Written By Unknown on Kamis, 16 April 2015 | 19.12
Police believe remains found at High Craigton Farm farm are those of Karen Buckley
A 21-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the death of Irish student Karen Buckley, Police Scotland say.
Miss Buckley, from Cork, was reported missing after a night out in Glasgow on Saturday.
Police said a body had been found at a farm to the north of Glasgow, following a four-day search for the student.
Formal identification of the remains has not yet taken place, they said.
Miss Buckley's relatives have been informed about the discovery, which was made on a farm on the outskirts of Milngavie, six miles from Glasgow city centre.
Searching land
Specialist police divers, a helicopter crew and search dogs have all been involved in the search for the qualified nurse, who moved to Glasgow in February to study occupational therapy at Glasgow Caledonian University.
Her handbag was discovered in Glasgow's Dawsholm Park on Tuesday and officers later began searching land around High Craigton Farm near Milngavie.
The man was formally arrested after being detained for questioning on Wednesday. He is expected to appear at a private hearing at Glasgow Sheriff Court on Friday.
Police Scotland cordoned off land around the farm and a nearby golf course A fire appliance was among the emergency service vehicles called to the farm Police officers remained at the farm on Thursday morning
Miss Buckley was seen on CCTV leaving Glasgow's Sanctuary nightclub with a man in the early hours of Sunday.
She had arrived at the nightclub with friends at about 23:45 on Saturday and at about 01:00 she told them she was going to the toilet. She failed to return and did not take her jacket.
Her friends have said she had had a few drinks, but was not drunk.
Police said later that they had traced a man who told them he had travelled with Miss Buckley by car to a flat in Dorchester Avenue, in the Kelvinside area of the city, but he said she had left at about 04:00 on Sunday.
Miss Buckley's family travelled from Cork to Scotland on Tuesday to make an appeal for information.
Thoughts and prayers
A special prayer service was held near her home in Mallow on Wednesday, and a fundraising page set up by Miss Buckley's former classmates to support her family had raised over £28,000 by 12:30 on Thursday.
Irish consular staff have been helping the family since Miss Buckley's disappearance.
Ireland's minister for foreign affairs, Charlie Flanagan, said the thoughts and prayers of everyone in the country were with the Buckley family.
He added: "On behalf of the government, I wish to express appreciation for all that has been done by the Scottish authorities, and especially Police Scotland in Glasgow, to find Karen and to support the Buckley family throughout this very difficult time."
In a statement, Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) said it was "deeply saddened" by the events.
The statement added: "Our thoughts are with Karen's family, friends and classmates at this very difficult time. GCU's student support service, our academic staff, and the advice centre at the Student's Association are available to any students who need support."
DJ Neil Fox has pleaded not guilty to nine sex offences at Westminster Magistrates' Court.
Mr Fox, 53, from Fulham, south west London, is charged with seven counts of indecent assault and two charges of sexual assault, against six woman.
The charges include indecently assaulting three girls under the age of 16, one of whom was under 14.
The alleged attacks took place over a period spanning more than two decades.
Prosecutor Darren Watts told the court: "The Crown argue that the complaints show a consistent and determined pattern of sexual predatory behaviour on the part of the defendant which spans some 23 years."
He said Mr Fox allegedly assaulted two girls at a motor show in Bromley, south east London, in 1991, where he was appearing as a DJ.
A third youngster, also under the age of 16, alleges that she was assaulted at Chessington World of Adventures, in Surrey, in April 1996.
One woman claims she was indecently assaulted at Capital Radio in Leicester Square on several occasions between January and December 2003.
In the four separate instances Mr Fox is alleged to have displayed "unacceptable behaviour", Mr Watts said.
The DJ is also accused of sexually touching two separate women at the Magic studios in central London, between January 2003 and August 2014.
Mr Fox, who uses the nicknames Dr Fox and Foxy, began his career in local radio before moving to Radio Luxembourg and then Capital Radio in the late 1980s.
His big TV break was as a judge on ITV talent show Pop Idol between 2001 and 2003.
In the last 10 years he has been presenting the breakfast show on Magic 105.4, Foxy in the Morning, but is not currently hosting the programme.
Mr Fox has elected to have his trial at the magistrates' court.
He was released on bail and will next appear for a case management hearing on 30 April.
The NHS is facing a "substantial financial problem" which politicians are ignoring in the election campaign, the former head of the service says.
Sir David Nicholson, who retired last year, told the BBC the NHS in England was accruing large deficits which would become "crystal clear" later this year.
But he said instead of talking about how to address these, politicians were focusing on expanding services.
He said the situation caused him "very great concern".
In an interview for BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Sir David - who ran the NHS in England for eight years - said that because there was an election period, the NHS was unable to publish the latest report on its financial position.
But he said it was "pretty clear in the NHS that there is a substantial financial problem, particularly in the hospital sector" which would become "crystal clear" in the autumn.
During the interview he said:
It would be "helpful" if Labour committed to an extra £8bn of funding, as the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have
But all parties needed to make it available immediately, not by the end of the parliament
Politicians were talking about extra services when there was already a "financial hole"
Planned NHS efficiencies of £22bn were a "big ask"
Failure to achieve them would lead to "managed decline" of the NHS and patients waiting longer for treatment
He expects "emergency action" such as vacancy freezes to tackle the financial difficulties
The coalition government's NHS reforms were a "surprise" and "significant distraction"
He defended his role in Stafford Hospital scandal where he spent 10 months in charge of the local health authority in 2005 and 2006
This issue includes NHS funding, GP access and social care, particularly of older people.
Sir David predicted the scale of the problem would be bigger than the one he inherited in 2006 on becoming NHS chief executive, when the health service had accrued a £1bn deficit.
"I have not heard in most of the conversations politicians are having at the moment about what they're going to do about that financial hole.
"They want to talk about extra services and extra investment when actually there is a problem there to face."
He said the NHS would have to take "emergency action" such as vacancy freezes.
But he added: "It will also mean the politicians having to suspend some of their ambitions about the new things they want to do while some of the money that's being promised to the NHS is spent dealing with that particular operational problem."
Who is Sir David?
Sir David Nicholson spent more than 30 years working in the health service. His first chief executive post was in 1988 at Doncaster and Montagu Hospital Trust and he moved into regional NHS management in the late 1990s and became head of the Birmingham and Black Country health authority in 2003.
Two years later he also took charge of two neighbouring organisations, including the one that oversaw Stafford Hospital.
He became chief executive of London's health authority in April 2006, but within months took over from Lord Crisp to run the whole health service - a job he held until last April. He now advises governments across the world about health care.
Sir David also said the financial problems were going to be there for the medium term.
He told the BBC: "We need to institute proper financial discipline in the system... and to make some short-term decisions, to enable us to be in a position where literally we're not building on sand; that actually there is a stable financial base on which you then can take forward the big changes that are needed."
The ex-NHS boss said change would require political consensus.
Analysis
By Nick Triggle, health correspondent
Sir David Nicholson is articulating what those in the health service have been saying to each other throughout this election campaign: that politicians are living in a parallel universe.
All the evidence suggests the NHS needs extra money just to stand still.
But while politicians have promised to cough up, they are all twinning that extra money with promises of more. More doctors and nurses, faster treatment and seven-day services.
NHS staff have met this with a mix of resignation and despair - Unison has already warned of industrial action over the Conservatives plan for seven-day services.
But it will also mean whichever party, or parties, form the next government, the pressure will be on to deliver.
After promising so much, the electorate will be expecting more than many experts predict is possible to deliver.
That could fund 100 hospitals
New ways of working could save £22bn
But NHS still needs an extra £8bn
Thinkstock
'Managed decline'
Last autumn Sir David's successor Simon Stevens set out a five-year plan for the NHS in which he said the health service would need an extra £8bn by 2020 - something the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have committed to in this campaign.
Sir David said it would be "helpful" if Labour made clear whether it too would commit to this figure, which he said needed to be spent at the beginning of the parliament.
The call for an extra £8bn a year was on the basis that the NHS could make £22bn of efficiency savings.
But Sir David cast doubt on whether the NHS could deliver this scale of savings, saying it was "a big ask".
"There is no healthcare system in the world that's delivered this scale. But you could get close.
"But it means actually a united political clinical and managerial leadership in the NHS with a proper debate and discussion with the population about what this all means in practice," he said.
Sir David has warned that if the savings are not made, it could lead to a "managed decline", which would involve patients waiting longer for treatment, new drugs not being made available straight away and it becoming more difficult to see a GP.
'Really challenging'
Lib Dem Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said Sir David and his successor were right to expect parties to explain how they would come up with the funding required for the NHS.
He said the Lib Dems had been "very clear" about where the extra £8bn a year would come from, citing plans to change capital gains tax relief and by tying NHS spending to the proceeds of economic growth.
A Conservative spokesperson said: "We agree that the NHS faces a significant financial challenge over the next Parliament. This is why we have committed to finding at least an extra £8bn a year by 2020."
Labour says it will provide an extra £2.5bn funding a year.
Anita Charlesworth, chief economist at the Health Foundation, said she agreed with Sir David.
She said: "NHS finances can only be described as dire at the moment, three-quarters of our hospitals can't balance their books and at the turn of the year they were running a deficit of £900m.
Greville Janner was Labour MP for Leicester North West and then Leicester West
Labour peer Lord Janner will not face child sex abuse charges because the severity of his dementia makes him unfit to stand trial, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has said.
The abuse allegations relate to residents in Leicestershire children's homes between 1970 and the 1980s.
Police condemned the CPS decision as "wrong", and the Labour Party has suspended the 86-year-old peer.
In 1991 Lord Janner told Parliament he was innocent of abuse allegations.
A retired High Court judge will now review the CPS's handing of the case.
More than a dozen individuals made allegations to police relating to Lord Janner, the CPS said.
The "core allegation" was that as MP for Leicester West at the time, Lord Janner befriended the manager of a children's care home to allow him access to children so he could "perpetrate serious sexual offences on children," the CPS said.
Leicestershire Police interviewed more than 2,000 people throughout the course of their investigation, and a "comprehensive file of evidence" was submitted to the CPS.
In a statement Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders said there was enough evidence to charge him with:
Fourteen indecent assaults on a male under 16 between 1969 and 1988
Two indecent assaults between 1984 and 1988
Four counts of buggery of a male under 16 between 1972 and 1987
Two counts of buggery between 1977 and 1988
But "mistakes" made in decision making by the CPS in 1991 and 2007 and Leicestershire Police in 2002 meant he was never charged.
"It is a matter of deep regret that the decisions in relation to the previous investigations were as they were," she said.
"Victims of the alleged offences have been denied the opportunity of criminal proceedings in relation to the offences of which they have complained."
She spoke of "regret" but fell short of apologising.
Lord Janner pictured in 1996 - a year before he retired as Leicester West MP
Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls has said Labour "acted swiftly and decisively" to suspend Lord Janner from the party.
He said the allegations were "very serious" but understood the CPS's decision.
Leicestershire Police, which has been investigating abuse allegations against him, said it was "worried" about the impact of the decision.
The Assistant Chief Constable Roger Bannister said he believed the decision was "the wrong one" and it would do little to support and encourage victims of sexual abuse to come forward.
He said: "I am extremely worried about the impact the decision not to prosecute him will have on those people [who came forward].
"More widely I am worried about the message this decision sends out to others, both past and present, who have suffered and are suffering sexual abuse.
"We are exploring what possible legal avenues there may be to challenge this decision, and victims themselves have a right to review under a CPS procedure."
Explaining its decision, the CPS said there is no treatment for Lord Janner's condition and there is no current or future risk of offending.
His condition is "rapidly becoming more severe" and requires continuous care both day and night, her statement said.
"His evidence could not be relied upon in court and he could not have any meaningful engagement with the court process, and the court would find it impossible to proceed."
Ms Saunders said the decision will be "extremely disappointing to complainants" and has written to all of them.
Retired High Court Judge Sir Richard Henriques will conduct an independent review into the CPS's decision making and how it handled the case, she said.
It was a rare occasion for Mr Putin to speak to a huge audience of Russians directly
Russian President Vladimir Putin says Ukraine's government is "cutting off" defiant rebel-held areas of eastern Ukraine through an economic blockade.
He was addressing a huge Russian audience in a live televised phone-in.
He also insisted "there are no Russian troops in Ukraine". Moscow denies Western charges that it is directly arming and reinforcing the rebels.
Later he said those who had ordered the murder of Boris Nemtsov - one of his leading critics - might never be found.
Mr Nemtsov, a prominent opposition politician, was shot dead on 27 February near the Kremlin.
Five suspects, all of them Chechens, are in custody. Mr Putin condemned the murder as "disgraceful".
Ukraine 'blockade'
It is Mr Putin's 13th such annual phone-in with the Russian public - and usually they last about four hours.
Mr Putin denied reports that Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko had offered to let Russia have the rebel-held areas in the Donbas region.
The rebels reject Kiev's rule and are getting humanitarian aid from Russia, which annexed Ukraine's Crimea region last year.
"There are many problems there and we do not see the current Kiev authorities wanting to restore the social sphere, or the economy of Donbas," Mr Putin said.
"We see a total blockade of Donbas. One can say that the current Ukrainian authorities are cutting off Donbas by their own hand. That is the problem and tragedy."
Russian journalists also explored some key issues with Mr Putin
Tough economic times
Mr Putin said he had told business leaders that he did not expect EU-US sanctions - imposed over Russia's actions in Ukraine - to be lifted soon.
"We need to use the situation to reach a new level of development," he said.
The BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Moscow says the event is highly choreographed but does reveal Russians' concerns. Russians' real incomes have fallen this year for the first time since Mr Putin came to power.
Mr Putin said the Russian economy would take about two years to bounce back from recession, or less as the rouble's value was rising again.
He said there were encouraging signs that Russian agriculture was growing and replacing imports of Western food.
However, a dairy farmer introduced as "John - a Russian citizen" grilled Mr Putin over the hardship faced by farmers.
"You say everything is going well - sorry, that's not true," the farmer said. "I have five children... I need some assurance about their future in Russia. Do you believe the statistics or are they lying?" he asked in English-accented Russian.
The farmer is reportedly John Kopiski, originally from the UK, who has lived in Vladimir region for about 15 years.
Mr Putin admitted that farmers faced difficulties over low dairy retail prices and that cheap imports of powdered milk from Belarus were part of the problem.
"I don't have reason to disbelieve the statistics," he said, adding that the government would have to increase subsidies for farmers.
Missiles for Iran
Later in the phone-in Mr Putin was asked about Russia's controversial plan to export S-300 air defence missiles to Iran.
He insisted that the missiles were not on the UN list of banned exports under the UN sanctions linked to Iran's nuclear programme.
He said he made the move because Iran had shown "a desire to reach compromise". The S-300 "doesn't threaten Israel at all, it's exclusively a defensive weapon", he added.
Our correspondent says the questions for Mr Putin were clearly vetted, with nothing too critical or too personal. About two million questions came in before the broadcast.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said about 23% of the questions submitted concerned social welfare issues, and the second biggest area of concern was housing and local services.
UKIP would make working people better off through a "low-tax revolution", Nigel Farage has said as he launched his party's election manifesto.
It would keep workers on the minimum wage out of tax, raise the 40p tax rate threshold to £55,000, introduce a new 30p tax band and scrap inheritance tax.
He said UKIP was the only party with a "credible plan" for immigration and a positive vision for the country.
The Conservatives have said there is a "£37bn black hole" in UKIP's proposals.
But Mr Farage said his was the only party with fully costed plans, which have been verified by independent economic think tank, The Centre for Economic and Business Research.
Rapid referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union
Control immigration with points system, limit of 50,000 skilled workers a year and a five-year ban on unskilled immigration
Extra £3bn a year for the NHS in England
No tax on the minimum wage
Meet Nato target of spending 2% of GDP on defence, and look to increase it "substantially"
The party's proposals also include an increase of up to £3bn extra a year in NHS funding, a commitment to spend 2% of GDP on defence and a five-year ban on unskilled immigration.
UKIP, which wants to quit the EU, has said it will hold an in/out referendum "as soon as possible" in the next Parliament.
Mr Farage said his was the only party which had the "self confidence and belief in the nation" that the UK should govern itself, make its own laws and negotiate its own international trade deals.
'Big tax giveaway'
Setting out the party's election offerings at a hotel in Thurrock, Essex, the UKIP leader said politics had become dominated by giant corporate business interests while ordinary people had been "left behind" with "nobody to speak for them".
But he added: "UKIP has a plan, we genuinely want to make working people better off. And we will do that by leading the charge and making the argument for a low tax revolution.
"We genuinely want to make work pay and for people to have incentives to do better. And we believe that will unleash a kind of economic dynamism that has not been seen in this country in a long time."
Mr Farage said he was proposing an £18bn "big tax giveaway", paid for by cutting £32bn a year from government spending.
This would including cutting foreign aid spending, leaving the EU, scrapping the HS2 rail link and changing the Barnett funding formula for the nations.
UKIP's policies also include:
Introducing a points-based immigration system
Funding 6,000 new jobs for armed forces veterans, in the police, the prison service and at the UK border
Cutting foreign aid by £9bn
Scrapping hospital parking charges
A new 30p tax band for those earning between £45,000 and £55,000 a year
Removing stamp duty on the first £250,000 for new homes built on brownfield sites
A cut in business rates for small businesses
On immigration, Mr Farage said the only way for the UK to control its borders was by leaving the European Union.
Dismissing the Conservatives' approach for a renegotiation of Britain's terms of membership of the 28-member bloc, Mr Farage said there was "no third way".
"We want our country back, and then and only then can we actually control our borders," he told the gathered media and party supporters.
Suzanne Evans, who wrote the manifesto, said UKIP was "the only party with the money"
The party is proposing an Australian-style points-based immigration system, which the party leader said would be ethical, fair and in the interests of the UK.
Foreign criminals would not be allowed into the country and all migrants would need to have insurance to access the health system, Mr Farage said.
Migrants would not be allowed to claim benefits in the UK unless they had paid into the system for five years and obeyed the law, under UKIP's plans.
The resulting "big reduction in numbers" coming to the UK would relieve pressure on schools, hospitals and houses, said Mr Farage.
'Independently verified'
BBC UKIP campaign correspondent Alex Forsyth said the launch showed the party was trying to broaden its appeal and convince voters of its credibility, while maintaining its focus on the EU and immigration.
A Conservative spokesman said UKIP's numbers did not "add up", adding: "We all know that Nigel Farage doesn't have a credible plan for Britain - he just makes it up as he goes along."
Earlier, UKIP's campaign chief Suzanne Evans told BBC Radio 4's Today programme all of the figures had been independently verified by economic think tank, The Centre for Economic and Business Research.
The manifesto launch came as one of the party's senior figures, immigration and economic spokesman Steven Woolfe, admitted to disagreements Ms Evans over the party's immigration policies.
Mr Woolfe confirmed to BBC Radio 5 live Breakfast reports in the Telegraph he said Ms Evans "didn't seem to understand" the policies were true, but that he had made the comments "weeks ago" and he was now "absolutely onboard" with his colleague.
Despite a slight dip in some recent polls, UKIP has been polling ahead of the Liberal Democrats and is hoping to add to the two MPs it gained in by-elections following defections from the Conservatives.
* Subscribe to the BBC Election 2015 newsletter to get a round-up of the day's campaign news sent to your inbox every weekday afternoon.
Mr Hassan, who lived alone, died from neck and chest injuries
Two men have been found guilty of murdering a professional poker player who was lured into a honey trap for his winnings.
Mehmet Hassan, 56, from north London, was tied up and kicked to death in March last year.
Kyrron Jackson, 28, and his friend Nicholas Chandler, 29, both from London, were found guilty of murder.
Jackson's girlfriend Leonie Granger, 25, who met Mr Hassan at a casino, was found guilty of manslaughter.
Mr Hassan was bound with parcel tape and a neck tie and then kicked and stamped to death in his bedroom, the trial at Old Bailey had heard.
The attackers, who then ransacked his home looking for cash, were allegedly let in by 25-year-old care assistant Granger, who Mr Hassan had met at a Mayfair casino the month before.
Afterwards, while he lay dead in a pool of blood, all three defendants were filmed on Granger's mobile phone throwing £50 notes around and stuffing wads in underpants, the jury was told.
The defendants said the video was actually made four months earlier.
Mr Hassan was described as a professional gambler who sometimes won as much as £15,000 at a time.
Miss Buckley's disappearance is said to be completely out of character
The search for an Irish student who went missing following a night out in Glasgow has been extended to sites across the north west of the city.
Karen Buckley, 24, from Cork, was seen leaving the Sanctuary nightclub with a man in the early hours of Sunday.
BBC Scotland understands he is 21-year-old Alexander Pacteau, who has already been interviewed by police but is not being treated as a suspect.
Miss Buckley's bag was found in Dawsholm Park on Tuesday.
Mr Pacteau said she had left the property at 04:00 on Sunday to make her way home.
Officers are continuing to search the park, which is a short distance from Mr Pacteau's flat, as well as other sites in the area.
Officers have said they are "gravely concerned" for the wellbeing of Miss Buckley, whose parents have flown to Scotland from their home in Ireland.
Her mother, Marian, told a news conference on Tuesday: "We just want Karen home safely, we are desperate. She is our only daughter, we love her dearly.
"If anybody has any information please come forward, we would dearly appreciate it."
Miss Buckley, whose disappearance is said to be completely out of character, was last seen on CCTV talking to a man who is understood to be Mr Pacteau outside the Sanctuary nightclub in Dumbarton Road.
The pair travelled in his car to his flat in Dorchester Avenue, in the Kelvinside area of the city. It is said that she left the flat at about 04:00 on Sunday and was planning to walk back to her flat in Hill Street, close to the city centre.
The two addresses are about four miles apart.
Police have stressed that the man is helping them with their inquiries, but is not a suspect at this stage.
The Sanctuary nightclub is located in the city's west end - an area popular among students The Police Scotland helicopter has been involved in the search.
A handbag which officers believe belongs to Miss Buckley was found in Dawsholm Park, near Dorchester Avenue, on Tuesday afternoon.
The entrance to the park remained cordoned off on Wednesday morning as dozens of officers continued searching the area.
A Police Scotland spokeswoman said: "The search resumed at first light this morning with specialist search officers and air support in the area of Dawsholm Park and the north west of Glasgow."
The spokeswoman said there had been a good response from the public to appeals for help to trace Miss Buckley but has urged people to get in touch if they have any information relating to the investigation.
Miss Buckley moved to Glasgow in February and is a first year occupational therapy student at Glasgow Caledonian University. She was previously a nurse at the Princess Alexandria Hospital in Harlow, Essex.
She arrived at the Sanctuary nightclub with friends at about 23:45 on Saturday and at about 01:00 she told them she was going to the toilet. She failed to return and did not take her jacket.
Her friends have said Miss Buckley had had a few drinks, but was not drunk.
There was a heavy police presence in the park where the student's handbag had been found Dozens of officers are involved in the search for Miss Buckley
Speaking on Tuesday, Det Supt Jim Kerr, from Police Scotland's major investigations team, said: "We've traced the man she was with in Dorchester Avenue. He believes he was intimate with her at his flat consensually in the early hours of Sunday."
The police officer added: "From what we can see, she does not appear to be under duress, there's no signs of a struggle or reluctance on her part to leave the club.
"However, that does not mean that something untoward has happened to her at a later stage."
Miss Buckley is described as white and about 5ft to 5ft 2in tall. She has brown eyes and dark hair which had long black curly extensions in it.
When last seen, she was wearing a black jumpsuit with red high-heeled shoes and was carrying a black handbag.
Despite reports to the contrary, Ms Buckley has not been active on social media since her disappearance.
Ms Buckley spent several hours at Dorchester Avenue before leaving at 04:00 on Sunday A heavy police presence has been maintained in the area surrounding the block of flats
Police are also keen to find out more about a grey car that was seen on the roads between Milngavie and Drymen north of Glasgow between 11:00 and 15:00 on Monday.
Det Supt Kerr said: "The activity of this grey car on the Monday is something that we're a wee bit concerned about. This car has been seen at various locations on these roads and I want to know why."
He added: "We are gravely concerned that Karen has come to some harm, whether that is down to foul play, criminality or she has taken unwell or had an accident is obviously still to be established."
Her father John Buckley, 62, said the disappearance was "so out of character".
He said: "We are extremely concerned for her. We are desperate to get her back and safe with her family - she is our only daughter, we love her dearly and just want her to come home safe and sound."
Nick Clegg has said no party will win an outright election victory and warned voters they face a choice between the Lib Dems, the SNP and UKIP over who holds the balance of power.
Launching his manifesto, the Lib Dem leader said he would seek to form a "coalition with conscience" that would not "lurch off to the extremes".
He pledged £2.5bn more for education after 2017 to boost opportunity.
The Conservatives and Labour have both insisted they can win on their own.
UKIP leader Nigel Farage, who published his party's own manifesto on Wednesday, has rejected suggestions he has made approaches to the Conservatives about a post-election deal, saying he would "only be speaking to the British people" between now and 7 May.
'Brain and heart'
He suggested a referendum on the UK's membership of the EU would be the main "red line" in any negotiations with another party, saying it would have to be a "full, free and fair" vote rather than a "stitch-up".
Balance the budget fairly through a mixture of cuts and taxes on higher earners
Increase tax-free allowance to £12,500
Guarantee education funding from nursery to 19 with an extra £2.5bn and qualified teachers in every class
Invest £8bn in the NHS. Equal care for mental & physical health
Five new laws to protect nature and fight climate change
Speaking in south London, Mr Clegg said no party would win enough seats to gain victory on 8 May and either the Conservatives or Labour would have to work with others if they wanted to take power.
He said the Lib Dems' "gutsy" decision to join the Conservatives in coalition in 2010 had been vindicated, saying they had turned round the economy and governed with "compassion and a sense of fairness".
Making the case for another coalition, Mr Clegg said a vote for his party would stop the Tories or Labour governing on their own, arguing the Lib Dems would "add a heart to a Conservative government and add a brain to a Labour one".
A "few hundred votes", he claimed, could make the difference between a "decent, tolerant and generous" government in the centre-ground and a "coalition of grievance" involving either the UKIP and SNP.
Mr Clegg said the manifesto was a blueprint for a "stronger economy and a fairer society"
Opinion polls suggest the SNP, whose former leader Alex Salmond is standing for Parliament, could make huge gains in next month's poll and Mr Clegg suggested it would be Mr Salmond, rather his predecessor at SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon, who could end up "calling the shots".
"Somebody is going to hold the balance of power on May 8," he said. "It is not going to be David Cameron or Ed Miliband. It could be Alex Salmond, it could be Nigel Farage or it could be me and the Liberal Democrats.
"Only the Lib Dems can make sure the next government keeps Britain on track. Every Lib Dem you elect makes Labour's reckless borrowing less likely, makes George Osborne's ideological cuts less likely and every Lib Dem you elect is a barrier between Nigel Farage and Alex Salmond and the door to 10 Downing Street."
Announcing five key priorities on education, health, tax and the environment, he described it as a "programme for government not opposition".
In other election news:
UKIP pledges to employ 6,000 former army veterans in the police, prison service and Border Agency and spend 2% of output on defence
Labour launches what it calls its women's manifesto, with a pledge to allow working grandparents to share unpaid parental leave
The SDLP, which had three MPs in the last Parliament, publishes its general election manifesto
Former Cabinet Secretary Lord O'Donnell says civil servants will be preparing for "all sorts of outcomes" to the election, telling the BBC that minority government can be "made to work"
The latest TNS opinion poll gave the Conservatives a two-point lead over Labour while a YouGov poll gave Labour a one-point lead over the Conservatives
Putting education at the heart of its plans, Mr Clegg said that once the deficit has been eliminated in 2017-18, funding for two to 19-year-olds would increase in line with economic growth.
This, he said, would ensure the amount of money per child was protected over the course of the Parliament, amounting to an extra £2.5bn.
Analysis by Sean Coughlan, BBC education correspondent
The Liberal Democrats are trying to stake out a claim to be the party that makes education a spending priority, by the promise of an extra £2.5bn.
Their education-friendly image had taken some hard knocks from the tuition fee U-turn and being in a coalition government that frequently clashed with the teachers' unions.
But they have put forward a spending plan which they hope will out-flank both the Conservatives and Labour.
Labour pledged to protect school budgets against inflation, while the Conservatives' offer was to protect per-pupil spending at a time of rising pupil numbers.
The Liberal Democrats' pitch is to combine both - promising to protect per-pupil spending in real terms , including for an extra 460,000 pupils.
But there is a tough warning from the Institute for Fiscal Studies that school costs are rising much faster than inflation and a looming school funding shortage will face whoever wins the election.
Mr Clegg said the extra cash was the equivalent of 70,000 teachers and 10,000 learning support assistants and amounted to £2.5bn more than Labour and £5bn more than the Conservatives would spend.
The extra funding, the Lib Dems say, will help limit class sizes and increase the availability of one-to-one tuition.
The Conservatives have said they would protect the budget for 5-16 year-olds in cash terms, so that funding rises in line with pupil numbers but not in line with inflation or economic growth.
'Not modest'
Labour, on the other hand, has said it would ensure the budget for infants and pupils under the age of 19 increased in line with inflation but not in line with increases in pupil numbers or economic output.
The Lib Dem manifesto also includes pledges on balancing the books "fairly" by 2017-18, raising the threshold at which people start paying tax to £12,500 and "parity of esteem" between mental and physical health services in the NHS.
Schools minister David Laws, who helped write the document, said there was "nothing modest" about its commitments and they were underpinned by "sensible and cautious" assumptions about budgets, including a contingency fund in the event of lower-than-expected growth.
A Conservative spokesman highlighted the drop in per-pupil funding during the first phase of the Lib Dem education plan, when the budget would be linked to inflation.
"The Conservatives are the only party who are prepared to protect the money that schools get for each pupil," he added.
Labour said the Lib Dems had "broken their promises and backed the Tories all the way".
Unveiling its own plans on Wednesday, UKIP also called for a five-year ban on unskilled migrants coming in to the UK and £12bn for the NHS.
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Google's rivals have accused it of unfairly prioritising its own services in its results
The European Union has filed a complaint against Google over its alleged anti-competitive behaviour.
The competition commissioner said she had issued a "statement of objections", stating that the firm's promotion of its own shopping links amounted to an abuse of its dominance in search.
Margrethe Vestager said Google now had 10 weeks to respond.
Ms Vestager also revealed that she had launched an investigation into whether the way Google bundled apps and services for its Android operating system was unfair.
And the commissioner said the EU would continue to monitor other activities by Google that its rivals had complained about.
The EU has objected to the way Google promotes results from its own shopping service
It follows a five-year investigation into the company and marks the start of a legal process that could ultimately lead to billions of euros of fines.
Google accounts for more than a 90% of EU-based web searches.
'Preferential treatment'
The European Commission has investigated the antitrust allegations - made by Microsoft, Tripadvisor, Streetmap and others - since 2010.
Among their complaints was an objection to Google placing adverts from its Shopping service ahead of others' links in relevant searches.
Ms Vestager said the Commission's preliminary findings supported the claim that Google "systematically" gave prominence to its own ads, which amounted to an abuse of its dominant position in search.
"I'm concerned that Google has artificially boosted its presence in the comparison shopping market with the result that consumers may not necessarily see what's most relevant for them, or that competitors may not get the the commercial opportunity that their innovative services deserve," she told a press conference in Brussels.
Ms Vestager said that she was not seeking a wider redesign of Google's search results or asking it to change its algorithms.
But she added that the case could set a precedent that would determine how the EU handled other complaints about Google favouring its own mapping, hotels and flights services.
Google has rejected the idea its Shopping service distorts the market.
"While Google may be the most used search engine, people can now find and access information in numerous different ways - and allegations of harm, for consumers and competitors, have proved to be wide of the mark," wrote its search chief Amit Singhal on the firm's blog.
Google pitches its shopping service as a "matchmaker" between products and customers
"It's clear that: (a) there's a ton of competition - including from Amazon and eBay, two of the biggest shopping sites in the world and (b) Google's shopping results have not the harmed the competition.
"Any economist would say that you typically do not see a ton of innovation, new entrants or investment in sectors where competition is stagnating - or dominated by one player. Yet that is exactly what's happening in our world."
Many of Google's rivals welcomed the action.
"Google's abuse of dominance distorts European markets, harms consumers, and makes it impossible for Google's rivals to compete on a level playing field," said lobbying group Icomp.
"We see this statement of objection as a crucial first step towards ensuring that European consumers have access to vibrant and competitive online markets."
Google suggests that services including eBay ensure it does not distort the shopping search market
Android inquiry
The EU has also launched a separate investigation into the Android operating system, used by smartphones and tablets, which will focus on three topics:
claims that Google requires or incentivises manufacturers to pre-install its own search engine, apps and other services and exclude rival products
allegations that Google unfairly insists its services are bundled, meaning some cannot be pre-installed without including the others
complaints that the firm is hindering manufacturers from developing alternative versions of Android, which is open source. These are commonly known as "forks", with Amazon's Fire OS and Xiaomi's Mi being two examples that do exist.
"These issues are distinct from the Google comparison shopping case and the investigations will of course be different," Ms Vestager said.
Google says the way it distributes its apps ensures that Android smartphones offer a "great" experience
In response, Google stressed that Android devices could be offered without its services.
"It's important to remember that [our partner agreements] are voluntary - you can use Android without Google - but provide real benefits to Android users, developers and the broader ecosystem," said lead engineer Hiroshi Lockheimer.
"Our app distribution agreements make sure that people get a great 'out of the box' experience with useful apps right there on the home screen. This also helps manufacturers of Android devices compete with Apple, Microsoft and other mobile ecosystems that come preloaded with similar baseline apps."
Complex subject
Google could ultimately face huge fines and be ordered to reshape its business in Europe because of the shopping complaint.
Some searches cause Google Shopping's ads to be offset to the side of the screen
In recent years, the Commission has imposed antitrust penalties on other tech giants, ordering Intel to pay €1.1bn (£793m; $1.2bn) in 2009 and Microsoft €516m in 2013.
However, Ms Vestager said she was "open" to Google's response, and would listen to its case before deciding how to proceed.
One independent expert said that the matter could take years to resolve.
"I can't see that this will be a fast process given the complexity of the subject matter, what's at stake and the likely level of the fine," said Paul Henty, a lawyer at Charles Russell Speechlys who has previously worked for the European Commission.
International inquiries
The EU's investigation is not the only one Google is facing.
Investigators at India's Competition Commission delivered a report last week after carrying out a three-year probe into claims of unfair business practices.
Their counterparts in Russia, Brazil, Argentina, Taiwan and Canada have also opened investigations.
However, the US Federal Trade Commission dropped its own probe at the start of 2013 after Google made several non-binding commitments.
