Morsi criticises army ultimatum

2 July 2013 Last updated at 05:30 ET

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Noisy celebrations erupted in Cairo as the army delivered its ultimatum

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi says he was not consulted by the army before it set a 48-hour ultimatum to resolve the country's deadly crisis.

Mr Morsi said a part of the statement "may cause confusion in the complex national scene". He vowed to stick to his "national reconciliation" plan.

The army has warned it will intervene if the government and its opponents fail to heed "the will of the people".

However, it denies that the ultimatum amounts to a coup.

Meanwhile, Egypt's state news agency Mena reported early on Tuesday that Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr had submitted his resignation.

If accepted, he would join at least five other ministers who have already reportedly resigned over the political crisis.

On Sunday, millions rallied nationwide, urging the president to step down.

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Analysis

The statement by the minister of defence and army chief, Gen al-Sisi, was worded carefully.

It did not say the president must go. The army, with troops in strategic positions across Cairo, is saying the government and opposition have 48 hours to agree a way forward or it will intervene with its own plan.

The Egyptian military has been both hero and villain for the people involved in the ousting of President Mubarak in 2011.

Heroes, first of all, when they put themselves between protesters and the Mubarak regime's enforcers. But later they were widely criticised for holding onto power for too long.

The reality is they have never given up their critical role behind the scenes, which includes huge economic power.

No matter which way Egypt goes - and there could be some very rough days ahead - the army will never want its own power diluted.

Large protests continued on Monday with activists storming and ransacking Cairo's Muslim Brotherhood headquarters - the group from which the president hails.

President Morsi's opponents accuse him of putting the Brotherhood's interests ahead of the country's as a whole.

He became Egypt's first Islamist president on 30 June 2012, after winning an election considered free and fair following the 2011 revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak.

US President Barack Obama - currently on a tour of Africa - called Mr Morsi to encourage him to respond to the protesters' concerns.

Mr Obama "underscored that the current crisis can only be resolved through a political process," the White House said in a statement".

Coup in the making?

In an announcement read out on Egyptian TV, Gen Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, defence minister and head of the armed forces, described the protests as an "unprecedented" expression of the popular will.

If the people's demands were not met, he said, the military would have to take responsibility for a plan for the future.

But while he said the army would not get involved in politics or government, his words were seen by many as a coup in the making.

Noisy celebrations erupted in Cairo as protesters interpreted the army's ultimatum as spelling the end of Mr Morsi's rule.

Tens of thousands of flag-waving supporters of Tamarod (Rebel) - the opposition movement behind the protests - partied in Cairo's Tahrir Square late into the night.

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Tamarod (Rebel)

The Tamarod movement says more than 22 million people have signed a petition complaining that:

• Security has not been restored since the 2011 revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak
• The poor "have no place" in society
• The government has had to "beg" the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a $4.8bn loan to help shore up the public finances
• There has been "no justice" for people killed by security forces during the uprising and at anti-government protests since then
• "No dignity is left" for Egyptians or their country
• The economy has "collapsed", with growth poor and inflation high
• Egypt is "following in the footsteps" of the US

Meanwhile senior Brotherhood figure Muhammad al-Biltaji urged pro-Morsi supporters to "call their families in all Egyptian governorates and villages to be prepared to take to the streets and fill squares" to support their president.

"Any coup of any sort will only pass over our dead bodies," he said to a roar from thousands gathered outside the Rab'ah al-Adawiyah mosque in Cairo's Nasr district.

There were reports of gun clashes between rival factions in the city of Suez, east of the capital, on Monday night.

The army later issued a second statement on its Facebook page emphasising that it "does not aspire to rule and will not overstep its prescribed role".

According to Tuesday's presidential statement, President Morsi was not consulted ahead of the ultimatum announcement. It said that such action "may cause confusion in the complex national scene".

"The presidency asserts that the presidency is going on in its pre-planned path to hold a comprehensive national reconciliation," the presidency statement said.

Given the inability of politicians from all sides to agree until now, the 48-hour ultimatum makes it unlikely Mr Morsi can survive in power, says the BBC's Aleem Maqbool in Cairo.

The opposition movement had given Mr Morsi until Tuesday afternoon to step down and call fresh presidential elections, or else face a campaign of civil disobedience.

On Saturday, the group said it had collected more than 22 million signatures - more than a quarter of Egypt's population - in support.

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Amr Moussa: "We are really hoping to save Egypt from real collapse to ruins"

And on Monday the ministers of tourism, environment, communication, water utilities and legal affairs reportedly resigned in an act of "solidarity with the people's demand to overthrow the regime".

But Mr Morsi was defiant in an interview published on Sunday, rejecting calls for early presidential elections.

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Teachers warn of school term 'chaos'

2 July 2013 Last updated at 06:11 ET By Sean Coughlan BBC News education correspondent

Allowing all state schools in England to set their own term times could cause "chaos" for families booking holidays, a teachers' union is warning.

Plans were announced on Monday to allow all schools to vary term dates, a right already held by academies.

But the National Union of Teachers says it will cause problems for families with children in different schools.

Term times should be decided by heads and not councils, says the Department for Education.

"It is right that all schools are free to set their own term dates in the interests of parents and pupils," said an education department spokesman.

Holiday savings

From September 2015, all state schools in England will be able to decide their own term dates, under plans for more school autonomy announced by the government.

It could mean that more state schools switch from the long, six-week summer holidays.

Christine Blower, head of the NUT, said it would not mean saving money for families.

"Holiday companies will almost certainly just expand the period over which they charge premium rates so there will be no benefit to families, or indeed the general public who will have fewer weeks of less expensive holidays," she said.

Head teachers warned that parents with children in different schools would still expect local schools to agree common dates so that families could plan holidays together.

Schools can already vary the shape of the school day, but they will also be able to change the length of their terms.

Labour's education spokesman Stephen Twigg announced last month that a future Labour government would extend these academy flexibilities to all state schools.

It means that both the coalition government and opposition are pushing for greater powers to be devolved to individual schools.

Local co-ordination

The plans put forward in the Deregulation Bill would mean schools that are not academies would not have to accept the term dates set by local authorities.

A majority of secondary schools are now academies, but most primary schools have not adopted academy status - so this would represent an extra level of flexibility for them.

They would still have to operate within a legal limit of a minimum of 190 school days each year.

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The problem will come if no one is responsible for creating a co-ordinated calendar for an area and it turns into a free-for-all"

End Quote Brian Lightman Association of School and College Leaders

The Department for Education gave examples of how this might be applied.

In Leeds, the David Young Community Academy has a year of seven shorter terms and holidays that are not longer than four weeks.

The Boulevard Academy in Hull is going to cut the summer holiday from six weeks to four weeks.

"It is right that all schools are free to set their own term dates in the interests of parents and pupils," said a spokesman for the Department for Education.

Head teachers' leader Brian Lightman said: "Most schools choose to follow the local authority calendar because they know that it's better for parents who have children in different schools and teachers who want their holidays to coincide with their children's.

"The problem will come if no one is responsible for creating a co-ordinated calendar for an area and it turns into a free-for-all.

"Somebody needs to take the lead locally on deciding term dates and it makes sense for this to be the local authority, even if schools aren't required by law to follow it," said Mr Lightman, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders.

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Children 'abused to order' warning

2 July 2013 Last updated at 06:44 ET

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Peter Davies, Ceop, says online offending is just as harmful as physical sexual abuse and has led to children attempting suicide

Live streaming of child sex abuse via webcams is an emerging threat, experts have warned, amid a doubling of reported indecent images.

The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre said children were being "abused to order".

Offenders targeted vulnerable families overseas, paying them to facilitate child abuse, according to its report.

Ceop said those carrying out abuse used a "hidden internet" to disguise their identity and avoid detection.

The report found the number of still and moving child abuse images reported to Ceop had doubled in the last year to 70,000 - although this includes a "substantial" number of duplicated images.

The child protection body - part of Home Office's Serious Organised Crime Agency - said it received 8,000 reports of indecent images of children being shared last year.

'Appalling crime'

It said live streaming emerged in 2012 as a means of producing and distributing images.

"We're seeing cases where they're effectively being abused to order for paying customers," chief executive Peter Davies told the BBC.

He said some of those exploiting children via the internet were in the UK, adding: "At every level an absolutely appalling kind of crime."

Children were forced to engage in sexual activity on live webcams in exchange for payment to the family or organised crime gangs, according to Ceop's annual threat assessment of child exploitation and abuse .

Online video services such as Skype were identified as among those being exploited to transmit live images of abuse.

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What is the hidden internet?

When information moves online, each computer's individual IP address is widely logged, potentially giving police a start in any investigation.

But some in the industry say tech-savvy paedophiles have turned to networks specifically designed to conceal the identity and location of their users.

Using a variety of technological tricks, so-called "dark nets" - Tor, I2P, Freenet and many others - hide the giveaway identifiers while allowing people to go on using the web.

Drugs, guns and credit card skimmers are openly on sale on these networks.

They are places where paedophiles, criminal hackers and professional thieves advertise their services.

However some see the hidden web as a force for good because it is used to avoid detection in many places where political protests are harshly suppressed.

Do dark networks aid cyberthieves and abusers?

Ceop said many abusers were hiding their actions deep in the "hidden internet" by using encrypted networks and other secure methods to distribute images. These methods made it harder for law enforcement agencies to trace abusers.

"The use of the hidden internet in the UK and beyond is expected to continue increasing throughout 2013, possibly reaching 20,000 daily UK users by the end of the year," said the report.

"Ceop assesses that the networking and sense of 'safe' community that occurs within the hidden internet and the relative sophistication of offenders within that environment stimulates the production of [indecent images of children] on both a commercial and non-commercial basis."

'Searching questions'

An NSPCC spokeswoman said evidence from police in England and Wales indicated there were 20,000 sexual offences against children every year.

"However, we believe this is far from the true situation as many cases are never revealed," said the spokesman.

Independent charity Victim Support, meanwhile, said the police service must "ask itself some searching questions".

"Its first priority is to prevent and detect crime," chief executive Javed Khan said.

There were "inconsistencies in the way forces collect, record and categorise child sex abuse offences", he added.

"It is essential that every dot is joined up if the most vulnerable in our society are to be protected.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

It is essential that every dot is joined up if the most vulnerable in our society are to be protected"

End Quote Javed Khan Victim Support

"Every police force must therefore contribute fully and consistently to the national intelligence picture - only then will we have a true picture of the scale of the problem."

Policing and Criminal Justice Minister Damian Green said: "These figures are deeply troubling and show how our understanding of child sexual exploitation has greatly improved in recent years.

"But more needs to be done. Ceop is doing excellent work and we will see its capability strengthened when it is transferred to the National Crime Agency later this year.

"I am leading a new Home Office group which is urgently looking at how we better identify those at risk."

An estimated 50,000 UK web users are involved in distributing abuse images.

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Snowden's asylum options narrow

2 July 2013 Last updated at 07:13 ET

Fugitive intelligence leaker Edward Snowden has suffered a setback in his attempts to avoid extradition to the US, as a number of countries have rejected his requests for asylum.

Eight European states including Spain and Germany said asylum applicants had to be on their soil.

India has also said no.

Mr Snowden, who is at Moscow airport, sent requests to 21 countries in total, Wikileaks said, but he later withdrew a request to Russia.

A Kremlin spokesman said his decision came after Russian President Vladimir Putin set conditions for him staying.

The former intelligence systems analyst is wanted by the US on charges of leaking secrets.

He accuses US President Barack Obama of putting pressure on the countries to which he has applied for asylum.

Meanwhile French President Francois Hollande called for the European Union to take a common stand over allegations by Mr Snowden that Washington is spying on its European allies.

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Analysis

Vladimir Putin's warning to Mr Snowden that he should stop "harming our American partners" is indicative of a significant shifting of gear. Russia now has ownership of the Snowden affair. What happens to Mr Snowden will depend upon Russia's calculations and what serves Russia's interests.

The authorities in Moscow could have moved Mr Snowden on quickly, joining the diplomatic game of pass-the-parcel that began in Hong Kong. But the longer the errant US intelligence analyst stays in limbo at the Moscow airport, so the more Russia has become a central actor in this drama.

Russia must balance a range of factors in seeking to determine Mr Snowden's fate - the risk of a serious rift with Washington and Russia's own standing as an international actor that upholds the legal order must be set against the strong vein of sympathy for Mr Snowden amongst Russian public opinion.

'Not allowed'

The Wikileaks press release said that most of the asylum requests - including to Russia itself - were handed to the Russian consulate at Sheremetyevo airport late on Sunday for delivery to the relevant embassies in Moscow.

But responses came in on Monday morning.

"Following careful examination we have concluded that we see no reason to accede to the Snowden request," Indian foreign ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said on Twitter.

Austria, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Spain, Switzerland said his request was invalid because it was not made from their own territory.

"Delivering an application for asylum from abroad is in principle not allowed," Norwegian deputy justice secretary Paal Loenseth told the country's state TV.

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslav Sikorski said it would have been rejected even if it was valid.

"We received a document that does not meet the requirements for a formal application for asylum," he wrote on his Twitter account.

"Even if it did, I would not give a positive recommendation."

Meanwhile Mr Hollande denied that France had received a specific asylum request from Mr Snowden.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who is on a visit to Moscow, said the same, but added that Mr Snowden had "done something very important for humanity" and "deserved the world's protection".

"The world's conscience should react, the world youth should react, the decent people who want a peaceful world should react, everyone should react and find solidarity with this young man who has denounced and altered the world that they [the US] pretend to control," he told the BBC.

Continue reading the main story

Asylum requests

• Rejected: Austria, Finland, Germany, India, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Spain, Switzerland
• Withdrawn: Russia
• Pending: Bolivia, Brazil, China, Cuba, Ecuador, Iceland, Italy, Netherlands, Nicaragua
• Unconfirmed: France, Venezuela

Transit limbo

Meanwhile Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Mr Snowden had withdrawn the application to Russia because Moscow had said he should give up "anti-American activity".

"After learning of Russia's position yesterday, voiced by President Putin ... he abandoned his intention [of staying] and his request to be able to stay in Russia," he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had said that while Moscow "never hands over anybody anywhere", Mr Snowden could only stay on condition that he stopped damaging Russia's "American partners" with his leaks.

Mr Snowden has reportedly been in the transit area of Sheremetyevo since arriving there from Hong Kong on 23 June.

Mr Peskov confirmed he was still there and had not crossed into Russian territory, adding that the former analyst had never been a Russian agent and had never worked with its intelligence services.

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European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso: Allegations are "very disturbing and raise important concerns"

Mr Snowden had previously submitted an application to Ecuador, whose embassy in London is sheltering Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, and to Iceland.

Ecuador's President Rafael Correa told the Agence France-Presse news agency on Monday that his country would process Mr Snowden's asylum request if he managed to enter an Ecuadorean embassy.

However, if he can complete his asylum request on Russian territory , then "the situation can be processed and resolved there," President Correa added.

Details have also emerged of a letter from Mr Snowden to President Correa, thanking Ecuador for guaranteeing "my rights would be protected upon departing Hong Kong - I could never have risked travel without that".

Mr Snowden describes himself as "a stateless person", accusing the US government of stopping him from exercising the "basic right...to seek asylum".

The leaking of thousands of classified intelligence documents has led to revelations that the US is systematically seizing vast amounts of phone and web data.

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Stabbed boy police find woman's body

2 July 2013 Last updated at 08:06 ET

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The boy was attacked at the Carnegie Skate Park in Shipley

A man has been arrested on suspicion of murdering an elderly woman and the attempted murder of a boy at a park.

The 26-year-old is also suspected of chasing a young girl through a garden in Shipley, West Yorkshire.

Louisa Denby, 84, was found dead at her home on Monday by police investigating the stabbing of a nine-year-old boy at a nearby skate park.

Police said the boy, who is in a stable condition in hospital, was attacked for no reason and with no warning.

He was taken to Leeds General Infirmary by air ambulance following the attack at the Carnegie Skate Park in Shipley, at about 16:40 BST on Monday.

'Numerous stab wounds'

Det Insp Lisa Griffin said she believed the three incidents were linked.

"The nine-year-old boy was out playing and was returning home for a drink when he was approached by a male and with no prior warning and for no reason known to us at this time he was attacked with a knife - a single stab-wound causing him injuries to his chest and his arm," she said.

"Ten minutes after that attack an eight-year-old girl was chased through her garden at home [on Prospect Grove]. Nothing untoward happened to her.

Continue reading the main story

I have never known anything so horrific as this... it's just terrible."

End Quote Vanda Greenwood Shipley councillor

"As the inquiries continued in the afternoon and evening yesterday, we were taken to an address on Prospect Mount where we discovered the body of an 84-year-old woman."

Mrs Denby was found with "numerous stab wounds" just before midnight.

A 26-year-old man, related to Mrs Denby, was arrested after being spotted by a member of the public in Westfield Lane, Idle, in nearby Bradford, at about 04:10 BST.

'Massive police presence'

The skate park is about 300m (984ft) from Prospect Mount.

Both the park and the area around the house have been cordoned off, as well as a number of other locations in the Windhill area.

Shipley councillor Vanda Greenwood, who was born in the area, said: "I have never known anything so horrific as this ... it's just terrible."

She said there was a "massive police presence" in the area.

David Jacobs, who lives near Mrs Denby's house, said the community was "shell-shocked".

He said: "I know the little boy because he plays with my son, it's tragic.

"He's a very nice, normal lad who likes to play on his scooter and at the park and play on his bike."

Another 26-year-old man is also being held in connection with Mrs Denby's murder.

A further three local men aged 18, 24 and 29 are being held in connection with the boy's stabbing.

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US wildfire kills 19 firefighters

1 July 2013 Last updated at 04:12 ET

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Nineteen firefighters have been killed battling a wildfire in central Arizona

At least 19 US firefighters have been killed battling a wildfire in central Arizona, local officials say.

They died while fighting the blaze threatening the town of Yarnell, about 80 miles (130km) north-west of Phoenix.

The fire was started by lightning on Friday and spread rapidly amid high heat, low humidity and strong winds. At least 200 homes were burned.

Arizona and other parts of the western US - including California - had near-record temperatures over the weekend.

It is the highest death toll for firefighters in a single incident since 9/11.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

One of the last methods a firefighter can do is to dig as much as they can and cover themselves with a protective fire-resistant material"

End Quote Dan Fraijo Prescott Fire Chief

US President Barack Obama said the firefighters were heroes who had "put themselves in harm's way to protect the lives and property of fellow citizens".

Arizona Senator John McCain said the families of the dead firefighters were in the thoughts and prayers of all Americans.

"This devastating loss is a reminder of the grave risks our firefighters take every day on our behalf in Arizona and in communities across this nation. Their sacrifice will never be forgotten," he said in a statement.

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer said it could take "days or longer" to reveal how the deaths occurred.

"This is as dark a day as I can remember," she said.

'Hotshot' unit

"It has been confirmed that 19 wildland firefighters have lost their lives on the Yarnell Hill fire Arizona," the US Wildland Fire Aviation said in a statement.

Continue reading the main story

US wildfire tragedies

• 3 Oct 1933: At least 25 firemen killed at a blaze in Griffith Park, Los Angeles
• 21 Aug 1937: Fifteen firefighters die in Blackwater fire in Shoshone National Forest, Wyoming
• 5 Aug 1949: Twelve parachute firefighters and a forest ranger killed by Mann Gulch fire near Helena, in the state of Montana
• 9 July 1953: Rattlesnake fire in Mendocino National Forest, southern California, kills 15 firefighters
• 6 July 1994: Fourteen firefighters killed in lightning-induced Storm King Mountain blaze near Glenwood Springs, Colorado

Source: US National Fire Protection Association

The firefighters were part of a specially trained "hotshot" unit who had battled other wildfires in New Mexico and Arizona in recent weeks, officials say.

They were forced to deploy emergency tent-like structures meant to shield them from flames after becoming trapped and "something drastic" happened, said Dan Fraijo, fire chief in the nearby city of Prescott.

"One of the last fail-safe methods a firefighter can do is literally to dig as much as they can down and cover themselves with a protective fire-resistant material, with the hope that the fire will burn over the top of them and they can survive it," he said.

"Under certain conditions there's usually only sometimes a 50% chance that they survive. It's an extreme measure that's taken under the absolute worst conditions."

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Fire chief Dan Fraijo: "They were the finest most dedicated people"

Two other members of the elite unit who suffered severe burns have been flown to a burn treatment centre in Phoenix.

Dwight Devlin from the Arizona Sheriff's Office told the BBC that the firefighters were carrying fire blankets but they were ineffective in this case.

"Some were actually found with those blankets over them but unfortunately it appears the flames and the heat were too much," he said.

Mr Devlin added that they were on their way on foot to an area where they had been directed to clear brush to prevent the spread of the fire.

The tragedy is the worst in a wildfire since 1933, when at least 25 firemen died battling a fire in Griffith Park, Los Angeles.

Homes destroyed

Some 200 firefighters are still battling the fast-moving wildfire, which has grown to 1,000 acres. Additional reinforcements have been called in.

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Arizona and other parts of the western US - including California - are baking in record heat. Stav Danaos explains why.

The blaze has forced the evacuation of local residents.

An estimated 200 homes were destroyed in Yarnell, the Associated Press reported, almost half the properties in the town.

In recent days, dozens of people across western US states have been treated for exhaustion and dehydration, as the heat wave continues.

Temperatures in some areas were expected to reach 54C (130F), close to the world's all-time high recorded 100 years ago in California's Death Valley.

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Clegg: I wouldn't take MP pay rise

1 July 2013 Last updated at 06:41 ET

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has said he would not take a big pay rise even if one is recommended for MPs.

He said people whose living standards were being "remorselessly squeezed" would find a big rise for MPs "impossible to understand".

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority is expected to say backbench MPs' £66,000 salaries should increase to more than £70,000 from the election.

Prime Minister David Cameron has said such a plan would be "unthinkable".

But the BBC's Nick Robinson said the PM could not block the recommendations and advisers had warned him MPs would reject any bid to do so in the Commons.

The BBC's political editor added that the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority's (Ipsa) recommendation would be "likely to cause outrage from voters at a time when there is significant pay restraint in the public and private sectors".

'Show restraint'

Ipsa, which was set up as an independent body to regulate MPs' pay and pensions in the wake of the expenses scandal, is expected to announce its initial recommendations later this month.

Continue reading the main story

What must have seemed a good idea at the time of the MPs' expenses scandal is now giving the prime minister a political migraine"

End Quote

MPs and members of the public will be able to take part in a consultation before Ipsa publishes its final plans - expected in the autumn - which would then come into force without the need for further legislation.

Reports in several newspapers this weekend suggest its initial recommendations will call for a rise of about 15% in the basic salary of a backbench MP from £66,396 to a sum closer to £75,000. MPs would, however, have to pay much higher contributions towards their pensions.

Asked about the reports of a proposed pay rise for MPs, Mr Clegg, the Lib Dem leader, said the recommendations were a matter for Ipsa and for MPs to decide themselves whether or not to take any rise.

Speaking in Pakistan, Mr Cameron said he did not know what Ipsa would say but added: "Whatever Ipsa recommends, we can't see the cost of politics or Westminster going up. We should see the cost of Westminster go down.

"Anything would be unthinkable unless the cost of politics was frozen and cut, so I'll wait and see what Ipsa have to say. What I said to Ipsa was that restraint is necessary."

The government could propose a motion calling for Ipsa's recommendations to be ignored, but Nick Robinson said this could "undermine the independence of the new system" and would be unlikely to win enough support from MPs.

And the Mail on Sunday reported that a source close to Labour leader Ed Miliband had said: "We will view any rise for MPs in the light of the current climate of economic austerity.

"It has to be seen in the context of the decision to limit public sector workers' pay increases to 1% and the fact that some private sector workers have had their pay cut."

The Commons voted against a 1% pay rise in 2011 and last year agreed to extend the pay freeze into 2013.

But in an anonymous online survey of 100 MPs conducted for Ipsa - the results of which were published in January - 69% said they were underpaid.

'Last thing on earth'

The average level suggested for the appropriate level of pay was £86,250.

Former Labour minister and chairman of the Home Affairs select committee Keith Vaz: "The last thing on earth MPs should be talking about is their own pay."

Former children's minister and Tory MP Tim Loughton: "This isn't going to happen. It would be completely inappropriate for us to accept it at the moment. It sends the wrong message to the rest of the country going through a tough time."

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Keith Vaz MP: "This has always been a point of contention"

Matthew Sinclair, of the Taxpayers' Alliance, which campaigns for lower taxes, said there would be public outrage should the rises go ahead.

He said: "MPs are already very well paid both in terms of European politicians and the average salary in this country.

"It would be particularly egregious for politicians to be handed a whopping great pay rise while hard-pressed taxpayers tighten their own belts."

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Firefighters tackle 'largest blaze'

1 July 2013 Last updated at 07:12 ET Continue reading the main story

Firefighters tackling a blaze involving 100,000 tonnes of plastic recycling material and a factory unit say they have now contained the largest fire seen in the West Midlands.

The fire has been blamed on Chinese lanterns that dropped on the plastics.

The fire service said 200 firefighters were at the scene in Smethwick. Three of them have been taken to hospital.

A plume of smoke is rising 6,000ft into the air from the fire at the Jayplas depot in Dartmouth Road.

Birmingham International Airport was alerted, but flights were unaffected.

'Tremendous heat'

The fire is on an industrial estate, but the closest residents were being advised to keep windows closed.

Continue reading the main story

The huge flames are still very powerful and are producing plumes of thick black smoke.

We have now had more than 200 firefighters tackling the blaze including crews from Warwickshire and Staffordshire.

Because of the intensity of the fire they are having to pull crews in and out quite quickly.

Nine firefighters have been treated for injuries including heat exhaustion.

I have been told by the fire commander it is a very dangerous and very intense fire to try to tackle.

What they are trying to do is tackle it from the perimeter and get the fire surrounded before they put it out.

The fire service said Dartmouth Road, Halfords Lane and Brasshouse Lane were closed to traffic and that the fire was likely to cause congestion in the area.

It also urged motorists to avoid junction one of the M5 if possible.

Nearby Galton Valley Primary School in Brasshouse Lane was closed because of the road closures.

Chief fire officer Vij Randeniya said the fire, which began at about 23:00 BST on Sunday, had been contained to an area of about 90,000 sq m.

Mr Randeniya said his crews had saved a number of warehouses.

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Aerial footage shows the extent of the fire

"We've also removed 12 articulated lorries, saved an awful lot of businesses on the perimeter and now we're to spend the next two or three days putting the thing out," he said.

"The heat that's coming off that fire is tremendous.

"The smoke's gone up to 6,000 feet but it's sucking the air in around the area and that's feeding oxygen which is making the fire burn more fiercely."

The service has previously campaigned against the use of Chinese lanterns.

"What you're doing in an unregulated and uncontrolled way is putting fire in the sky and every now and again it lands on something like this and we're here for three days," Mr Randeniya said.

Area commander Steve Vincent described it as the "largest fire that we've had in the West Midlands".

The fire service said its control centre had received more than 200 calls about the blaze and urged people to call 999 only if really necessary.

'Loud bangs'

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Area commander Steve Vincent said there were reports the smoke was visible 50 miles away

The ambulance service said it had treated "nine patients for injuries received at the scene".

"Three of these patients were later conveyed to a local hospital as a precautionary measure," a spokesman added.

Public Health England in the West Midlands said smoke from any source could contain substances to irritate breathing, skin or eyes.

"Respiratory symptoms may include coughing and wheezing, breathlessness, sputum (phlegm) production and chest pain," a spokesman said.

"People with asthma and other respiratory conditions may be particularly susceptible to the smoke and should carry and use their medication (such as inhalers) as usual."

Eye-witness Jack Awal said he could see the fire from his home two miles away in Handsworth.

He said: "I heard a loud bang and went outside to see what it was.

"I immediately recognised where the smoke was coming from. I knew it had to be a factory.

"It was like a scene from a movie. There were so many large explosions and loud bangs. It was like a firework display - there were loud crackles and bangs every few seconds."

No-one from Jayplas was available for immediate comment.

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BBC's £25m severance bill criticised

1 July 2013 Last updated at 08:01 ET

The BBC has been criticised by the National Audit Office for paying out £25m to 150 senior BBC managers in severance payments.

The top 10 payments in the three years to December 2012 accounted for 20% of the total paid out.

The BBC said the savings it had made from senior manager redundancies exceeded the cost of severance pay.

The BBC's director general Tony Hall said: "These payments were from another era and we are putting a stop to them."

"I believe the BBC lost its way on payments in recent years. I have already said that we will be capping severance payments at £150,000 and we have now begun to improve our processes."

The BBC announced in April that it was consulting staff on capping redundancy payments at £150,000 or 12 months' salary, whichever is lower.

The National Audit Office (NAO) found that the BBC had breached "its own already generous policies on severance payments".

Amyas Morse, head of the NAO, said: "Weak governance arrangements have led to payments that exceeded contractual requirements and put public trust at risk.

The NAO noted "decisions to award severance payments that exceed contractual entitlements have, until recently, been subject to insufficient challenge and oversight.

"The BBC's proposal to cap redundancy payments, announced in 2013 by the new director general, is a signal of change for the better. It is well below the maximum that applies to civil servants."

The report also noted that the number of senior managers had been reduced from 660 to 445 in the three years to December 2012.

Culture Secretary Maria Miller said: "Every publicly-funded organisation must be able to justify every penny of taxpayers' money they spend, and even more so in these tough economic times. There is huge public interest in the BBC, and the NAO has exposed a culture of pay-offs that simply cannot be justified.

"The report shines a light on a culture at the BBC where individuals received payments that went beyond the already very generous terms of their contract. I welcome the fact that the BBC is looking at future payments - a move which this report suggests is long overdue."

'Considerable dismay'

It is the BBC's executive board remuneration committee that takes decisions on senior pay packages but the BBC Trust has to hold the executive board to account.

The NAO noted that former BBC director general George Entwistle was paid £475,000 after he announced his resignation in November 2012. This included three weeks' salary worth £25,000 that was not part of his severance package of £450,000.

Mr Entwistle was entitled to a notice period of 12 months, although he was only in the job for 54 days.

The BBC Trust has since agreed with Mr Hall on a reduction to his notice period from 12 to six months.

The Trust asked the NAO to carry out a review following public concern about the BBC's severance payments to senior managers.

Anthony Fry, BBC trustee and chair of the Trust's financial committee, said: "Although the BBC has achieved significant savings in its senior manager pay bill, some of the NAO's conclusions are deeply worrying, particularly the failure to follow agreed severance policies in a number of cases as a result of weak governance from the BBC executive in the past.

"Such practices are unacceptable and I have no doubt that they will, quite rightly, be met with considerable dismay by licence fee payers and staff alike."

He added: "We have asked the Exec to increase the transparency of the BBC's severance payments by disclosing more information in the annual report and accounts."

• The current head of BBC newsgathering, Fran Unsworth, has been named as the new deputy head of News and Current Affairs, working with director of news James Harding when he takes up his post in August.

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Brotherhood HQ in Cairo stormed

1 July 2013 Last updated at 08:07 ET

Anti-government protesters in Egypt have stormed the national headquarters of President Mohammed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood in the capital, Cairo.

People ransacked the building in the Moqattam area and set parts on fire.

Officials say eight people have been killed in clashes outside since Sunday, while eight others have died elsewhere.

Earlier, the opposition movement behind the protests that saw millions take to the streets across Egypt on Sunday gave Mr Morsi until Tuesday to resign.

Tamarod (Rebel) said Mr Morsi would face a campaign of civil disobedience if he did not leave power and allow elections to be held.

Continue reading the main story

Analysis

All sides in Egypt were surprised by the huge scale of the demonstrations against the president.

The opposition is a broad and informal coalition, which ranges from supporters of the old Mubarak regime to people who risked their lives to topple it. Their challenge is to find a way to sustain the momentum of Sunday's protests.

President Morsi's spokesman has called for dialogue. For that to work, the president would have to offer major concessions, perhaps on a rewritten constitution. He showed no signs of conciliation during a major political speech last week, instead appealing to his Muslim Brotherhood base.

As for the demonstrators, they have called for his resignation and early elections. Political chaos looks likely to continue.

Meanwhile, four government ministers were reported to have resigned. The al-Watan website said they had done so "in solidarity with the people's demand to overthrow the regime".

Protesters across Egypt accuse the president of failing to tackle economic and security problems since being elected a year ago. His supporters insist he needs more time.

'Thugs'

Millions of people attended demonstrations across the country on Sunday to demand Mr Morsi step down.

The crowds seen in Cairo's Tahrir Square were the biggest since the 2011 revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak.

Sporadic outbreaks of violence were reported nationwide.

The health ministry said at least 16 people had been killed and 781 injured across the country since Sunday. Three people died in the central province of Assiut, and another four in Alexandria, Fayoum, Beni Suef and Kafr al-Sheikh.

Another protester suffocated to death at a protest outside the Ittihadiya presidential palace in Cairo, while eight were killed in clashes around the Muslim Brotherhood's headquarters in Moqattam, the ministry added.

Overnight, protesters threw petrol bombs and rocks at armed guards inside the six-storey building, who retaliated by firing at them.

On Monday morning, the protesters stormed the headquarters and began throwing objects of broken windows. One protester was seen removing parts of the signage, while another waved an Egyptian flag from a window.

Some people took away office equipment, as well as furniture, rugs and air conditioning units.

Continue reading the main story

"This is a historic moment. The Brotherhood ruined the country, so stealing from them is justified," one man, named Mohammed, told the AFP news agency.

Many protesters accuse the president of putting the Brotherhood's interests ahead of the country's as a whole.

A Brotherhood spokesman blamed the violence on "thugs" and said it would be demanding the police explain why officers had failed to protect the group's headquarters.

Two people inside had been injured by fires before a Brotherhood security detail could evacuate them on Monday morning, he told the Reuters news agency.

'Constitutional legitimacy'

Meanwhile, some protesters spent the night camped out in Tahrir Square and also in front of the Ittihadiya presidential palace to the north-east. They vowed to stay there until the president stepped down.

One man heading to the palace was confident it would not take long.

Continue reading the main story

Tamarod (Rebel)

The Tamarod movement says more than 22 million people have signed a petition complaining that:

• Security has not been restored since the 2011 revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak
• The poor "have no place" in society
• The government has had to "beg" the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a $4.8bn loan to help shore up the public finances
• There has been "no justice" for people killed by security forces during the uprising and at anti-government protests since then
• "No dignity is left" for Egyptians or their country
• The economy has "collapsed", with growth poor and inflation high
• Egypt is "following in the footsteps" of the US

"Mubarak took only 18 days although he had behind him the security, intelligence and a large sector of Egyptians," Amr Tawfeeq told the Associated Press.

Earlier, Tamarod issued a statement saying the protesters would give Mr Morsi until 17:00 (15:00 GMT) on Tuesday to leave power and allow state institutions to prepare for early presidential elections.

Otherwise, people would begin a campaign of "complete civil disobedience", the group warned.

It urged "state institutions including the army, the police and the judiciary, to clearly side with the popular will as represented by the crowds".

The group also rejected offers of dialogue from the president.

"There is no way to accept any half measures," it said. "There is no alternative other than the peaceful end of power of the Muslim Brotherhood and its representative, Mohammed Morsi."

On Saturday, Tamarod said it had collected more than 22 million signatures - more than a quarter of Egypt's population - in support.

But Mr Morsi was defiant in an interview published on Sunday, rejecting the opposition calls for early presidential elections.

"If we changed someone in office who [was elected] according to constitutional legitimacy - well, there will be people opposing the new president too, and a week or a month later they will ask him to step down," he told the Guardian newspaper.

He said he would not tolerate any deviation from constitutional order.

"There is no room for any talk against this constitutional legitimacy. There can be demonstrations and people expressing their opinions," he added. "But what's critical in all this is the adoption and application of the constitution. This is the critical point."

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