Child poverty rethink to be outlined

26 February 2014 Last updated at 22:47 ET

New measures to tackle child poverty are to be unveiled by the government.

But plans to scrap the existing definition, which focuses on the income of households, have been put on hold, Iain Duncan Smith has suggested.

In a Guardian article with Chancellor George Osborne, the work and pensions secretary said it was important "we take the time to get it right".

Labour says child poverty has risen in recent years. PM David Cameron says it has fallen under a range of measures.

Speaking in Parliament on Wednesday, Mr Cameron said there were 500,000 fewer children in poverty than in 2009.

'Simplistic analysis'

One of the key aims of the strategy will be to stop poor children growing up to be poor adults.

The government is likely to announce a new focus on getting parents into work and improving the educational performance of children from the poorest backgrounds.

Some details of the draft measures to be put forward by Mr Duncan Smith and schools minister David Laws were reported by the Observer on Sunday.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

The right analysis, the right data, and the right measures will allow us to deliver a really meaningful reduction in child poverty"

End Quote Iain Duncan Smith and George Osborne

They include reducing the typical energy bill by £50 and extending the warm home discount, reducing water bills for low-income families, lowering food bills through vouchers and extending the free school meals programme.

A child is currently considered to be living in relative poverty if they are in a household whose income is below 60% of average earnings.

Mr Duncan Smith has long argued that measure is too simplistic, as some families might appear to have become less poor if average incomes fall, and he had been expected to propose a broader definition.

It was thought he would argue that whether parents were in work or had drug or alcohol problems should also matter, as should ensuring children got a good education.

Mr Duncan Smith and Mr Osborne, writing in the Guardian, said the Tories were still "committed to introducing better measures of child poverty - measures that drive the right action to bring about a real change in children's lives now and in the future".

They said that, under Labour, "the wrong measures based on inadequate data and simplistic analysis drive misguided and ineffective policy".

But, acknowledging they would not be pushing forward with a change in definition at this stage, they said: "This is such an important issue - it is vitally important that we take the time to get it right.

"The right analysis, the right data, and the right measures will allow us to deliver a really meaningful reduction in child poverty."

BBC social affairs correspondent Michael Buchanan said Liberal Democrats were claiming the Treasury had blocked the introduction of new targets.

"The Lib Dems are understood to be sympathetic to some of Mr Duncan Smith's arguments but blame the Treasury for blocking attempts to introduce new targets to supplement the income threshold which was devised by Labour," he said.

'Fix leak'

Save the Children's William Higham said: "With child poverty predicted to rise by a million by 2020, more children will be growing up without the basics we expect, like a warm home and a winter coat."

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

Changing the definition of poverty won't do anything to help the children whose lives are being damaged by the rise in poverty we are seeing under this government"

End Quote Shadow work and pensions secretary Rachel Reeves

He added: "The proposed government action on energy prices and insurance will make a difference - but we can't just bail out families, we need to fix the leak.

"Work needs to become a route out of poverty and we must intervene early to help the poorest families and make sure their children don't fall behind at school."

Government figures on poverty, released in June, show the median UK household income for 2011/2012 was £427 a week - 60% of that figure was £256 a week.

In that year, 17% of children, or 2.3 million, were classed as being in poverty while 15% of working-age adults, or 5.6 million, were in poverty.

But Labour said 400,000 more children were set to be living in poverty in 2015, compared with five years earlier.

"Changing the definition of poverty won't do anything to help the children whose lives are being damaged by the rise in poverty we are seeing under this government," said shadow work and pensions secretary Rachel Reeves.

Are you struggling on a low income with a family to support? What is the best way to tackle child poverty? Email us at haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk adding 'Child poverty' in the subject heading and including your contact details.

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Standard Life could quit Scotland

27 February 2014 Last updated at 01:59 ET

Standard Life is putting in place contingency plans to relocate funds, people and operations to England if Scottish people vote for independence and what it regards as material uncertainties about money and regulation are not sorted to its satisfaction.

In its annual report, published on Thursday, the chairman of the Edinburgh-based pensions and savings firm, Gerry Grimstone, says Scotland has been a great base for the company but that, "if anything were to threaten this, we will take whatever action we consider necessary - including transferring parts of our operations from Scotland - in order to ensure continuity and to protect the interests of our stakeholders".

According to Standard Life's chief executive, David Nish, the company - which has had its headquarters in Scotland for 189 years - has "started work to establish additional registered companies to operate outside Scotland, into which we could transfer parts of our operations if necessary".

"This is a precautionary measure to ensure continuity of our businesses' competitive position and to protect the interests of our stakeholders."

Standard Life is the first significant Scottish business to warn that remaining in Scotland may be untenable in the event of a vote for independence.

Its intervention in the debate on Scotland's future is particularly significant because it is a symbolically important company in Scottish financial history and is regarded as a great success.

Standard Life is the UK's biggest provider of defined contribution pensions and self-invested pension plans, and has around £240bn of assets under management.

Special report: Scotland's future

Uncertainties

Mr Nish insisted Standard Life has "a long-standing policy of strict political neutrality and at no time will we advise people on how they should vote".

We will take whatever action necessary - including transferring parts of our operations from Scotland - to protect the interests of our stakeholders"

End Quote Gerry Grimstone Chairman, Standard Life

However, he said his strict duty was to assess the impact of independence on the group's four million UK customers, its 5,000 Scottish-based employees and its 1.5 million shareholders.

Mr Nish said this judgement could not be made in a definitive way at the moment because of uncertainties about the currency to be used by an independent Scotland, how interest rates would be set, how financial companies like Standard Life would be regulated, how savings and pensions would be taxed, and on what timetable Scotland could join the EU.

I am told by informed sources that unless a formal monetary, regulatory and currency union were agreed by an independent Scotland with the rest of the UK, which also included some kind of compact on taxes, Standard Life would feel obliged to move both funds and people to England.

The point is that 90% of all Standard Life's UK customers are outside Scotland, while their funds are held inside the country.

And if Scotland seceded without delegating regulation and monetary policy to London, the risks, costs and complexities of customers being in a separate country from their money would be too great - or so Standard Life believes.

"Customers' money and our capital would need to be near regulators responsible for those customers," said a source.

Standard Life also does not believe it could continue to recruit the best people to work in Edinburgh if they were uncertain about how much they would be taxed.

Monetary union

What brought this issue to a head for the company was the recent declaration by Chancellor George Osborne, Labour shadow chancellor Ed Balls and the Liberal Democrat Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, that they would all oppose formal monetary union with Scotland.

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I understand that Standard Life does not regard as satisfactory the apparent fallback position of Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond that Scotland would use the pound even without formal monetary union.

Although Standard Life's location is not vital to Scottish prosperity, the threat of tens of billions of pounds of funds and thousands of highly-skilled jobs flowing across the border are bound to have an electrifying impact on the independence battle.

I am reliably told that the emigration of Standard Life could extend to shifting the headquarters from Edinburgh to London.

"There is no stock exchange up here [in Scotland]," said a well-placed source, "and we are not sure we would wish to become a foreign registered company on the London Stock Exchange. So we might have to move."

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Binding 'pre-nup' law proposed

27 February 2014 Last updated at 03:27 ET

Couples in England and Wales would be able to legally agree the terms of a divorce before marrying, under a new law being put forward.

The Law Commission believes making pre and post-nuptial agreements legally binding will make it easier for couples to manage their finances after a split.

Currently, married couples and civil partners can make agreements but courts do not always uphold them.

The commission advises the government on updates to the law.

It says that should the proposed law be enacted, married couples and civil partners would be able to make a binding agreement about how their property or finances should be shared if their relationship breaks down.

The measures are expected to be particularly popular with those considering second marriages who want to protect property for their children.

'Commodity'

Harry Benson, of the Marriage Foundation, said he expected such agreements would only be used by a small minority who had a lot to protect.

"What you are essentially saying is, 'My money is more important than our commitment.'"

But divorce lawyer Sarah Anticoni, a partner at law firm Charles Russell, said she could foresee such contracts becoming much more common.

"They will turn from being a luxury, probably into a commodity."

Continue reading the main story

If I do get married again, a pre-nuptial agreement would be absolutely critical"

End Quote Eric Tansley

She said the Law Commission had given clear guidance that any agreement would need to meet people's needs.

This, she added, included somewhere to live, money to live on and to have in mind that there may be children.

The Law Commission has also laid out conditions in order for the marital agreements to be binding, which include:

• Both partners must have had legal advice

• Both partners must have disclosed all relevant information about their finances

• A pre-nuptial agreement must have been made at least 28 days before the wedding or civil partnership

Prof Elizabeth Cooke, the law commissioner for property, family and trust law, said that the change would give couples "autonomy and control, and make the financial outcome of separation more predictable".

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"Pre- and post-nuptial agreements are becoming more commonplace but the courts will not always follow them and lawyers are therefore not able to give clear advice about their effect," she added.

'Twice shy'

Eric Tansley, who went through a long and difficult divorce, told BBC's Breakfast he wished the arrangement had been available when he split up with his wife.

"I'd inherited a considerable sum of money from my father a few years ago and endeavoured to have that protected but there proved to be no way of doing so.

"And so it's just in the pot and it's been dissipated. I just so wish that I could have kept that separate," he said.

"If I do get married again, a pre-nuptial agreement would be absolutely critical, both for my own protection and for that of the interests of my children, and clearly at the moment it's very much a case of once bitten, twice shy for me."

The government will now consider the Law Commission's recommendations.

Have you made an agreement with your partner? Do you plan to make one in the future? Email us at haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk adding 'Pre-nup' in the subject heading and including your contact details.

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Merkel to address UK Parliament

27 February 2014 Last updated at 03:55 ET

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is to address both Houses of Parliament and have tea with the Queen during a one-day visit to the UK.

Mrs Merkel will follow in the footsteps of other leaders, such as Nelson Mandela, Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan, in addressing MPs and peers.

She will later hold talks with the three main party leaders.

David Cameron is pulling out all the stops as he sees the German leader as crucial to his aims in Europe.

He is hoping to persuade Mrs Merkel to accept the need for EU treaty changes that would allow him to return powers from Brussels before a promised referendum on Britain's EU membership in 2017.

The Guardian reported on Wednesday that Berlin was prepared to offer "limited opt-outs" to the UK over its future compliance with existing EU directives and to make sure some other regulations were more flexibly enforced.

'Disappointed'

The newspaper said it was a sign of the lengths that Germany was willing to go to to ensure the UK remained a member of the EU amid fears in Europe that a referendum could lead to British withdrawal.

But the BBC's Berlin Correspondent Stephen Evans said sources close to Mrs Merkel were playing down expectations of new proposals for the kind of changes British Conservatives wanted to see.

Continue reading the main story

She may well agree to concessions to Britain - but not immediately"

End Quote

One Merkel adviser said: "Those expecting a thunderbolt in the speech will be disappointed."

Instead, Mrs Merkel will offer warm words about Britain and her desire to keep the country in the EU. But, says Evans, people close to the German leader are also expressing dismay that, as they see it, the British government has not come to them to spell out what changes it wants.

Although not an official state visit - Mrs Merkel is not head of state - the trip has been planned for months, with both governments aware of its political significance at a time of looming change in Europe.

Mrs Merkel is expected to speak for half an hour, in German, in front of an invited audience of dignitaries in the Palace of Westminster, including MPs, peers, diplomats, business and cultural leaders.

Leaders previously accorded the honour of addressing both House of Parliament include French Presidents Charles de Gaulle, pictured above, Valery Giscard d'Estaing and Francois Mitterrand, US presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, the Tibetan opposition leader the Dalai Lama, Burmese politician Aung San Suu Kyi and former Russian president Boris Yeltsin - click here for a full list.

Mrs Merkel's predecessor, Willy Brandt, addressed both chambers in 1970.

'Not a priority'

After Thursday's address, Chancellor Merkel will meet a delegation of MPs and peers before having a working lunch with the prime minister at Downing Street.

The two centre-right leaders, both of whom govern in a coalition with other parties, will hold a press conference in which Mrs Merkel is likely to be pressed on whether she will support the UK's call for future treaty change in the EU.

David Cameron has said that if the Conservatives win the 2015 election, he will seek to renegotiate the terms of the UK's membership of the European Union and put the outcome to an in-out referendum of the British people in 2017.

But he faces a battle to convince leaders of other EU member states to agree to the treaty changes he will need, with French President Francois Hollande recently telling the prime minister, on a one-day visit to the UK, that it was "not a priority".

Mr Cameron is seen as having a warmer relationship with Mrs Merkel than Mr Hollande, although Berlin was angered by his decision to veto a fiscal compact in December 2011 in response to the eurozone debt crisis.

The prime minister and his wife Samantha visited the German chancellor's country residence last April, following a visit made by Mrs Merkel and her husband to Chequers in 2010.

The leader of Mr Cameron's junior coalition partners, the Lib Dem Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, and opposition leader Ed Miliband, who both oppose calls for a referendum and who have warned that Conservative calls for a root-and-branch renegotiation will alienate EU leaders, will hold separate meetings with Mrs Merkel.

The German chancellor will round off the day by having tea at Buckingham Palace.

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NI crisis talks over secret letters

27 February 2014 Last updated at 04:24 ET

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BBC Ireland correspondent Chris Buckler reports

Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers is to meet Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness as the crisis around power-sharing deepens.

She is facing an ultimatum from First Minister Peter Robinson to address his concerns about secret letters given to republicans classified as "On the Run".

The DUP leader had made his resignation threat after the trial of Donegal man John Downey collapsed.

Mr Downey denied killing four soldiers in the 1982 IRA Hyde Park bombing.

Mr Robinson said he was not prepared to remain as first minister in a power-sharing government "kept in the dark" about the letters to republican paramilitary suspects.

Continue reading the main story

Minutes of a NI Policing Board meeting in April 2010 indicate that members were briefed on the matter of On the Runs. Three members of the DUP were present at that meeting.

However, there was no mention of any letters being sent to On the Runs in that briefing.

The first minister met the secretary of state for about an hour on Wednesday night, following his resignation threat. Mr Robinson has asked for the assembly to be recalled on Friday.

Continue reading the main story

Anyone already convicted of paramilitary crimes became eligible for early release under the terms of the Northern Ireland Good Friday agreement of 1998.

The agreement did not cover:

• Anyone suspected of, but not charged with, paramilitary offences committed before the Good Friday Agreement.
• Those who had been charged with offences but who had escaped.
• Those who had been convicted of offences but who escaped.

Mr Robinson has called for letters to those On The Run, which give assurances to the suspects that they are not being sought by police, to be rescinded. He has also called for a judicial inquiry.

Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) sources said he is prepared to resign and call an election if necessary.

He gave the government until Thursday night to respond to the crisis.

He intends to make a statement to the assembly on Friday but what he says will depend on how the government deals with the issue.

On Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said more open discussions should have been held with Northern Ireland's first minister over the letters.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast Mr Clegg said: "With the benefit of hindsight, a much more open discussion with Peter Robinson should have been held at an earlier stage."

He said the coalition had inherited the system established by the previous government.

Mr Clegg said the government knew about the system but responsibility for the way in which it was administered was devolved.

DUP Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster said: "We need to see a public inquiry to find out who knew what, when and why it happened, and how it happened, despite the fact we were given assurances that there wouldn't be any amnesties, that there wouldn't be any legislation brought to deal with On the Runs.

"We are in a crisis, we need to sort this issue out. People on the ground feel very let down and feel that their government has deceived Peter Robinson and the rest of us in government here in Northern Ireland."

The case against Mr Downey collapsed because he was mistakenly told in a letter in 2007 that he was no longer a wanted man, despite the fact that police in Northern Ireland knew he was still being sought by Scotland Yard.

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RBS posts biggest loss in six years

27 February 2014 Last updated at 04:31 ET

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has reported its biggest annual loss since it was rescued by the UK government during the financial crisis in 2008.

The bank's pre-tax loss for 2013 was £8.2bn, compared with £5.2bn in 2012.

Ross McEwan, RBS' newly appointed chief executive, told the BBC the results were "very sobering".

Despite this increase, £576m was set aside for staff bonuses, a drop of 15% on 2012. Of that sum, £237m went to investment bankers.

Talking to the Today programme, Mr McEwan said it would take three to five years for the bank to recover.

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"People - including the executives of the bank - didn't realise how big a change process we had to go through to get this bank back into shape," he said.

He added that RBS would now work on getting "back to good old banking where we have trust with people".

"We're in the least trusted industry and we're one of those banks that aren't trusted."

Shares in RBS fell sharply after the bank's reported loss, down to around 330p. The average price paid by the government in 2008 was 500p.

'Smaller, simpler'

Mr McEwan also announced that RBS, once one of the world's largest banks, would now work on shrinking its operations.

He said RBS would restructure its seven divisions and support departments to leave just three customer businesses: personal, commercial and corporate.

Continue reading the main story

Mr McEwan also said he plans for RBS to become the "the number one bank for customer service and the most trusted bank in the UK" by 2020.

The bank's cost-to-income ratio currently stands at 73%, but RBS has set a target of getting this down to about 55% by 2017.

"This year, that will mean cutting around £1bn of operational spend on things that don't help our customers," a statement confirmed.

'Reduced staff levels'

The company's results come a week after UK newspapers speculated that thousands of jobs would be cut at the bank over the coming year.

RBS has not confirmed how many positions will be lost, but Mr McEwan said that reducing costs would "inevitably result in reduced staff levels".

"We do not yet have detailed plans for implementation," he added.

"We will deal with such matters sensitively, talking to our staff before communicating any such changes."

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Crimea government buildings seized

27 February 2014 Last updated at 04:38 ET

Ukraine's security forces have cordoned off two government buildings in the Russian-majority Crimea region were seized by armed men.

The Russian flag had been raised over both buildings in the regional capital, Simferopol.

On Wednesday pro-Russian separatists and supporters of Ukraine's new leaders confronted each other in the city.

Meanwhile, Russia performed a second day of military exercises, saying it fighter jets were on "combat alert".

"Constant air patrols are being carried out by fighter jets in the border regions," Russia's defence ministry told Interfax.

On Wednesday, President Vladimir Putin ordered a snap drill to test the combat readiness of troops in central and western Russia, near the border with Ukraine. Thursday's exercises appear to be part of that drill, analysts say.

Also on Thursday, the Russian foreign ministry expressed concern over what it termed "massive violations of human rights in Ukraine".

Ukrainian President Olexander Turchynov warned Russia against "military aggression" in Crimea and urged it to ensure that its servicemen do not leave bases there.

Amid heightened tensions between Russia and the West, Nato has issued a statement saying it would continue to support Ukraine's territorial integrity.

The US has warned against any military intervention by Russia.

Continue reading the main story

• Autonomous republic within Ukraine
• Transferred from Russia in 1954
• Ethnic Russians - 58.5%*
• Ethnic Ukrainians - 24.4%*
• Crimean Tatars - 12.1%*
• Source: Ukraine census 2001

'Provocateurs'

The incident in Simferopol is another illustration of tensions in the region, says the BBC's Mark Lowen in Crimea.

On Wednesday the city saw clashes erupt between Ukrainians who support the change of government and pro-Russians.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said the area near the government buildings has been cordoned off to prevent "bloodshed". He added that the seizure of the buildings was the work of "provocateurs".

"Measures have been taken to counter extremist actions and not allow the situation to escalate into an armed confrontation in the centre of the city," he said in a statement on his Facebook page.

Regional Prime Minister Anatoliy Mohylyov told a local TV station said he would take part in talks with the gunmen and told government employees who normally work there not to come in.

The men have not yet made any demands or issued any statements but did put up a sign reading: "Crimea is Russia".

They threw a flash grenade in response to questions from a journalist, AP news agency reported.

Separatism fears

Tensions have been rising in Crimea since President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted last week.

Crimea - where ethnic Russians are in a majority - was transferred from Russia to Ukraine in 1954.

Ethnic Ukrainians loyal to Kiev and Muslim Tatars - whose animus towards Russia stretches back to Stalin's deportations during World War II - have formed an alliance to oppose any move back towards Moscow.

On Wednesday Prime Minister designate Arseniy Yatsenyuk said: "In Crimea we always had different sentiments and forces who try to split the country and proclaim separatism."

But he told the BBC that Ukraine "could cope".

Crimea was transferred from Russia to Ukraine in 1954.

Russia, along with the US, UK and France, pledged to uphold the territorial integrity of Ukraine in a memorandum signed in 1994.

Are you in the Crimea region of Ukraine? What is your reaction to the recent events? Email us at haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk adding 'Ukraine' in the subject heading and including your contact details.

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Stafford Hospital trust decision due

26 February 2014 Last updated at 04:10 ET

Managers at scandal-hit Stafford Hospital are waiting to hear whether Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt will dissolve the trust that runs it.

Administrators want Mr Hunt to scrap the Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust and move services to other hospitals.

Local people are planning a legal challenge if that decision is taken.

The trust was criticised last year by a public inquiry for the "suffering of hundreds of people" under its care. It has been in administration since April.

The inquiry, led by Robert Francis QC, revealed some patients were left lying in their own faeces for days and given the wrong medication.

The report published after the inquiry made 290 recommendations aimed at tackling the wider cultural problems in the NHS.

Continue reading the main story

• A new midwife-led maternity unit at Stafford to deal with half the number of 1,800 births the hospital does now. Difficult births will be dealt with at University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust (UHNS)
• Paediatric unit would be run in conjunction with the hospital's 14-hour a day A&E unit. Sick children will be sent to the UHNS for night-time treatment
• The critical care unit would allow patients to be treated at Stafford but only if necessary staff were in place
• Hospital management could be transferred to UHNS by next autumn

In January, Monitor approved plans laid out by Trust Special Administrators (TSA) a month earlier to abolish Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust. It would be the first foundation trust to be broken up.

Under the proposals, control of Stafford Hospital would go to the neighbouring University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust (UHNS) while Cannock Hospital would be run by the Royal Wolverhampton Trust.

Services, including maternity, paediatric and critical care units at Stafford, would be downgraded.

The TSA has previously said it would take three years, from the secretary of state's agreement, to implement the proposed changes at a total cost of £220m.

The Support Stafford Hospital group said it was looking at the possibility of legal action if the decision was taken to axe the trust.

It comes after the High Court overturned the health secretary's decision to downgrade Lewisham Healthcare Trust's emergency department in July.

Diana Smith, from Support Stafford Hospital, said: "People have been talking to different legal advisors about what action we could take but I personally hope that there will be no need.

"I hope Jeremy Hunt has listened to the sensible representations that have been made to him over the last few weeks and that he's done enough to make the suggestions more acceptable to people in Stafford.

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Sue Hawkins, Save Stafford Hospital: "Stafford hospital has turned itself around"

"If he hasn't shifted position at all that opens it up for people going down the road to judicial review and things like that."

Calum Paton, who is professor of Health Policy at Keele University and a former chairman of the UHNS trust, said Mr Hunt needed to make sure the plan worked financially.

He said: "It has to be the case that the University Hospital of North Staffordshire is given the capital to make sure it can cope with the new demand at a time of extreme financial stringency in the NHS.

"The danger is the decision makers say here's the rational way to do things but one year down the track we discover it's not being funded properly."

The government has made clear there will be a full parliamentary debate over the hospital "in due course".

Have you been affected by the issues raised in this story? Please email us at haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk adding 'Stafford' in the subject heading and including your contact details.

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Stunning whale graveyard explained

25 February 2014 Last updated at 20:32 ET By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News

It is one of the most astonishing fossil discoveries of recent years - a graveyard of whales found beside the Pan-American Highway in Chile.

And now scientists think they can explain how so many of the animals came to be preserved in one location more than five million years ago.

It was the result of not one but four separate mass strandings, they report in a Royal Society journal.

The evidence strongly suggests the whales all ingested toxic algae.

The dead and dying mammals were then washed into an estuary and on to flat sands where they became buried over time.

Continue reading the main story

We managed to sample all the superstars of the fossil marine-mammal world in South America in the Late Miocene"

End Quote Nicholas Pyenson Smithsonian Institution

It was well known that this area in Chile's Atacama Desert preserved whale fossils.

Their bones could be seen sticking out of rock faces, and the spot acquired the name Cerro Ballena ("whale hill") as a result.

But it was only when a cutting was made to widen the Pan-American Highway that US and Chilean researchers got an opportunity to fully study the fossil beds.

They were given just two weeks to complete their field work before the heavy plant returned to complete construction of the new road.

The team set about recording as much detail as possible, including making 3D digital models of the skeletal remains in situ and then removing bones for further study in the lab.

Identified in the beds were over 40 individual rorquals - the type of large cetacean that includes the modern blue, fin and minke whales.

Among them were other important marine predators and grazers.

"We found extinct creatures such as walrus whales - dolphins that evolved a walrus-like face. And then there were these bizarre aquatic sloths," recalls Nicholas Pyenson, a palaeontologist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.

"To me, it's amazing that in 240m of road-cut, we managed to sample all the superstars of the fossil marine-mammal world in South America in the Late Miocene. Just an incredibly dense accumulation of species," he told BBC News.

The team immediately noticed that the skeletons were nearly all complete, and that their death poses had clear commonalities. Many had come to rest facing in the same direction and upside down, for example.

This all pointed to the creatures succumbing to the same, sudden catastrophe; only, the different fossils levels indicated it was not one event but four separate episodes spread over a period of several thousand years.

The best explanation is that these animals were all poisoned by the toxins that can be generated in some algal blooms.

Such blooms are one of the prevalent causes for repeated mass strandings seen in today's marine animals.

If large quantities of contaminated prey are consumed, or the algae are simply inhaled - death can be rapid.

"All the creatures we found - whether whales, seals or billfishes - fed high up in marine food webs and that would have made them very susceptible to harmful algal blooms," said Dr Pyenson.

The researchers believe the then configuration of the coastline at Cerro Ballena in the late Miocene Epoch worked to funnel carcases into a restricted area where they were lifted on to sand flats just above high tide, perhaps by storm waves.

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The finds were a media sensation in 2011

This would have put the bodies beyond marine scavengers. And, being a desert region, there would have been very few land creatures about to steal bones either.

A lot of the fossils at Cerro Ballena are perfect but for a few nicks inflicted by foraging crabs.

The researchers are not in a position to say for sure that harmful algal blooms were responsible for the mass strandings. There were no distinct algal cell fragments in the sediments; such a presence could have amounted to a "smoking gun". What the team did find, however, were multiple grains encrusted in iron oxides that could hint at past algal activity.

"There are tiny spheres about 20 microns across - that's exactly the right size to be dinoflagellate cysts," said Dr Pyenson.

"They're found in algal-like mats all around the site. We can't say whether those were the killer algae, but they do not falsify the argument for harmful algal blooms being the cause in the way that the sedimentology falsifies tsunami being a potential cause."

Cerro Ballena is now regarded as one of the densest fossil sites in the world - certainly for whales and other extinct marine mammals. The scientists calculate there could be hundreds of specimens in the area still waiting to be unearthed and investigated.

The University of Chile in Santiago is currently working to establish a research station to carry this into effect.

To coincide with the publication of a scholarly paper in Proceedings B of the Royal Society, the Smithsonian has put much of its digital data, including 3D scans and maps, online at cerroballena.si.edu.

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos

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US pair found '$10m buried treasure'

25 February 2014 Last updated at 22:14 ET

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The coins were in uncirculated, mint condition, adding to their worth to collectors

A California couple found a stash of gold coins buried on their property last year valued at as much as $10m (£6m), rare coin dealers have said.

The 1,427 coins, which date from 1847-1894, were never circulated and are in mint condition, numismatist David Hall told the Associated Press.

The unnamed couple found them buried in rusting metal cans under a tree while on a walk last April.

It is seen as the largest haul of buried treasure in US history.

"We've seen shipwrecks in the past where thousands of gold coins were found in very high grade, but a buried treasure of this sort is unheard of," David McCarthy of currency firm Kagin's, who is advising the couple, told Reuters news agency.

"I've never seen this face value in North America and you never see coins in the condition we have here."

The couple live in a rural area of California known as Gold Country for the swarms of prospectors who descended on the region during the 19th Century gold rush.

They found the coins in an area of their land they called Saddle Ridge, and the coin dealers who have seen the haul have taken to calling it the Saddle Ridge Hoard.

It is a mystery who buried the coins - and why.

Mr Hall of Professional Coin Grading Service of Santa Ana, California, which recently authenticated the coins, told the Associated Press the coins' face value adds up to about $27,000. But some of the coins are so rare they could sell for $1m each,

The couple plan to sell the coins on Amazon.

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Co-op's £2bn losses

26 February 2014 Last updated at 02:27 ET

The Co-op Group's losses for 2013 are expected to be greater than £2bn, by far the worst in its history, when they are announced on 26 March.

I also understand that as the first stage in trying to revitalise the group as a whole, its chief executive, Euan Sutherland, will tell members of the Co-op's regional boards on Saturday that its substantial farming operation, which includes 15 farms, will be sold.

He will also reveal that Co-op is actively considering the sale of its 750 pharmacies, which generated revenues of £764m in 2012. "They are likely to be sold, but a formal decision hasn't yet been made," said a source.

Co-op Group's farms are mostly arable, producing cereal for bakers. They supply only a tiny proportion of the food in its stores.

As for the pharmacies, they have come under financial pressure, as the NHS tries to save money on prescriptions, and are not thought to be well integrated with other Co-op activities.

• Been farming since 1896
• Owns 17,200 hectares
• 200 employees
• 70% of it is cereals
• Only 2% goes directly to shops

Rescue

According to well-placed sources, the huge £2bn-plus losses to be revealed at Co-op Group stem mainly from its bank - which was rescued at the end of the year - together with a reduction in the value of the stores and goodwill it acquired with the Somerfield takeover of 2009 (what's known as a write-down).

For the first half of 2013, Co-op Group generated a pre-tax loss of £559m, following a loss in the previous year of £648m.

Since then, Co-op Group has been forced to recognise a collapse to nothing in the value of its investment in Co-op Bank, as part of a rescue which saw hedge funds and other investors emerging with majority ownership of the bank.

Job cuts

Over four years, Co-op Group is planning to cut running costs by £500m, of which it has already identified £100m of savings.

To achieve these cuts, I am told there will be thousands of job losses, probably between 4,000 and 5,000 by 2017, especially in head office and in support positions.

But Mr Sutherland and his board colleagues have yet to calculate precisely how many jobs will go, and he is not expected to give details for some weeks yet.

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Chief executive Euan Sutherland: "Over the last five or six years the business lost its way"

Co-op Group is by far the largest enterprise in the UK run on co-operative or mutual lines. It has millions of members, of whom tens of thousands are activists, who participate in elections for local boards.

Early leaks of the scale of the reconstruction of the group are fomenting tension between the activists and professional management led by Mr Sutherland.

"We worry that the board is exaggerating the scale of the crisis, including losses, to turn the Co-op into much more of a conventional business, and move it away from its democratic and ethical roots," said one.

Battle

Mr Sutherland won't unveil the full re-making of the Co-op until around the time of its annual meeting on 17 May.

He is carrying out a survey of how the public sees the Co-op, called "Have your Say", which has already seen more than 80,000 people express a view on how the Co-op should change.

Among the questions put to them, they are being asked whether the Co-op Group should continue paying a dividend to members, rather than simply cut prices, and whether it should continue to make financial contributions to the so-called Co-operative Party, which in turn supports the Labour Party.

Co-op activists are concerned that the survey can be filled in by anyone, not just Co-op members, and they fear that the wording of the questions is designed to illicit a negative response on continued political donations, thus ending all ties to the Labour Party.

"There is going to be quite a battle over this," said one.

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BBC business reporter Steph McGovern looks back at the history of the Co-operative Group and hears the views of some customers

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Energy firms face finance scrutiny

26 February 2014 Last updated at 03:34 ET

The "big six" energy suppliers are to face further scrutiny of their finances by energy regulator Ofgem.

The regulator has outlined measures to improve the transparency of the firms' accounts and make it easier for new suppliers to enter the market.

The big six are being warned to trade fairly with independent suppliers, or face financial penalties.

The firms, such as Eon and British Gas, will have to publish wholesale power prices two years in advance.

This will make it easier for small companies to buy energy and then re-sell it to domestic and industrial customers.

Andrew Wright, chief executive of Ofgem, said that having changed the rules so consumers can find the best deals, the regulator now wanted to break down barriers to competition for new suppliers.

"These reforms give independent suppliers, generators and new entrants to the market, both the visibility of prices, and [the] opportunities to trade, [that] they need to compete with the largest energy suppliers," he said.

"Almost two million customers are with independent suppliers, and we expect these reforms to help these suppliers and any new entrants to grow."

Clearer accounting

The new rules follow criticism from MPs last year that Ofgem had failed consumers by not doing enough to ensure that the finances of the dominant big six suppliers were transparent.

Continue reading the main story

These reforms will help ensure competition bears down as effectively as possible on prices"

End Quote Andrew Wright Ofgem

MPs on the Energy and Climate Change Committee (ECCC) said in July that "working out exactly how their profits are made requires forensic accountants".

The regulator is now reviewing the terms under which the firms generate power and sell it to their supply arms.

Meanwhile the companies will have to provide more details of their trading operations and have full audits of the accounts they provide to the regulator.

"We also want to ensure that information on revenues, costs and profits of the largest energy suppliers is as clear as possible for consumers," said Mr Wright.

"Now we are taking further steps to ensure that it is published more quickly, and that it gives a robust, useful and accessible picture of company profits.

"Both of these reforms will help ensure competition bears down as effectively as possible on prices," he added.

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Ukraine elite police 'disbanded'

26 February 2014 Last updated at 04:46 ET

Ukraine's acting interior minister has said the elite Berkut police unit, blamed for the deaths of protesters, has been disbanded.

It is unclear what will happen to Berkut officers but Arsen Avakov said more details would be given in a briefing on Thursday.

The unit had 4,000-5,000 members stationed across Ukraine.

Meanwhile, there are continuing international divisions over the ousting of President Viktor Yanukovych.

On Wednesday Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called on other countries to condemn "nationalist and neo-fascist" sentiment in western Ukraine.

Mr Lavrov called on the OSCE to condemn "calls to ban the Russian language, to turn the Russian-speaking population into 'non-citizens' and to restrict freedom of expression," Reuters reports.

Russia has portrayed the ousting of Mr Yanukovych as a violent seizure of power by the opposition, and has expressed concern about the role of far-right parties in the protests against him.

Many Russian-speaking residents in the south and east of Ukraine have protested against the actions of the interim authorities.

In the Crimean port city Sevastopol on Tuesday, some people replaced the Ukrainian flag on a local government building with a Russian flag.

Mr Lavrov has said Russia's "policy of non-intervention" would continue.

Separatist 'threat'

Mr Lavrov's comments came a day after Secretary of State John Kerry said Ukraine was not caught in a battle between East and West.

"This is not a zero-sum game. It is not Russia or the United States, this is about the people of Ukraine and Ukrainians making their choices about the future - and we want to work with Russia and other countries, with everybody available, to make sure this is peaceful from this day forward," he said.

The US and EU countries have broadly backed the takeover of power by the opposition.

The new administration in Kiev is facing continuing opposition from Ukraine's Russian-speaking regions.

Earlier, Ukraine's interim President Olexander Turchynov expressed concern about what he called the serious threat of separatism following the ousting of Mr Yanukovych.

Addressing parliament, he said he would meet law enforcement agencies to discuss the risk of separatism in regions with large ethnic Russian populations. Separatism was a "serious threat", he said.

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John Kerry, and William Hague discussed support for Ukraine's new leaders

Meanwhile, parliament in Kiev has delayed the formation of a unity government until Thursday. However, there are reports that that a new cabinet may be announced on Wednesday afternoon.

The delay was to allow further consultations, Mr Turchynov said, adding that "a coalition of national faith must be elected".

Also on Wednesday Mr Turchynov announced that he had assumed the duties of the head of the armed forces.

Mr Yanukovych fled Kiev at the weekend and his whereabouts are still unknown.

Interim authorities have issued a warrant for his arrest, and on Tuesday parliament voted in favour of trying him at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.

The fugitive president is accused of being behind the deaths of more than 100 protesters at the hands of riot police.

Unrest in Ukraine began in November when Mr Yanukovych rejected a landmark association and trade deal with the EU in favour of closer ties with Russia.

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Protester Sergey Prohor returns to the scene of the violence

Ukraine is close to bankruptcy and with promised loans from Russia looking increasingly unlikely, interim leaders are looking to the West to bail the country out.

EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton held talks in Kiev on Tuesday to discuss financial and political support for Ukraine's new leaders.

She urged the provisional authorities to include Yanukovych supporters in any new government, adding: "Everyone I've spoken to here recognises the importance of this country sticking together. But we also know that there are big financial and economic challenges in the days, weeks and months ahead."

Continue reading the main story

• 21 Feb: leaves Kiev for Kharkiv on helicopter; stays overnight in state residence
• 22 Feb: flies by helicopter to Donetsk airport; tries to leave on private jet but stopped by border guards; leaves by car for Crimea
• 23 Feb: arrives in Balaklava, Crimea, and stays briefly in a private spa before making aborted attempt to reach Belbek airport
• Dismisses most of his security detail; leaves Balaklava in a three-car convoy with some guards and presidential administration head Andriy Kliuyev
• Source: Acting Interior Minister Arsen Avakov

Are you in Ukraine? What is your reaction to the recent events? Email us at haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk adding 'Ukraine' in the subject heading and including your contact details.

Send your pictures and videos to yourpics@bbc.co.uk or text them to 61124 (UK) or +44 7624 800 100 (International). If you have a large file you can upload here.

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Police union 'appalled' at IRA deal

26 February 2014 Last updated at 04:24 ET

The chairman of the Police Federation for Northern Ireland has said he is appalled at the government's "grubby secret deal" on IRA "on-the-run" cases.

He was speaking after the case of a man accused of the IRA Hyde Park bomb collapsed following what victims' families called "a monumental blunder".

Donegal man John Downey denied killing four soldiers in the 1982 bomb.

The case collapsed because government officials mistakenly told him he was no longer a wanted man.

Mr Downey's lawyer said his alleged offences had been categorised as one of the "on-the-run" cases that would no longer be pursued in the light of progress in the Northern Ireland peace process.

On Tuesday, a judge at the Old Bailey in London halted the case because Mr Downey had a letter from the Northern Ireland Office dated from 2007, assuring him that he would not face criminal charges despite the fact that police in Northern Ireland knew he was still wanted by Scotland Yard.

Although police soon realised they had made a mistake, the assurance was never withdrawn.

The Crown Prosecution Service had argued that the assurance was given in error - but the judge said it amounted to a "catastrophic failure" that misled the defendant. A trial would therefore be an abuse of executive power.

Another 186 people received letters telling them they would not face arrest and prosecution for IRA crimes. The police, and Northern Ireland Office officials are checking the rest of the cases for further errors.

Victims' families said they felt "devastatingly let down" by what they called "a monumental blunder".

Continue reading the main story

Who are the On The Runs?

Anyone already convicted of paramilitary crimes became eligible for early release under the terms of the Northern Ireland Good Friday agreement of 1998.

The agreement did not cover:

• Anyone suspected of, but not charged with, paramilitary offences committed before the Good Friday Agreement.
• Those who had been charged with offences but who had escaped.
• Those who had been convicted of offences but who escaped.

Unionist politicians in Northern Ireland are asking the government to re-consider the case.

NI Police Federation chairman Terry Spence said the news would shock the families of more than 200 RUC officers. He said they seemed "certain to be denied justice because of a scheme negotiated by the Blair government".

"None of us knew of the existence of this administrative scheme or what it entailed or the number of on-the-runs involved. There is a crying need for clarity as well as some honesty and decency," he said.

"The government owes it to police families to tell them, without any double-speak, that there is now no chance of them ever seeing justice being done in cases involving their relatives.

"There were 211 unsolved murders of RUC officers prior to the Good Friday Agreement and it looks from this grubby, secret deal that they are to remain unsolved."

Mr Spence said he felt angry, disappointed and betrayed.

"Why did it take a mistake exposed at the Old Bailey to shine a spotlight on this sorry mess?" he asked.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

In the case of crimes for which individuals were suspected, the victims feel tortuously bitter about that and I understand that, I would as well. But it had to be dealt with. It was dealt with. It is part of the reason, along with ending the war and ending the violence and ending the terrorism that Northern Ireland is in an immensely better place than it was"

End Quote Peter Hain Former NI Secretary

Conservative MP Laurence Robertson, chair of the Northern Ireland Select Committee at Westminster and, in 2006, a shadow Northern Ireland minister, said he would ask the Northern Ireland secretary at that time, Peter Hain, who gave him the authority to bypass the true criminal justice system.

Mr Robertson said he felt Parliament had been treated "in a very discourteous way at that time".

"What I'd like to see is some statement made in the House of Commons preferably by the Attorney General," he said.

Speaking on BBC NI's Good Morning Ulster on Tuesday, Mr Hain said Sinn Féin submitted some 200 names and these were subject to a "painstaking process" that was overseen by the attorney general and lord chancellor and involved careful scrutiny by the police.

"The issue was would there ever be evidence sufficient to bring a prosecution. If there was evidence that would have happened.

"In all of the cases where people got a letter from the Northern Ireland Office, it was not on a whim, it happened because it was carefully and diligently checked whether anybody could be prosecuted. If nobody could be, because the evidence did not stack up, then that was assessed."

Mr Hain asked: "What was the alternative? There were 200 people left in a limbo, maybe waiting to be arrested, but not to face prosecution because the evidence was not sufficient.

"In the case of crimes for which individuals were suspected, the victims feel tortuously bitter about that and I understand that, I would as well. But it had to be dealt with. It was dealt with.

"It is part of the reason, along with ending the war and ending the violence and ending the terrorism that Northern Ireland is in an immensely better place than it was. You have the prize of no war, no terrorism, none of that hideous horror any more."

Northern Ireland's chief constable Matt Baggott said the Police Service of NI accepted the court's decision and full responsibility for the failures which resulted in this outcome.

The Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland is to investigate the case.

The Hyde Park attack killed Squadron Quartermaster Corporal Roy Bright, Lieutenant Anthony Daly, Trooper Simon Tipper and Lance Corporal Jeffrey Young on 20 July 1982.

Mr Downey, 62, who was convicted of IRA membership in the 1970s, had denied murdering the soldiers and conspiring to cause an explosion.

He became Scotland Yard's prime suspect for the Hyde Park attack - but he was never extradited from the Republic of Ireland. He was described in court as a committed supporter of the Northern Ireland peace process.

In May 2013, he was arrested at Gatwick Airport while en route to Greece and charged with the murders and bomb attack. Mr Downey had travelled to the UK on four previous occasions since 2010.

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Three held in baby murder inquiry

31 January 2014 Last updated at 16:45 ET

Three people have been arrested in Greater Manchester on suspicion of murdering a seven-week-old baby, police have confirmed.

The boy from Clarksfield, Oldham was admitted to Royal Oldham Hospital on Sunday with severe head injuries and a police investigation was launched.

He was transferred to the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital, where he died.

Two men aged 35 and 26 and a woman aged 23 are being questioned by police.

All three are being held on suspicion of murder and conspiring to pervert the course of justice.

'Great shock'

The woman and 35-year-old man were originally arrested on suspicion of section 18 assault.

A post-mortem examination revealed the boy died from serious head injuries.

Det Insp Andy Cunliffe said it was a "tragic case" in which a very young baby has lost his life.

"We are determined to find out exactly what the circumstances were that led to him suffering such injuries," he said.

"News of the death of such a little boy will no doubt come as a great shock to people and I would like to try and reassure the community as much as I can that we have a team of detectives dedicated to working on this investigation and they will be interviewing the three people in our custody."

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Judge approves forced Caesarean

31 January 2014 Last updated at 23:29 ET

Doctors have been granted permission to perform an urgent Caesarean section on a mentally-ill woman with diabetes.

High Court judge Mr Justice Hayden gave specialists at the Royal Free London NHS Trust approval after a five-hour hearing at the Court of Protection.

He said the decision was "draconian" but necessary because the mother's life may be in danger.

The woman, 32, who is 32 weeks pregnant, was deemed unable to make the decision over how to give birth.

The ruling, late on Friday, came after doctors applied for permission to carry out the delivery in order that the patient's "unstable mental state" could be treated.

A specialist from the trust told the Court of Protection in London, which specialises in issues relating to the sick and vulnerable, that their priority was "keeping this woman alive".

The judge heard how she was thought to have paranoid schizophrenia, had stopped eating and tried to kill herself.

One doctor told the court that her mental and physical problems should improve and be easier to treat once the baby had been born.

Mr Justice Hayden ruled that neither the woman nor the hospital where she was treated should be named but the health authority should be named in order to "serve to reassure public confidence".

He added: "The decision to compel a Caesarean section on an incapacitous woman who is mentally and physically ill is an extremely draconian one.

"Doctors do not embark upon this lightly. It occurs extremely rarely. It is one that the lawyers also take very seriously indeed.

"I am perfectly satisfied that at the moment [this woman] is not able to make any reasoned evaluation of the advantages and disadvantages of a Caesarean section."

He concluded that the woman lacked the mental capacity to regulate her diabetic medicine and monitor her own intake of food and water.

In granting permission for the operation the judge stipulated that the patient should not be restrained or have force used against her.

A specialist advised the court that the baby would not be at risk if delivered via Caesarean section at 32 weeks.

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US presses Russia on Syria weapons

1 February 2014 Last updated at 00:05 ET

US Secretary of State John Kerry has asked Russia to press its ally Syria into speeding up the removal of chemical weapons.

The US says only about 4% of chemical weapons declared by the Syrian government have so far been removed.

Mr Kerry raised the issue with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, officials said.

Syria's chemical weapons are due to be removed and destroyed by 30 June.

Under the terms of the UN-backed plan, Syrian authorities are responsible for packing and safely transporting the chemical weapons to the Mediterranean port of Latakia.

The first consignment of 16 tonnes, from two Syrian sites, left Latakia on 7 January.

A further shipment left on 27 January, according to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

"Secretary Kerry pressed Foreign Minister Lavrov to push the regime for more progress on moving the remaining chemical weapons within Syria to the port in Latakia," the US State Department official said.

Washington considered progress so far to be "unacceptable", the official added.

The OPCW, which is overseeing the destruction of Syria's chemical arsenal, has been meeting in The Hague to discuss the operation's progress.

Earlier this week, the US ambassador to the OPCW, Robert Mikulak, said "the effort to remove chemical agent and key precursor chemicals from Syria has seriously languished and stalled".

"The spotlight now is on Syria to proceed without further delay to comply with its obligations and make this effort a success," he added.

Denmark and Norway are providing cargo ships and military escorts to take them to Italy, where they will be loaded onto a US Maritime Administration cargo ship, MV Cape Ray.

The materials will be destroyed in international waters.

Correspondents say failure to eliminate the weapons could expose Syria to the threat of sanctions, although these would have to be supported in the UN Security Council by Russia and China which have so far refused to back such measures.

• 1. The Syrian authorities are responsible for packing and safely transporting the chemical weapons from 12 sites across the country to the port of Latakia. Russia has supplied large-capacity and armoured lorries, while the US has sent container drums and GPS locators.
• 2. Russia is providing security for loading operations at Latakia, for which the US has supplied loading, transportation and decontamination equipment. China has sent 10 ambulances and surveillance cameras, and Finland an emergency response team in case of accidents.
• 3. Denmark and Norway are providing cargo ships and military escorts to take the chemicals to the container port of Gioia Tauro in Italy. Russia and China are also providing naval escorts and the first consignment of 16 tonnes left Latakia on 7 January.
• 4. In Italy, the "most critical" chemical agents will be loaded onto the US Maritime Administration cargo ship, MV Cape Ray, to be destroyed by hydrolysis in international waters. Less-toxic chemicals will be shipped by Norwegian and Danish vessels for disposal at commercial facilities.

Peace talks

Also in Munich, Mr Kerry and Mr Lavrov met UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and UN envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi to discuss the lack of progress in the Syria peace talks in Geneva.

The talks ended on Friday with rival Syrian delegations trading insults.

Mr Brahimi later told a panel on Syria at the conference: "We have failed somewhere.

"We can say it is an intractable problem, it is difficult. But somewhere there is a failure."

However, Mr Brahimi said he hoped the talks would resume in Geneva on 10 February in a "more constructive" mood.

The Munich Security Conference is an annual event held to discuss military and political affairs.

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Morsi in court over protest deaths

1 February 2014 Last updated at 03:28 ET

Ousted Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi has arrived in court in the capital, Cairo, for the resumption of one of the four trials against him.

Mr Morsi and 14 other figures from the Muslim Brotherhood are charged with inciting the killing of protesters near the presidential palace in 2012.

At a hearing in another trial four days ago, a defiant Mr Morsi shouted that he was still the legitimate president.

He was deposed by the army last year after huge crowds rallied against him.

He is now facing four separate criminal trials on various charges.

They are:

• Inciting supporters to commit violence and murder as they tried to break up an opposition protest in Cairo in December 2012
• Conspiring with foreign organisations to commit terrorist acts, with prosecutors accusing Mr Morsi of forming an alliance with the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah
• Murdering prison officers in a jailbreak in 2011 during the uprising against the then-President Hosni Mubarak
• Insulting the judiciary

Mr Morsi's Islamist supporters say the charges against him are politically motivated, although officials insist the trials are free and fair.

'Kept in a dump'

The former president was flown in by helicopter on Saturday morning from his prison in Alexandria.

Heavy security has been deployed outside the National Police Academy compound where the hearing is taking place.

On Friday, riot police fired tear gas at hundreds of Morsi supporters in Cairo and Alexandria and Fayoum, south of the capital.

Islamists have staged regular protests demanding the reinstatement of Mr Morsi but have been met with a heavy crackdown in which hundreds have died.

The Muslim Brotherhood has been declared a terrorist organisation and authorities have punished any public showing of support for it.

Human rights groups have dismissed some of the allegations against Mr Morsi as preposterous.

There were chaotic scenes when he first appeared in court in early November for the trail resuming on Saturday.

Mr Morsi chanted slogans against the current government and the court. He also refused to recognise the court's legitimacy or put on the required prison uniform.

Last Tuesday, Mr Morsi appeared in court at the beginning of a trial over his escape from prison in 2011.

He was accused of organising a mass breakout from the Wadi al-Natrun prison during the uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak, as well as the murder of prison officers.

During that court appearance, from inside a glassed-in defendants' cage, he shouted: "I am the president of the republic, how can I be kept in a dump for weeks?"

Although Mr Morsi won the presidency in a democratic election, he fell out with key institutions during his 13 months in power.

The interim government has since cracked down on the Muslim Brotherhood, arresting thousands of members. At least one thousand people have been killed in clashes with security forces.

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High tides and wind bring flood risk

1 February 2014 Last updated at 04:29 ET

High tides and gale force winds could bring more flooding to parts of south-west England and the Midlands, the Environment Agency has warned.

It has nine severe flood warnings - meaning a danger to life - in place for the Cornwall and North Devon coasts and the River Severn, south of Gloucester.

Lesser warnings affect many parts of Britain including western Wales and the flood-hit Somerset Levels.

Cobra, the government's emergency committee, has met on the issue.

Discussions on Friday evening were chaired by Environment Secretary Owen Paterson who is urging residents to "listen to all the advice being issued".

"Environment Agency staff are working day and night, alongside the emergency services and other local specialist agencies, to get communities ready for the bad weather," he said.

A band of heavy rain swept across the south west, west Wales and southern England on Friday evening bringing up to 30mm (1.2in) to already-saturated ground.

Kate Marks, the Environment Agency's flood risk manager, said: "A low pressure system combining with high tides brings a risk of coastal flooding to many parts of England.

"The risk is highest for south-west England, although many coastal areas will be affected and the public should stay away from coastlines and tidal areas and not drive through flood water.

"At the same time the risk of river flooding continues for the southern counties as with the ground already saturated, rivers are very responsive to rainfall. Groundwater levels also remain high in southern counties."

The Environment Agency said gales and waves could combine to cause possible overtopping of flood defences and sea walls, property flooding and travel disruption over the weekend.

BBC weather presenter Tomasz Schafernaker said gales were heading towards Britain, with the risk of further flooding.

He said: "The gales will be picking up across western areas through the course of the morning, probably peaking later on in the day across northern parts of the country."

He said winds would gust at up to 70mph (112km/h) in west Wales and south-west England.

There are also more than 150 flood warnings and 275 flood alerts in place across Britain with parts of south-east and north-west England and the Yorkshire and Hull coast all said to be at risk.

Continue reading the main story

At the scene

Matthew Richards BBC News, Abersytwyth

---

People in Aberystwyth are not taking any chances this time around after twice being hit by floods and storms in January.

Six hundred students have been moved from their seafront accommodation to alternative digs elsewhere on campus. The seafront has been quiet this morning with only the occasional jogger or dog walker braving the promenade.

By high tide at 08:41 GMT the waves had begun to crash over the sea wall but no damage has been done so far. High winds may cause problems later on and further extremely high tides are awaited over the weekend.

Some residents have told me they think the precautions were a little over zealous but the authorities were not taking any chances.

In Gloucestershire, the authorities are preparing for the Severn bore tidal surge.

Communities along the Welsh coast, already hit by a storm in early January, are braced for possible further flooding.

Leisure centres in Cardigan and Aberystwyth are open as emergency evacuation support centres if required. The youth centre in Upper Borth is also open.

Adam Wood, from North Somerset Council, said teams had been dispatched along the coast.

Speaking from Clevedon, where a road has been closed as a precaution, he said: "We have got crews in three of our coastal towns.

"We have got a team set up at Weston-super-Mare, with all the main defences there, obviously here we have the road closure, and at Portishead we have a team down there keeping people safe."

The BBC's Katy Watson in Clevedon said there had been a sense relief that the big waves had so far failed to materialise - but the council was taking no risks.

In Europe, areas of Italy and France are on flood alert as heavy rain brings chaos. Hundreds of people have been evacuated from homes in Pisa, Italy, while widespread flooding is expected on the French Atlantic coast.

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BBC Weather presenter Tomasz Schafernaker has the weekend forecast

Meanwhile, Prime Minister David Cameron has expressed "enormous sympathy" for the people who have been living on the Somerset Levels where 25 sq miles (65 sq km) have been flooded for several weeks.

Writing in the Western Daily Press, Mr Cameron said: "I know that a great deal of work has been done to try and alleviate the situation but it is not acceptable for people to have to live like this almost four weeks later - and I am not ruling out any option to get this problem sorted out.

"The government is doing everything we can to help people recover as quickly as possible where they have suffered damage to their homes and businesses."

Continue reading the main story

Holding back the water

Dredging, flood barriers, natural flood management and sustainable drainage are recognised methods of preventing or alleviating flooding. BBC News looks at how these methods work and the scientific principles behind them.

The government and the Environment Agency have been criticised by MPs and local councils in Somerset, where the agency said it was now running pumps 24 hours a day to drain the water.

Personnel from all three branches of the armed forces are currently on stand-by to help villages cut off by the floods.

But the Environment Agency has said dredging of rivers in Somerset would not begin until flood water had drained and river banks were safe.

The Met Office has issued its own warnings of heavy rain and high winds of up to 60mph for many southern and western areas.

"Winds will increase on Saturday, with gusts widely to 50 to 60 mph, and locally to around 70 mph in exposed parts of the west," it said.

"Additionally, large waves could lead to overtopping along some coastlines."

The latest warnings come at the end of a month which has already become the wettest January on record for parts of southern England.

Up to and including 28 January, the south east and central southern England had a record 175.2mm (6.9in) of rainfall in January - beating the previous record of 158.2mm for the same parts of England set in 1988.

Are you in the South West or coastal areas? Have you been affected by flooding? You can share your experiences and pictures with us by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk using the subject heading High Tide.

Send your pictures and videos to yourpics@bbc.co.uk or text them to 61124 (UK) or +44 7624 800 100 (International). If you have a large file you can upload here.

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Labour plans to cut unions' power

1 February 2014 Last updated at 04:32 ET

Trade unions, MPs and MEPs are to have their influence over Labour leadership elections reduced under plans announced by Ed Miliband.

It is part of the Labour leader's proposed shake-up of the party's historic relationship with the trade unions.

Mr Miliband said future leadership contests would be decided by a one member, one vote election.

He described the changes as some of the biggest in the party's history.

The Labour leader embarked on reforming the union link after a selection row in Falkirk last year when allegations of vote-rigging surfaced involving the Unite union.

No wrong-doing has been found to have taken place.

'Cash shortage'

In an interview with the Guardian newspaper, Mr Miliband said: "These are the biggest changes to who can become involved in the Labour Party since probably its formation.

"They go much further than people expected, but they are designed to open us up and complete unfinished business of the past 20 years.

"These reforms are about letting people back into our politics, and getting them back into politics."

Currently - under Labour's electoral college system - MPs and MEPs get a third of the votes to select a new leader, trade unions get a third and party members another third.

That system is to be abolished with every party member and those union members who donate to the party having an equal say.

Under Labour's plans, from the end of 2014 new members of unions affiliated to the party would have to opt in and pay a £3 fee to Labour before they got a vote.

This process would be phased in over five years for existing union members.

MPs would retain the sole right to nominate leadership candidates.

The threshold those candidates would need is also to be raised - possibly to 20% of Labour's MPs.

'Massive change'

Continue reading the main story

A new method of electing Labour's leader - the electoral college, which gives unions, party members and MPs/MEPs a third of the votes each, abolished in favour of one member, one vote

MPs have sole nomination rights for leadership candidates and those candidates will need a higher level of support than at present - possibly 20% of MPs

All union members will have to 'double opt-in' if they want to take part in a leadership contest. They have to say that they are content to give money to Labour AND that they want to become 'an affiliated supporter'

Only full party members - not trade-union 'affiliated supporters' - will choose parliamentary and council candidates

Changes to London mayoral selection - Labour's candidate to be selected in the same way as the party leader

New leadership rules will be put in place this year - but changes to the party's funding will be phased in over five years

At present, trade union members pay a levy to the party - decided by the union - unless they opt out.

Describing the changes as "massive", Mr Miliband acknowledged they could mean donations to the party falling.

"I make no apology for making sure the party is financially secure, so these reforms are being phased over a five-year timescale."

In another mooted change, registered supporters - those who have registered their support but are not full party members - would be entitled to vote in leadership and mayoral elections "for a small fee".

There are currently around 20,000 such supporters and the party hopes to boost that number - partly as a counterweight to the votes of trade unionists, BBC political correspondent Iain Watson said.

Mr Miliband sought to reassure his parliamentary party, telling the Guardian: "They will continue to play an important role with their right to nominate, so it will be MPs that will decide who goes forward to the election in the country on the principle of one member one vote."

The BBC also understands that unions will retain 50% of the votes at the party's conference.

Veteran Labour MP Alan Johnson said he had been arguing for the changes since his time as Communication Workers Union general secretary.

"This is absolutely the right way to go," he told BBC News.

"We have a genuine one member, one vote system to elect our leader."

But the party's Glasgow South West MP Ian Davidson said: "There's been nobody in my constituency coming along and saying to me at this time of economic crisis, what we need is a reorganisation of the Labour Party."

Conservative Party Chairman Grant Shapps suggested union members could outnumber ordinary members by 10 to one under the proposed changes.

He said: "Until now, the union barons could buy Labour's policies, pick Labour's leader and fix Labour's candidate selections. After these changes, it will be even easier for the union barons to buy Labour's policies, even easier to pick the leader and even easier to fix the selections."

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