Pritchard    
(Mon, 17 Jun 2013 19:52:00 GMT)

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