First-time buyers get 20% discount

28 February 2015 Last updated at 08:23 By Joe Lynam Business correspondent, BBC News

First-time buyers under the age of 40 in England can now register to buy new homes at a discount of up to 20% off the normal price.

The offer is part of the government's new "starter homes" scheme to encourage home ownership and construction on previously used "brownfield" land.

The government hopes that 100,000 new houses will be built specifically for first-time buyers by 2020.

Labour said the plans would ring hollow for those priced out of the market.

The 20% discount is achieved because homebuilders on brownfield sites would not have to pay local authority fees of at least £45,000 per dwelling.

The government said there would be no compromise on quality or energy efficiency, but first-time buyers would have to repay the 20% price advantage if they sold within five years.

Housing minister Brandon Lewis urged first-time buyers to register on the starter homes website from Saturday.

He said: "We're actually at the start of an affordable house building programme that's the fastest build rate in about 20 years.

"And this new starter homes programme is another 100,000 homes on top of everything else that we're doing, allowing those first time buyers, people who want to own that home of their own, to be able to do that - a good design, well-built home, with a 20 per cent discount.

"When you link that with help to buy it opens up the ability to own a home to a whole new group of people."

But Labour said that the government had presided over the lowest levels of house building since the 1920s and home ownership was at its lowest level for three decades.

The number of houses being built in the UK fell during the final three months of 2014 - the first such decline for nearly two years.

The 0.2% drop in new home construction compared with a 6.1% increase in the previous quarter.

Overall, total construction output fell by 2.1% in the quarter, the Office for National Statistics said.

The government introduced a scheme called Help to Buy in England in April 2013.

It was aimed at helping those trying to get on the housing ladder who could afford mortgage repayments but were struggling to raise a deposit.

In March 2014, Chancellor George Osborne announced that the scheme in England would be extended to 2020 rather than December 2016, as planned.

Are you a first-time buyer struggling to get on to the property ladder? Would you register for this scheme? You can share your thoughts by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk. Please include a telephone number if you are willing to be contacted by a BBC journalist.

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US avoids homeland security shutdown

28 February 2015 Last updated at 05:53

The US Homeland Security Department has avoided a partial shutdown as Congress passed a one-week funding extension, hours before a midnight deadline.

The House of Representatives voted 357-60 in favour of the short-term bill after it had been passed in the Senate.

President Barack Obama, who said he would back a short-term deal to avert a shutdown, signed it shortly afterwards.

It ensures the department's 250,000 employees will be paid while a longer-term funding agreement is discussed.

The two-thirds majority vote was reached about two hours before the midnight (05:00 GMT Saturday) deadline.

Earlier, Republicans had rejected a similar three-week extension after provisions against President Obama's immigration plan were dropped.

The one-week deal was backed by a majority of Democrats despite many of them voting against the earlier bill in the hope that a longer-term deal could be agreed.

The move came shortly after President Obama had spoken by phone to Democratic leaders in a bid to avert the partial department closure.

The Department of Homeland Security is responsible for securing US borders, airports and coastal waters.

About 200,000 "essential" department employees would have continued to work without pay if the agency's funding had not been secured.

Effects of a Homeland Security shutdown

• Airport security agents required to work without pay
• Employers would not have the ability to use a programme called E-Verify to check if new employees are authorised to work legally in the US
• No grants made to local and state authorities, including for training and new equipment
• Secret Service will not be able to hire agents to protect 2016 presidential candidates
• Civil rights and civil liberties complaint lines and investigations will be shut down

Some Republicans had wanted to use the funding of the department, which includes immigration officials, as a bargaining chip to force President Obama to end policies on immigration.

Last November, Mr Obama used his executive powers to protect about five million undocumented immigrants from deportation. Republicans say Mr Obama overstepped his powers in doing so.

A separate ruling by a federal judge has blocked those policies from starting while a lawsuit by more than two dozen states goes forward.

Some Republicans senators had expressed a desire to fight the executive actions in the courts, rather than threaten the department's funding.

The BBC's Naomi Grimley in Washington says many on Capitol Hill feared a public backlash if the funding had been thrown into doubt at a time of fears about "lone wolf" terrorists.

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Will undocumented people come forward amid uncertainty?

On Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson urged Congress to pass full funding.

"A short-term continuing resolution exacerbates the uncertainty for my workforce and puts us back in the same position, on the brink of a shutdown just days from now," Mr Johnson said.

Last week, the White House said Mr Obama would prefer a full funding bill but would sign a short-term measure to prevent a shutdown.

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UK 'must prepare for Russian threat'

28 February 2015 Last updated at 06:35

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Sir John Sawers spoke to Today's Mishal Hussein

Russia has become a danger to Britain and the country must be prepared to take steps to defend itself and its allies, the former head of MI6 says.

Sir John Sawers, who recently retired after five years as chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that Russia poses a "state to state threat".

Sir John said dealing with such threats would require more defence spending.

But he called on issues with Russia to be addressed by "increased dialogue".

He said he was disappointed how, after the end of the Cold War, Russia's and Europe's paths had failed to converge.

Russia's threat was "not necessarily directly to the UK but to countries around its periphery".

"[Russia] keep on reminding us that they have nuclear weapons," he said.

"The one level in which Russia and America are equals is at the nuclear level.

"Now we don't want to have a repeat of the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 where we got to the brink of nuclear war.

"We need to be able to address this through increased dialogue."

'Multi-polar world'

His comments come after a year of fighting in eastern Ukraine between government forces and pro-Russian separatists.

"We shouldn't kid ourselves that Russia is on a path to democracy because it isn't," Sir John said.

"One of the aspects of the modern world is that we live in a much more dangerous world these days.

"The stability that we had during the Cold War, or the predominance of the West that we had in the decade or two after the Cold War - that is now changing.

"It's a much sort of flatter world, a much more multi-polar world and there are real dangers associated with that."

Sir John described Russia as always having been an "issue of concern" for security services.

"Europe and Russia are not converging with one another so we're going to have to find a new way to coexist with Russia," he said.

"This crisis at the moment - it's focused on Ukraine but Ukraine is a symptom. It's not the real problem.

"The real problem is how we live with a Russia which feels very exposed. Putin's actions are ones of a leader who believes his own security is at stake.

"And here we've got nuclear bombers approaching the Cornish coast."

Jihadist threat

Sir John said the UK needed to prepare to take defensive measures for itself and the nation's allies, which include the Baltic states and central Europe.

"We've got to have the capability to deal with things like the hybrid warfare that we've seen Russia deploy, first in Crimea and then in the Donbass region, we've got to have the ability to deal with cyberwarfare.

"What's really important is that we're able to fulfil all of our defence commitments and I think that that's going to require a reversal in the trend in defence spending.

"We're going to have to spend more on our defence and our security because the threats are greater."

In a wide-ranging interview, Sir John also discussed the threat from jihadists.

His comments come after Mohammed Emwazi, a Kuwaiti-born British man in his mid-20s and from west London, was identified as "Jihadi John", an individual pictured in the videos of several beheadings of Western hostages.

Sir John said there were two answers to the question of why people became radicalised.

The first is that Muslims "are less well integrated" into UK society "and there are a number of social and economic factors that are related to that".

Secondly, he said, the Islamic religion "as a whole is not well geared to reviving and modernising itself so that it meets the values and the norms of a 21st Century society".

"So there's a big political challenge which can only really be taken up by leaders in the Islamic world... it can't be imposed by the West."

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MPs call for energy switch 'refunds'

28 February 2015 Last updated at 09:17

Energy price comparison sites should compensate customers who were not given the cheapest deals, MPs have said.

Sites have previously been criticised for not showing the cheapest tariffs, or details of commission they earn.

Now, the Commons Energy and Climate Change Committee says "duped" customers should get some money back.

Mark Todd, of energy switching company Energy Helpline, claimed that forcing comparison sites to show all tariffs could "unravel" the industry.

Last year, the websites were accused of using a mechanism that asked consumers if they wanted to switch gas and electricity suppliers immediately.

By clicking "yes" to that question, all the deals that did not earn the company a commission were filtered out.

Only if a consumer clicked "no" were they shown other deals, which could be cheaper.

Rates of commission earned by the different websites from suppliers varied from £22 to £30 for a single switch, or £44 to £60 for a "duel fuel" if a customer switched both gas and electricity supplier, the report said.

Tim Yeo, the committee's chairman, said it was "perfectly proper" that sites earned a commission, but they must be open and honest about their practices.

"Some energy price comparison sites have been behaving more like backstreet market traders than the trustworthy consumer champions they make themselves out to be in adverts on TV.

"Some comparison sites have used misleading language to dupe consumers into opting for default options that only display commission-earning deals.

"And others have previously gone so far as to conceal deals that do not earn them commission behind multiple drop-down web options."

Continue reading the main story

Millions of pounds have been saved by using price comparison sites to switch - by shopping around people can make sure they find the best energy deal available"

End Quote Department of Energy and Climate Change

By the end of March, websites signed up to its consumer confidence code will have to show all the tariffs on offer, unless customers choose to see a more limited range.

Mr Todd, co-founder of Energy Helpline, which powers Compare the Market and Go Compare, said his sites now show all available tariffs by default - but claimed forcing all sites to do so could have repercussions.

"If everyone is forced to do that, it could undermine the whole market. It could become so great, that the whole thing could unravel," he said.

"If everyone is forced to show everything, what is the benefit of a supplier paying a commission to a price comparison?"

He also claimed energy comparison sites gave "much better coverage in price comparison" than other sectors, such as flight or hotel booking sites.

"Don't believe it's everything, unless it says it's everything. Because most comparison sites don't show you things they don't earn a commission on," he said.

Confidence code

The committee is calling on energy regulator Ofgem to consider requiring price comparison sites and other third parties to disclose the amount of commission they get for each customer switch made, at the point of sale.

The regulator also forwarded the issue to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) which is now considering the role of price comparison sites as part of its wider review of the energy market.

In a statement, the comparison site uSwitch said that it had helped households save £112m on energy bills last year but it said that it had made compensation payments to some customers.

Steve Weller, uSwitch chief executive, said: "What is important now is that all switching services - be they price comparison sites, collective switching schemes or offline switching services - are required to meet the same high standards."

A Department of Energy and Climate Change spokesman said: "Millions of pounds have been saved by using price comparison sites to switch - by shopping around people can make sure they find the best energy deal available.

"Consumer trust and confidence in price comparison sites is important and, with Ofgem's strengthened confidence code, people will be able to have greater confidence than ever before that, by switching, they'll save."

Do you use price comparison websites? Have you been "duped" by one? If you are happy to speak to a BBC journalist about the issue email us Haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk and remember to include a contact number.

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Putin critic Boris Nemtsov shot dead

28 February 2015 Last updated at 09:56

A leading Russian opposition politician, former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov, has been shot dead in Moscow, Russian officials say.

An unidentified attacker in a car shot Mr Nemtsov four times in the back as he crossed a bridge in view of the Kremlin, police say.

He died hours after appealing for support for a march on Sunday in Moscow against the war in Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has condemned the murder, the Kremlin says.

President Putin has assumed "personal control" of the investigation into the killing, said his spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Investigators said the murder could have been "a provocation aimed at destabilising the country".

The investigative committee said in a statement that several motives for the killing were being considered including "Islamic extremism".

US President Barack Obama condemned the "brutal murder" and called on the Russian government to conduct a "prompt, impartial and transparent investigation".

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko described Mr Nemtsov as a "bridge between Ukraine and Russia".

"The murderers' shot has destroyed it. I think it is not by accident," he said in a statement published on his administration's Facebook page.

In a recent interview, Mr Nemtsov had said he feared Mr Putin would have him killed because of his opposition to the war in Ukraine.

Mr Nemtsov, 55, served as first deputy prime minister under President Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s.

He had earned a reputation as an economic reformer while governor of one of Russia's biggest cities, Nizhny Novgorod.

Falling out of favour with Yeltsin's successor, Mr Putin, he became an outspoken opposition politician.

Analysis: Sarah Rainsford, BBC Moscow correspondent

A lawyer for Mr Nemtsov reported that he had received death threats over social media in recent months; but for now there's only speculation as to why he was targeted. He openly opposed Moscow's role in the crisis in Ukraine - and the annexation by Russia of Crimea.

He had been planning a rare public protest on Sunday against both things - and a growing economic crisis in this country.

Since his death, social media has been flooded with tributes to a man remembered by friends as decent, honest and a democrat. He had been pushed to the political margins in Vladimir Putin's Russia, but he was still prominent enough for someone to want to kill him.

Profile: Boris Nemtsov

Russian and world reaction

Mr Nemtsov was shot at around 23:40 (20:40 GMT) on Friday while crossing Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge accompanied by a woman, Russia's interior ministry said.

He was shot with a pistol from a white car which fled the scene, a police source told Russia's Interfax news agency.

According to Russian-language news website Meduza, "several people" got out of a car and shot him.

One of the politician's colleagues in his RPR-Parnassus party, Ilya Yashin, confirmed Mr Nemtsov's death.

"Unfortunately I can see the corpse of Boris Nemtsov in front of me now," he was quoted as saying by Russia's lenta.ru news website.

Flowers were left at the site of the shooting through the night.

Violent deaths of Putin opponents

April 2003 - Liberal politician Sergey Yushenkov assassinated near his Moscow home

July 2003 - Investigative journalist Yuri Shchekochikhin died after 16-day mysterious illness

July 2004 - Forbes magazine Russian editor Paul Klebnikov shot from moving car on Moscow street, died later in hospital

October 2006 - Investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya shot dead outside her Moscow apartment

November 2006 - Former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko died nearly three weeks after drinking tea laced with polonium in London hotel

March 2013 - Boris Berezovsky, former Kremlin power broker turned Putin critic, found dead in his UK home

'Putin's aggression'

In his last tweet, Mr Nemtsov sent out an appeal for Russia's divided opposition to unite at an anti-war march he was planning for Sunday.

"If you support stopping Russia's war with Ukraine, if you support stopping Putin's aggression, come to the Spring March in Maryino on 1 March," he wrote.

Speaking earlier this month to Russia's Sobesednik news website, he had spoken of his fears for his own life.

"I'm afraid Putin will kill me," he said in the article (in Russian) on 10 February.

"I believe that he was the one who unleashed the war in the Ukraine," he added. "I couldn't dislike him more."

Mr Putin has been widely accused of fomenting the bloody rebellion in east Ukraine - an accusation he denies. Fighting there followed Russia's annexation of Crimea in March last year.

Almost 5,800 people have died and at least 1.25 million have fled their homes, according to the UN.

The Ukrainian government, Western leaders and Nato say there is clear evidence that Russia is helping the rebels with heavy weapons and soldiers.

Independent experts echo that accusation while Moscow denies it, insisting that any Russians serving with the rebels are "volunteers".

Are you in Russia? What is your reaction to the death of Boris Nemtsov? You can email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.

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Gary Glitter jailed for 16 years

27 February 2015 Last updated at 12:05

Former singer Gary Glitter has been jailed for a total of 16 years for sexually abusing three young girls between 1975 and 1980.

Glitter, whose real name is Paul Gadd, was sentenced for attempted rape, four counts of indecent assault and one of having sex with a girl under 13.

Sentencing, Judge Alistair McCreath said he could find "no real evidence" that Gadd had atoned for his crimes.

The 70-year-old show no emotion as he left the dock at Southwark Crown Court.

Judge McCreath told Gadd that it was clear his victims "were all profoundly affected" by his abuse of them.

"You did all of them real and lasting damage and you did so for no other reason than to obtain sexual gratification for yourself of a wholly improper kind," he said.

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Lloyds to resume dividend payments

27 February 2015 Last updated at 10:34

Lloyds Banking Group has confirmed that it will resume paying dividends to shareholders for the first time since the financial crisis in 2008.

The announcement came as it reported full-year statutory profits of £1.8bn.

Lloyds is now 23.9% state-owned after the government sold another parcel of shares in the bank earlier this week, raising £500m.

The government's stake had been as high as 41% when it ploughed in £20bn to prop the bank up in 2008.

Lloyds said it would pay a dividend of 0.75 pence per share, amounting to £535m to be split among the bank's three million shareholders.

The largest share, £130m, will go to the government.

The bank added that it had made a further £700m provision in the fourth quarter to settle cases arising from mis-sold payment protection insurance (PPI), bringing the total set aside for the year to £2.2bn.

It also made a £925m provision for other regulatory matters during the year, including £150m to cover the mis-selling of interest rate hedging products to small and medium-sized businesses.

Lloyds' profit for the year represents a big improvement on its performance in 2013, when it made £415m.

The bank's shares were up 1.1% in morning trading following the announcement.

Incentive plan

The bank said it would be paying out discretionary annual bonuses worth £369.5m for 2014.

Its chief executive, Antonio Horta-Osorio, is set to receive a total remuneration package of £11m, consisting of basic pay of £1m, an £800,000 bonus and the payout of a three-year long-term incentive plan, which gives him 535,083 shares.

BBC business editor Kamal Ahmed says there will be controversy over the level of Mr Horta-Osorio's pay, particularly the share plan, which was agreed by the government in 2012 and completes, or "vests", this year.

Our editor points out that because Lloyds' share price has risen so rapidly on the back of the bank's successful turnaround, the shares that the chief executive will receive are much more valuable: 78p each, as against 35p in 2008.

He has been told that Mr Horta-Osorio will pledge not to cash in any of those shares until the government has "substantially" sold the rest of its stake and the taxpayer has been paid back the money used to bail out the bank.

Mr Horta-Osorio told our business editor that he was "really pleased" his bank had resumed dividend payments.

"We went from a very, very negative position in terms of profitability to a position where we generated £7.8bn of underlying profitability [and] we generated £1.8bn of pre-tax profit," he added.

Continue reading the main story

Banking analyst Alex Potter told BBC Radio 5 live's Wake Up to Money that the resumption of dividend payments indicated that Lloyds had returned to health.

"Actually, an awful lot of [investment] funds haven't been able to buy Lloyds shares at all while they haven't been paying a dividend, so actually, just the allowance of those potential shareholders on to the [share] register again is going to be a pretty good thing," he said.

'Progress is possible'

Richard Hunter, head of equities at Hargreaves Lansdown stockbrokers, described Lloyds' results as "something of a breath of fresh air".

He described the return to a dividend payment as "a sign of confidence in future prospects", although the new PPI provision was "somewhat disappointing".

"Nonetheless, the bank is riding the wave of a resurgent UK economy and, along with its own measures to improve metrics across the board, the market consensus of the shares as a buy has been vindicated by these numbers," he added.

John Cridland, director general of employers' organisation the CBI, said: "It is encouraging to hear some good news from the banking sector. All of our major banks are on difficult turnaround journeys and Lloyds have shown that progress is possible.

"It is right in these circumstances that the hard work of staff is recognised. The CBI has been clear that rewards for failure are unacceptable, but legitimate financial rewards for success should not be vilified."

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Widow wants 'Jihadi John' alive

27 February 2015 Last updated at 10:49

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The masked militant first appeared in numerous gruesome videos put out by Islamic State, as Lucy Manning reports

The widow of a man killed by a masked Islamic State militant known as "Jihadi John" says she wants him caught alive.

Dragana Haines said the "last thing" she wanted for the man who had killed her husband, British aid worker David Haines, was an "honourable death".

The militant, pictured in the videos of the beheadings of Western hostages, has been named as Mohammed Emwazi, a Kuwaiti-born Briton from west London.

Mr Haines' daughter said she wanted to see "a bullet between his eyes".

Emwazi, who is in his mid-20s and was previously known to British security services, first appeared in a video last August, when he apparently killed the US journalist James Foley.

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Dragana Haines, wife of slain hostage David: "I hope he will be caught alive... He needs to be put to justice"

He was later thought to have been pictured in the videos of the beheadings of Mr Haines, US journalist Steven Sotloff, British taxi driver Alan Henning, and American aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig, also known as Peter.

Mrs Haines told the BBC she wanted him to be caught alive and not have an "honourable death" by being killed in action.

She added: "I think he needs to be put to justice, but not in that way."

However Mr Haines' daughter, Bethany, told ITV News: "I think all the families will feel closure and relief once there's a bullet between his eyes."

There have been questions about how Emwazi was able to travel to Syria and how he may have been radicalised.

Emwazi graduated from the University of Westminster in 2009 and it has been suggested he may have come into contact with extremists while he was a student there.

Student Rights, a group tackling extremism on university campuses, told BBC News it had found a number of events at the university that featured extremist Islamist preachers, and large amounts of extremist material had been shared with students.

Rupert Sutton, the group's director, said: "Given that he travelled so soon after graduating, it's entirely possible he picked up the views that led him to travel whilst he was studying."

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

As a mum I forgive him"

End Quote Diane Foley Mother of IS murder victim James Foley

A spokesman from the University of Westminster said it "condemned the promotion of radicalisation, terrorism and violence or threats against any member of our community".

It said the Education Act placed two competing responsibilities on universities to promote free speech and a duty to protect students from harm, but it was working with the government's Prevent strategy to tackle extremism.

BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner told Radio 4's Today programme there were questions for the security services about how "someone on a terror watch list, somebody of real concern, was able to slip out of this country and turn up in Syria like that unhindered".

While Chris Phillips, former head of the National Counter Terrorism Security Office, said the case demonstrated the need for security services to have increased powers, including access to phone records, proposed in the so-called "snoopers' charter".

He said: "It's clear also that TPIMs (Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures) and control orders just don't work. We need to have a way of dealing with people in this kind of situation.

"The numbers are growing and the police resources are not."

Analysis: Frank Gardner, BBC News

US and British counter-terrorism officials discovered the identity of "Jihadi John" as far back as last September. The FBI, Britain's MI5 and other intelligence agencies used a combination of voice-recognition software, interviews with former hostages and on-the-ground research in London to build up a profile of the man now revealed to be Mohammed Emwazi.

They have always declined to reveal the name for "operational reasons". Now that it's out in the public domain, it's emerged that Emwazi was well known to MI5 and that it even tried to recruit him as an informer, years before he went off to Syria to eventually join Islamic State.

The practice by intelligence agencies of approaching jihadist sympathisers to work for them is likely to continue. It's believed both Britain and the US have informers inside the Islamic State "capital" of Raqqa. Yet this seems to have been little help in stopping the actions of Mohammed Emwazi, or bringing him to justice.

Profile: Mohammed Emwazi

Jihadist's 'typical trajectory'

Dr Afzal Ashraf, a counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency expert who advised the government on the Prevent strategy between 2009 and 2011, said people were more likely to be radicalised by groups they believed could be successful.

"One of the reasons we don't have Nazis and right-wing extremists in great numbers doing what they do is because Nazism and right-wing extremism has been discredited.

"Not many people believe they are going to change the world into that format.

"The problem is that al-Qaeda, and now IS, has demonstrated a degree of success as far as these people are concerned and they actually believe there is a possibility of success."

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

These people are inhumane dogs"

End Quote Kasim Jameel Friend of IS murder victim Alan Henning

In each of the videos Emwazi appeared in, the militant was dressed in a black robe with a black balaclava covering all but his eyes and top of his nose.

Speaking with a British accent, he taunted Western powers before holding his knife to the hostages' necks, appearing to start cutting before the film stopped. The victims' decapitated bodies were then shown.

Earlier this month, a video in which the Japanese journalist Kenji Goto appeared to be beheaded featured the militant.

Hostages released by IS said he was one of three British jihadists guarding Westerners abducted by the group in Syria. They were known collectively as "the Beatles".

A spokesman for the family of Steven Sotloff said: "We want to sit in a courtroom, watch him sentenced and see him sent to a super-max prison."

Mr Foley's mother Diane told the Times that she forgave her son's killer.

"It saddens me, [Emwazi's] continued hatred," she said. "He felt wronged, now we hate him - now that just prolongs the hatred. We need to end it.

"As a mum I forgive him. You know, the whole thing is tragic - an ongoing tragedy."

Kasim Jameel, a friend of Mr Henning, told The Times he wanted Emwazi dead.

Mr Jameel, who led an aid convoy that was joined by Mr Henning, said: "He needs to be annihilated. I wouldn't believe in an eye for an eye but he murdered my best friend and he should be eradicated."

He added: "These people are inhumane dogs, they are worse than any other terrorist group and I don't care how he's killed, whether it's by the security services or a US drone, it might finally bring some closure."

Mohammed Emwazi's movements before heading to Syria

• 1. Aug 2009, refused entry to Tanzania: travels to Tanzania with two friends, but is refused entry at Dar es Salaam. Tanzanian police have denied Emwazi's name is on their database of suspected foreign criminals detained and deported in 2009, as he had claimed. Emwazi and his friends are put on flight to Amsterdam, where they are questioned. They return to Dover and are questioned again.
• 2. Sept 2009, travels to Kuwait for work: leaves the UK for Kuwait for work.
• 3. May/June 2010, returns to UK for holiday: he returns to the UK for an eight-day visit.
• 4. July 2010, refused re-entry to Kuwait: Emwazi returns to the UK once more for a couple of days. He is stopped at Heathrow on his return to Kuwait and told he cannot travel as his visa has expired.
• 5. 2013, travels to Syria: Emwazi changes his name to Mohammed al-Ayan and attempts to travel to Kuwait but is stopped and questioned. Three days later, he heads abroad. Police later inform his family he has travelled to Syria.

Source: Cage

'Jihadi John' movement mapped

In a news conference on Thursday, Asim Qureshi, the research director of the London-based lobby group Cage, which had been in contact with Emwazi over a number of years, detailed the difficulties Emwazi had faced with security services in the UK and overseas.

Mr Qureshi said Emwazi, who is understood to be about 27, had been "extremely kind, gentle and soft-spoken, the most humble young person I knew".

But Cage was told by Emwazi that he was "harassed" by security services, with later emails suggesting he was "witnessing perceived injustices everywhere", Mr Qureshi said.

However, Rafaello Pantucci, author of We Love Life As You Love Death, said the suggestion the security services may have driven Emwazi to carry out his killings was "disproportionate".

He said: "Security services asking questions and making your life a little bit difficult and ending up murdering people in this very cold-blooded way seems a very disproportionate causal link."

Profile: Cage

Cage, formerly known as Cageprisoners, is an advocacy group set up by former Guantanamo detainee Moazzem Begg.

It describes itself as "an independent organisation working to empower communities impacted by the War on Terror".

Cage has spoken out against the UK's anti-terrorism laws, describing them as draconian and targeting Muslims.

Cage campaigned for the release of the Salford taxi driver Alan Henning, before he was murdered by Islamic State militants in Syria last October.

Cage has also worked with family of Michael Adebolajo, who was convicted of killing Fusilier Lee Rigby in Woolwich in 2013.

Emwazi 'claimed harassment'

According to Cage, Emwazi had travelled to Tanzania in May 2009 following his graduation in computer programming from the University of Westminster.

Mr Qureshi said Emwazi and two friends had planned to go on a safari but once they landed in Dar es Salaam they were detained by police and held overnight.

Tanzanian police appeared to contradict this account and said Mohammed Emwazi's name was not in their database of suspected foreign criminals detained and deported in 2009, though they said he might have been using another identity or forged travel

Emwazi then ended up flying to Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, where he claimed to be met by British intelligence agents from MI5 who accused him of trying to travel to Somalia, where the jihadist group al-Shabab operates. He denied the accusation and said the agents had tried to recruit him before allowing him to return to the UK.

In early 2013, at his father's suggestion, Emwazi changed his name by deed poll to Mohammed al-Ayan, Cage said.

Emwazi was believed to have travelled to Syria around 2013 and later joined IS, which has declared the creation of a "caliphate" in the large swathes of Syria and neighbouring Iraq it controls.

A spokeswoman for Prime Minister David Cameron would not confirm or deny the latest reports, adding that the police and security services were working hard to find those responsible for the murder of the British hostages.

British police have not commented on the identity of the militant known as "Jihadi John", citing ongoing inquiries.

Jihadi John sightings

• August 2014: Video in which US journalist James Foley is apparently beheaded
• 2 September 2014: Video in which US journalist Steve Sotloff is apparently beheaded
• 13 September 2014: Video in which British aid worker David Haines is apparently beheaded
• October 2014: Video in which British aid worker Alan Henning is apparently beheaded
• November 2014: Video in which Jihadi John is shown killing a Syrian soldier in a mass beheading, which also shows body of US aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig, also known as Peter Kassig
• 20 January 2015: Video in which Jihadi John is seen standing alongside two Japanese hostages and demanding a ransom in exchange for their release
• 31 January 2015: Video released appearing to show Jihadi John beheading Japanese hostage Kenji Goto

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US-Bangladesh writer hacked to death

27 February 2015 Last updated at 11:01

A knife-wielding mob has hacked to death a US-Bangladeshi blogger whose writing on religion had brought threats from Islamist hardliners.

Avijit Roy, an atheist who advocated secularism, was attacked in Dhaka as he walked back from a book fair with his wife, who was hurt in the attack.

No-one has been arrested but police say they are investigating a local Islamist group that praised the killing.

Hundreds of students gathered in Dhaka to mourn the blogger's death.

Mr Roy's family say he had received threats after publishing articles promoting secular views, science and social issues on his Bengali-language blog, Mukto-mona, or Free Mind.

The website was inaccessible on Friday.

He defended atheism in a recent Facebook post, calling it "a rational concept to oppose any unscientific and irrational belief".

The killing of another secular blogger in early 2013, which was blamed on religious hardliners, sparked protests from free-speech supports and counter-protests from Islamists.

The police said the attack on Mr Roy was similar to the 2013 murder.

A group of men ambushed the couple, who live in the US and were visiting Dhaka only to attend the book festival, as they walked toward a roadside tea stall.

At least two of the attackers hit them with meat cleavers, police chief Sirajul Islam told the AP news agency.

The attackers dropped their weapons and ran away, disappearing into the crowds.

The police told the BBC they were investigating a local hard-line religious group that had praised the killing in an online message.

Death threats against atheist writers and bloggers are nothing new in Bangladesh.

Prominent writer Taslima Nasreen had to leave Bangladesh after she received death threats from hard-line Islamists in the mid-1990s.

She wrote on her blog: "Avijit Roy has been killed the way other free thinker writers were killed in Bangladesh. No freethinker is safe in Bangladesh.

"Islamic terrorists can do whatever they like. They can kill people with no qualms whatsoever."

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Labour pledges £6,000 tuition fees

27 February 2015 Last updated at 12:11 By Sean Coughlan Education correspondent

Ed Miliband is announcing Labour's plan to cut university tuition fees in England to £6,000 per year.

He will reveal how a Labour government would pay for the fee cut - which is likely to include reducing tax relief on pensions for high earners.

The rising level of student debt has been a "disaster", the Labour leader says in a speech in Leeds.

Business Secretary Vince Cable said cutting fees would be "completely financially illiterate".

A Conservative spokesman said under the current system, the numbers of students from disadvantaged backgrounds were at their "highest ever level".

The Labour leader is also expected to promise more support for loans and grants to cover students' living costs. There have been concerns that young people from middle-income families do not have access to sufficient student loans.

Living costs

Universities UK has warned that limiting the fees to £6,000 per year would create a £10bn funding gap over the next five years, threatening "significant damage" to the higher education system.

But Mr Miliband will explain how he believes cutting fees could be funded without reducing universities' income.

This could include reducing tax relief on pensions for high earners, which would be used to provide funds for universities to bridge the gap from reduced fees.

The announcement of Labour's policy on fees has been much delayed, with reports of disagreements between senior party figures over whether cutting tuition fees should be a priority for investment.

Analysis: Iain Watson, BBC political correspondent

Ed Miliband's opponents - inside as well as outside the Labour party - have urged him to drop plans to reduce the maximum level of tuition fees in England from £9,000 to £6,000, arguing that there is little political or economic benefit in doing so.

So today he'll attempt to answer his critics by denouncing the current system as bad both for graduates and for taxpayers as a whole.

He is determined to press on with his policy despite the scepticism, because he believes it will have an inter-generational appeal.

Labour's private polling suggests that tuition fees isn't just an important issue for young people, but that older voters too dislike the idea of the next generation apparently being saddled with debts.

University heads have also argued that the increase in tuition fees to £9,000 has not deterred applications from poorer students, instead the numbers of poorer students have risen.

Mr Miliband will say that the current system is putting unacceptable levels of debt on to young people and proving expensive to the taxpayer, because so much of student loans has to be written off.

Under the present system, students are being left with an average of £44,000 debt, he will say.

"The government has designed a system which is burdening students with debt today and set to weight down the taxpayer with more debt tomorrow," the Labour leader is expected to say.

"This is a system that will have added an extra £16bn more than predicted to public debt by the end of the next Parliament. If left unchecked, the system will have added £281bn to debt by 2030.

"And much of this money will never be paid back. By the late 2040s, student loan write-offs will be hitting £21bn a year - almost double the entire cost of police services in England and Wales. It must go down as one of the most expensive broken promises in history."

'Failed experiment'

Mr Miliband will say that young people have been "betrayed" by the tuition fees system, leaving them worse off than previous generations.

"This is a disaster for them and a disaster for the future of Britain too - a country where the next generation is doing worse than their parents is the definition of a country in decline."

The Labour leader will seek to reassure university heads that they will not lose out in the proposed changes.

But Universities UK, representing university leaders, has voiced its concern about cuts to fees.

"Cutting the fees cap from £9,000 to £6,000 creates a £10bn funding gap over the next parliament," said Sir Christopher Snowden, vice-chancellor of the University of Surrey and president of Universities UK.

"Such a shortfall, if not met in full from other sources of public finance, could cause significant damage to the economy, to social mobility, to student choice, and to our universities. For universities, it is a funding question, not a fee question.

"One has to ask whether a policy of cutting fees is sensible given the many other pressing demands on public funding. Students are telling us they need assistance with living costs rather than tuition fees," said Sir Christopher.

The current tuition fee system

• In England, fees up to £9,000 per year, repayments begin once students graduate and earn above £21,000. Unpaid debt written off after 30 years
• In Scotland, no fees for students from Scotland
• In Wales, fees for students from Wales, £3,810
• In Northern Ireland, fees for students from Northern Ireland £3,805

Pam Tatlow, chief executive of the Million+ group of new universities, said lowering fees made "good economic sense".

"Lower tuition fees potentially benefit everyone. Students graduate with less debt. Graduates have less to pay off and taxpayers will have less to write-off in the future."

The National Union of Students has welcomed plans for a cut in fees.

"Forcing debt on to students as a way of funding universities is an experiment that has failed," said NUS vice president, Megan Dunn.

"Higher education is a public good which should be publicly funded and shouldn't involve any additional charges for students or graduates, but lowering tuition fees and a move away from the market in higher education is a positive step forward.

"We would also welcome any improved financial support measures like an increase in maintenance loans, as we know that students are currently in the throes of a cost-of-living crisis."

Vince Cable, Liberal Democrat business secretary, rejected cutting fees as showing "staggering ignorance of how university finance works".

He said cutting fees "would wreck the financial sustainability of universities, reduce the support for disadvantaged students and benefit only the richest".

A Conservative party spokesman said: "Providing access to higher education for all hard-working students, irrespective of their background, is a key objective of the government's 2012 reforms.

"Our reforms have seen a record half a million students enter higher education this year, with entry rates for students from disadvantaged backgrounds increasing by over 10% to their highest-ever level.

"As England's top university vice-chancellors have warned, a cut in fees would damage the economy, impact the quality of students' education and set back work on widening access to higher education."

What is your view on university fees? Are you at university or have you recently left? You can share your thoughts by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.

If you would be happy to speak further to a BBC journalist, please include a contact telephone number.

Have your say

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RBS reports £3.5bn loss for 2014

26 February 2015 Last updated at 12:09

UK state-owned bank RBS has reported a loss of £3.5bn for 2014, down from a £9bn loss the previous year.

The results were hit by a £4bn writedown on the sale of its US business, Citizens.

The bank's chief executive Ross McEwan confirmed he would not receive a bonus this year.

But RBS will still pay out bonuses from a pool of £421m, which is some 21% smaller than in 2013.

'Fair pay' Continue reading the main story

Mr McEwan defended the size of the bonus pool.

Speaking on the Today programme he described it as "fair pay" and said it was necessary to pay bonuses to attract people to carry out "fairly technical jobs".

The bank is 79%-owned by the British taxpayer after a government-led rescue in 2008.

Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has written a letter to the new chairman of the bank, Howard Davies, saying he expected the bank not to give bonuses to senior executives.

He wrote: "I would also expect that, as in the past, no executive directors or members of the executive committee will receive bonuses, despite improved profitability.

"Given the extraordinary support it has enjoyed in the past from taxpayers, I know you recognise that RBS must remain a backmarker on pay and continue to show responsibility and restraint."

Thursday's results show that after one-off costs are stripped out operating profits were £3.5bn last year, the highest since 2010.

Analysis: Kamal Ahmed, Business Editor

Ross McEwan, when he's waded through the arguments about why bankers are paid lots of money, is running a bank that in many respects is on the road to recovery.

Its core operation is actually making a profit of more than £3bn.

That is for two reasons.

The bank has removed itself from a lot of tricky, low profit investment banking activities in countries where returns were volatile.

And, given its UK focus, it is gaining from the improvement in the economy.

RBS is now focused on providing relatively vanilla services to individuals and businesses in the UK and Western Europe, with a small operation in Asia.

And as the economy grows, those can be pretty lucrative businesses.

More from Kamal: The shrinking bank

Cost cuts

RBS is in the midst of a major reorganisation.

The bank said it had reduced costs by some £1.1bn and will cut another £800m this year.

It is cutting back its corporate and institutional banking network from 38 countries at the end of last year to 13.

It will end investment banking in the Middle East and Africa and "significantly" reduce its presence in Asia and the US, concentrating instead on the UK and western Europe.

RBS said it was building a bank that was "stronger, simpler and better for both customers and shareholders".

However, Britain's biggest union Unite said it was seeking an urgent meeting with RBS for clarification over the impact the restructuring would have on jobs.

"Unite is deeply concerned that the announcement ... of further restructuring will unfairly impact low paid and administration staff" said senior union official Rob MacGregor.

"Already over 30,000 jobs have been cut from across RBS since the bailout in 2008."

Fines and compensation

RBS has put aside £2.2bn to cover "litigation and conducts costs".

These include fines and compensation payments for the mis-selling of payment protection insurance, a massive computer failure, the mis-selling of interest rate products to small businesses and the manipulation of the foreign exchange market.

The bank is also liable to face fines over its involvement in American mortgage products which were at the heart of the US financial crisis.

Shares fall

RBS shares were down 3.6% in late morning trading.

Richard Hunter, Head of Equities at Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers said: "There is little doubt that RBS is making progress.

"Even so, with the finished product still some way off and no dividend to encourage investment in the meantime, the general consensus on the shares as a sell is likely to remain intact for now."

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Savile 'abused 63 people at hospital'

26 February 2015 Last updated at 12:10

Jimmy Savile abused 63 people connected to Stoke Mandeville Hospital, but one formal complaint was ignored, an independent report has found.

It found Savile's reputation as a "sex pest" was an "open secret" among some staff - but allegations probably did not reach managers.

The formal complaint - made in 1977 by a victim's father - should have been reported to police, it added.

A separate report said "elements of the Savile story" could happen again.

Follow the BBC's live coverage here.

The Stoke Mandeville report said the victims, abused from 1968-92, were aged eight to 40.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said people were "too dazzled or too intimidated to confront the evil predator we now know he was".

The report found:

• Savile had "virtually unrestricted access" to clinical areas and patients during the 1970s and 80s
• several sex abuse claims were made against him from 1972-85, to different staff members, but only one was a "formal complaint"
• that complaint by a father "should have led to Savile's suspension from the hospital and a formal police report being made"
• there was probably no "hospital-wide intelligence" on Savile
• information known to junior staff and middle managers was "probably filtered out" before reaching senior managers
• over the past 40 years Stoke Mandeville had employed three doctors who had been "subsequently been convicted of sex crimes against patients"

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Lead investigator Dr Androulla Johnstone said there had been failures in the duty to protect victims

Dr Androulla Johnstone, the report's lead investigator, said the victims were "patients, staff, visitors, volunteers and charity fundraisers" - with almost half aged under 16 and 10 under the age of 12.

"Around one third of his attacks were against patients, just over 90% of the victims were female," she said.

"The sexual abuse ranged from inappropriate touching to rape.

"Savile was an opportunistic predator who could also on occasions show a high degree of pre-meditation when planning attacks on his victims."

Savile met Margaret Thatcher, then prime minister, to discuss the funding of Stoke Mandeville's spinal injuries unit in 1980 - and in the same year was appointed to oversee fundraising and rebuilding of the unit.

Dr Johnstone said supervision of Savile at this time was "absent" and - with "statutory functions… in the hands of a celebrity fundraiser" - government and NHS "lost control" of the project.

The Stoke Mandeville report said the hospital trust had tackled Savile's power and influence there "head on" from 1991, and managed to "diminish his authority" - but it took until 1999 to "resolve the situation".

"This says a great deal about the power of the man and the legacy of the historical permissions that had been given to him," it said.

'Weakness for celebrities'

In another report, also newly published, former barrister and NHS executive Kate Lampard reviewed how Savile could have abused victims at 41 NHS hospitals.

"While it might be tempting to dismiss the Savile case as wholly exceptional, a unique result of the perfect storm of circumstances, the evidence we have gathered indicates that there are many elements of the Savile story that could be repeated in future," the Lampard report said.

"There is always a risk of the abuse, including sexual abuse, of people in hospitals.

"There will always be people who seek to gain undue influence and power within public institutions including in hospitals."

The report said society had a "weakness for celebrities" and hospitals must be aware of the risks.

Mr Hunt said: "Whilst no system can ever be totally secure from a manipulative and deceitful predator like Savile, we learned last year that there were clear failings in the security, culture and processes of many NHS organisations, allowing terrible abuse to continue unchecked over many years.

"What happened was horrific, caused immeasurable and often permanent damage, and betrayed vulnerable people who trusted us to keep them safe. We let them down."

Hattie Llewelyn-Davies, chairwoman of Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, said: "On behalf of the NHS organisations that existed at the time and those that exist today, I want to say sorry to all of Jimmy Savile's victims.

"I know how difficult it must have been for you to come forward and tell your stories after such a long time."

She said Stoke Mandeville was now a "very different place" but no "sense of complacency" would be allowed.

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Hattie Llewelyn-Davies apologised to Savile's victims

Liz Dux, of law firm Slater and Gordon, which represents 44 of Savile's victims, said: "It beggars belief that a report which has revealed Savile was widely known as a sex pest at Stoke Mandeville can find no evidence of management responsibility."

She said victims deserved "more accountability".

The latest reports add to a series published last June.

Simultaneously, the Department for Education has published a string of reports by local authorities into allegations of abuse at a number of children's homes and schools.

In a written statement, Children's Minister Edward Timpson said that although the investigations were complete they had been unable to substantiate any of the allegations.

He said: "None of the investigations have been able to reach firm conclusions about whether the alleged abuse took place or not.

"Although many of them say the informant was credible, the lack of corroborating evidence has prevented them from reaching a definitive conclusion."

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'Jihadi John' named as London man

26 February 2015 Last updated at 11:46

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The masked militant first appeared in numerous gruesome videos put out by Islamic State, as Lucy Manning reports

The masked Islamic State militant known as "Jihadi John", who has been pictured in the videos of the beheadings of Western hostages, has been named.

The BBC understands he is Mohammed Emwazi, a Kuwaiti-born British man in his mid-20s from West London, who was known to UK security services.

They chose not to disclose his name earlier for operational reasons.

Emwazi first appeared in a video last August, when he apparently killed the American journalist James Foley.

He was later thought to have been pictured in the videos of the beheadings of US journalist Steven Sotloff, British aid worker David Haines, British taxi driver Alan Henning, and American aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig, also known as Peter.

In each of the videos, the militant appeared dressed in a black robe with a black balaclava covering all but his eyes and top of his nose.

Analysis: Dominic Casciani, BBC News

We don't know when the British or the American security services worked out that the masked man in the killing videos was Londoner Mohammed Emwazi.

But we do know that he was a "person of interest" to MI5 going back to at least 2011 because he features in semi-secret court cases relating to extremism overseas and back in the UK.

Nobody in official security circles is going to comment on what they know and why they know it.

Emwazi has been previously described as a member of a network involving at least 13 men from London - and at least two of them were subjected to house arrest control orders or T-Pims. One absconded. The chances of Emwazi ever returning to the UK are vanishingly small.

@BBCDomC

Speaking with a British accent, he taunted and threatened Western powers before holding his knife to the hostages' necks, appearing to start to cutting before the film stops.

Last month, the militant appeared in a video with the Japanese hostages Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto, shortly before they were killed.

BBC News special correspondent Lucy Manning says Emwazi is understood to be around 27 years of age.

Friends of Emzawi told the Washington Post that he was raised in a middle class area of West London and studied computer programming at the University of Westminster.

Our correspondent says it is believed he was known to security services in the UK and the US before leaving for Syria and was linked to a man with connections to the jihadist militant group al-Shabab, in Somalia.

The Washington Post said he was believed to have travelled to Syria around 2012 and later joined Islamic State, which has declared the creation of a "caliphate" in the large swathes of Syria and neighbouring Iraq it controls.

British police declined to comment on the reports.

Commander Richard Walton, head of the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command, said: "We have previously asked media outlets not to speculate about the details of our investigation on the basis that life is at risk.

"We are not going to confirm the identity of anyone at this stage or give an update on the progress of this live counter-terrorism investigation."

Jihadi John sightings

• August 2014: Video in which US journalist James Foley is beheaded
• September 2014: Video in which US journalist Steve Sotloff is apparently beheaded
• September 2014: Video in which British aid worker David Haines is apparently beheaded
• October 2014: Video in which British aid worker Alan Henning is apparently beheaded
• November 2014: Video in which Emwazi is shown killing a Syrian soldier in a mass beheading, which also shows body of US aid worker, Abdul-Rahman Kassig, also known as Peter Kassig
• January 2015: Video which appears to show the beheading of Japanese hostage Haruna Yukawa
• January 2015: Video which appears to show the beheading of abducted Japanese journalist, Kenji Goto.

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Victoria Cross for Afghan raid hero

26 February 2015 Last updated at 08:21

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L/Cpl Joshua Leakey shares his story with the BBC's Sian Lloyd

A paratrooper who showed "complete disregard" for his own safety during a Taliban attack in Afghanistan has been awarded the Victoria Cross - the highest British military honour.

L/Cpl Joshua Leakey, 27, of the Parachute Regiment, was recognised for his valour during the 2013 attack.

He is the third serviceman - and the first living servicemen - to receive the medal for service in Afghanistan.

L/Cpl Leakey, from Hampshire, said he was "deeply honoured".

He has been recognised with the VC almost 70 years after another member of his family was awarded the same honour.

L/Cpl Leakey's second cousin twice removed, Sergeant Nigel Gray Leakey, was a posthumous recipient of the VC in November 1945, for his actions while fighting in Africa during the Second World War.

'Bullets ricocheting'

He has been awarded the medal for his bravery during an assault on a Taliban stronghold in Helmand province, on 22 August 2013.

Despite coming under enemy fire, L/Cpl Leakey twice came to the aid of a wounded US Marine Corps captain and helped forces regain the initiative after they had been pinned down by fire and surrounded by insurgents.

Analysis By Sian Lloyd, BBC News

The Victoria Cross is the highest award for gallantry in the presence of the enemy and can be given to all ranks of the services and civilians.

Introduced in 1856 by Queen Victoria to honour acts during the Crimean War, it has been awarded 1,356 times. But this is only the 15th time since the end of World War Two.

L/Cpl Leakey is the third British soldier to receive a VC from the conflict in Afghanistan. On the two previous occasions, it was given posthumously - in 2013 to L/Cpl James Ashworth from 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, and in 2006 to Cpl Bryan Budd of 3 Para.

Until now Pte Johnson Beharry from 1st Battalion the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment was the only non-posthumous British military recipient since 1965, for two separate acts of gallantry in Iraq.

Each medal is made from the bronze of Russian guns captured at the siege of Sevastopol during the Crimea War, although modern research suggests Chinese guns may have been used at various times.

After dismounting from helicopters, a group of UK and US forces came under attack from around 20 insurgents armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

Soldiers from the group became pinned down by fire on the side of the hill and surrounded by insurgents.

L/Cpl Leakey ran to the top of a hill, despite enemy fire, to assess the situation and provided first aid to a wounded US Marine Corps captain.

He then ran back up the hill to reposition a machine gun and began firing at the insurgents, despite bullets "ricocheting" off the machine gun's frame.

Despite the danger, he returned to the injured captain - drawing enemy fire again - to retrieve a second machine gun, before running back to the crest of the hill once more, where he managed to help regain the initiative.

During the battle, 11 insurgents were killed and four were wounded.

L/Cpl Leakey said the only thing he was scared of during the fire fight was "letting my cap badge down".

'Best position'

"You don't really think what could happen to yourself, you think 'how is what I'm doing now going to improve the situation?'," he said.

"It's part of the very nature of being in the Army, and especially the Parachute Regiment, that we have to adapt to situations you don't expect to happen."

He told the BBC: "In that particular incident I was in the best position to do that. If it had been any of my mates they would be in this position now."

"I don't look at it about being about me in particular, I look at this as representing everyone from my unit, from my battalion, who was involved in the campaign in Afghanistan," he added.

In a statement, his parents said they were "hugely proud" of their son.

"As Josh's parents we are so thankful to God that he survived that day - along with many other occasions during his three operational tours in Afghanistan.

"Our hearts go out to so many other parents whose sons and daughters did not survive that long conflict."

L/Cpl Leakey's medal was announced during a ceremony at St James's Palace on Wednesday, before recipients of military awards were welcomed at 10 Downing Street.

L/Cpl Leakey "epitomised valour with his actions on that hillside in Helmand", Prime Minister David Cameron said.

"When you hear how events unfolded and the intensity of enemy fire, it is difficult to imagine how one wouldn't be frozen to the spot and yet L/Cpl Leakey risked his life to run across that barren hillside not just once, but multiple times, to turn the battle and save the lives of comrades."

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UK net migration rises to 298,000

26 February 2015 Last updated at 12:05

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Immigration minister James Brokenshire: "The ambition remains to see that migration numbers do come down"

Net migration to the UK has risen to 298,000, according to the final set of figures before the election.

The numbers, for the year ending in September 2014, is now well above the level of migration when David Cameron came to power in 2010.

The Tories, who had hoped to get it to below 100,000, said the figures were "disappointing" and blamed a rise in EU migration - and Lib Dem "constraints".

Labour said Mr Cameron's "grand promises" were "now in tatters".

Home Office Minister James Brokenshire said: "We have been blown off course by net migration from within the EU, which has more than doubled since 2010.

"That's why we need to continue to crack down on the abuse of EU free movement and continue our reforms to make our welfare system fairer and less open to abuse.

"We have also been constrained in government by Liberal Democrats who don't have that same aim and focus on reducing net migration."

Employment agencies

He declined to say whether the party would repeat their goal of cutting net migration to the "tens of thousands" at the coming election, instead saying their goal remained getting migration down to long-term sustainable levels.

Labour's shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper told BBC News: "No wonder people don't have trust in the immigration system when they have these kinds of promises being broken."

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Yvette Cooper claims the government's "grand promises" on net migration are now "in tatters"

She said the Conservatives had been wrong to focus on net migration and should have strengthened border controls to tackle illegal immigration, "where enforcement has got worse".

"Theresa May's obsession with the target has led her to target valuable university students, who bring billions into Britain whilst doing nothing to make the labour market fairer for local workers, preventing undercutting by exploitative employers or putting in place proper border controls so we can count people in and out to enforce the rules," she said.

UKIP, which campaigns for Britain to leave the EU and wants an Australian-style work permit system, said the government "should be ashamed of its abject failure to keep control of the constantly rising numbers of those arriving here".

The party's migration spokesman Steven Woolfe MEP said: "Migration is one of the top concerns going into this election and it is clear that UKIP is the only party trusted to deal with it."

'Very embarrassing'

Net migration is the difference between the number of people who come to live in the UK for at least a year and the number who are leaving for at least a year

It peaked at 320,000 in the year to June 2005. At the time of the 2010 election it was 252,000.

The big increase in the latest set of figures was driven by a "statistically significant" rise in immigrants arriving in the UK, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Immigration was up to 624,000 in the year to September from 530,000 in the previous 12 months. About 327,000 people emigrated from the UK in the same period.

The increase was driven by a rise in the number of people coming to the UK for work, with experts suggesting the growing strength of the UK economy and job creation had drawn people in.

Oxford University's Migration Observatory's director Madeleine Sumption said: "If the UK's economic performance compared to the rest of the EU had been poor, then we might well have seen net migration fall, but that has not happened."

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, whose party opposed the net migration target, said the figures were "very embarrassing for the Conservatives".

"They made a huge fanfare about it and they were warned, warned by me and others privately don't do this it doesn't make any sense," the deputy prime minister told LBC radio.

"They've made a commitment and they have failed spectacularly to deliver it."

'Economic growth'

Some key points from the latest migration figures include:

• A total of 271,000 people came to the UK for work-related reasons, according to the latest figures, up from 217,000 the previous year. Of those, 57% were EU citizens and 25% from outside the EU
• Of those moving to live in the UK for work-related reasons, 62% (167,000) came with a definite job to go to and 38% (104,000) came to look for work
• A total of 37,000 Romanian and Bulgarian citizens moved to the UK in the year, a "statistically significant" increase from 24,000 in the previous 12 months
• The biggest increase in net migration was from outside the EU.
• It was 190,000 in the year ending September 2014, up from 138,000 in the previous year
• Net migration of EU citizens saw an increase to 162,000 from 130,000 the previous year

Measures introduced by the government to reduce net migration include capping visas for skilled non-EU workers and introducing a minimum income threshold of £18,600 for anyone planning to sponsor a non-EU family member, such as a spouse, to come to the UK.

The government has also cracked down on abuses of the student visa system by closing "bogus" colleges.

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Birdman, Redmayne, Moore lead Oscars

23 February 2015 Last updated at 06:20

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Highlights of the 2015 Academy Awards ceremony

British actor Eddie Redmayne has won the best actor Oscar for The Theory of Everything, while Julianne Moore picked up best actress for Still Alice.

Redmayne thanked his "staggering partner in crime", co-star Felicity Jones, and his "ferocious but incredibly kind director James Marsh".

Dark comedy Birdman won best film and best director for Mexican film-maker Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.

It also won best cinematography and best original screenplay.

The film sees Michael Keaton play a former movie superhero actor, who hopes to revive his washed-up career by putting on a Broadway play.

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Moore used her speech to raise awareness for Alzheimer's disease - in Still Alice, she plays a 50-year-old who has early on-set Alzheimer's.

"I'm so happy, I'm thrilled that we were able to shine a light on Alzheimer's disease," she said.

"So many people who have this disease feel marginalised. People who have Alzheimer's disease deserve to be seen so we can find a cure."

Redmayne was honoured for his portrayal of physicist Stephen Hawking, who has motor neurone disease (ALS).

Accepting his award, he thanked the Hawking family, including Jane Hawking on whose book the film is based, and said his award belonged "to all of the people around the world battling ALS".

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• 1 win out of eight nominations for The Imitation Game

• 1 win out of six nominations for Boyhood

• 1 win out of six nominations for American Sniper

AFP

Richard Linklater's Boyhood won just one award from six nominations - best supporting actress - which went to Patricia Arquette.

Arquette thanked "her Boyhood family" and "every woman who gave birth".

"To every woman... we have fought for everybody else's equal rights. It's our time to have wage equality," she added, to huge applause from the audience.

JK Simmons won best supporting actor for Whiplash, in which he played a strict drumming teacher at a music conservatory.

Whiplash also won the award for best editing and best sound mixing.

The Grand Budapest Hotel picked up best costume design (Milena Canonero), as well as best hair and make-up (British duo Frances Hannon and Mark Coulier). It also won best score and production design.

Hannon thanked absent actor Bill Murray - who has a cameo in the film - for introducing her to director Wes Anderson on the set of his film Rushmore 17 years earlier.

Another British duo, Matt Kirkby and James Lucas, picked up the award for best live short action film, The Phone Call, starring Sally Hawkins and Jim Broadbent.

Alan Turing drama The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, won best adapted screenplay.

Best foreign language film went to Polish black and white family drama Ida.

John Legend and Common's track Glory, from civil rights drama Selma, won best song.

Legend used his time on stage to deliver a political message, saying: "We live in the most incarcerated country in the world... people are marching with our song... we are with you, march on."

Emmanuel Lubezko's win for best cinematography for Birdman was his second Oscar in as many years - in 2014, he won the same award for his work on Gravity.

Citizenfour, which chronicles one of the biggest intelligence leaks in American history, won best documentary feature.

It shows former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden at the very moment he made his sensational revelations detailing extensive internet and phone surveillance by the US government.

Best documentary short was won by Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1, about the counsellors who work with military veterans on a 24-hour phone helpline.

Clint Eastwood's Iraq war drama American Sniper won the award for best sound editing.

The 87th Academy Awards took place at Hollywood's 3,300-seat Dolby Theatre.

Performers at this year's ceremony included Lady Gaga - who sang a medley of Sound of Music songs to celebrate the classic film's 50th year - Jennifer Hudson and Anna Kendrick.

Host Neil Patrick Harris kicked off with a song which paid homage to Hollywood's film industry, accompanied by Kendrick and Jack Black.

Birdman and Wes Anderson's quirky comedy The Grand Budapest Hotel began the night with nine nominations each, while The Imitation Game had eight.

Clint Eastwood's true-life Iraq war tale American Sniper and Boyhood had six apiece.

The best picture prize was widely predicted to either go to Birdman or Boyhood - both of which had been named best film at the many ceremonies leading up to Hollywood's biggest night.

The directors of both films did their best on the red carpet to play down any rivalry with Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, who eventually won for Birdman, calling the supposed competition "so silly" and Linklater saying he loved Birdman.

"It's a real tribute for two films that aren't traditional stories, crazy stories," said Linklater, who filmed the coming of age movie over 12 years with the same actors.

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