Ardnamurchan Viking boat burial discovery 'a first'

The sword, axe head and a bronze ring pin recovered from the burial site

The UK mainland's first fully intact Viking boat burial site has been uncovered in the north-west Highlands, archaeologists have said.

The site, at Ardnamurchan, is thought to be more than 1,000 years old.

Artefacts buried alongside the Viking in his boat suggest he was a high-ranking warrior.

Archaeologist Dr Hannah Cobb said the "artefacts and preservation make this one of the most important Norse graves ever excavated in Britain".

Dr Cobb, from the University of Manchester, a co-director of the project, said: "This is a very exciting find."

She has been excavating artefacts in Ardnamurchan for six years.

The universities of Manchester, Leicester, Newcastle and Glasgow worked on, identified, or funded the excavation.
rchaeology Scotland and East Lothian-based CFA Archaeology have also been involved in the project which led to the find.

The term "fully-intact", used to describe the find, means the remains of the body along with objects buried with it and evidence of the boat used were found and recovered.

The Ardnamurchan Viking was found buried with an axe, a sword with a decorated hilt, a spear, a shield boss and a bronze ring pin.


About 200 rivets - the remains of the boat he was laid in - were also found.

Previously, boat burials in such a condition have been excavated at sites on Orkney.

Until now mainland excavations were only partially successful and had been carried out before more careful and accurate methods were introduced.

Other finds in the 5m-long (16ft) grave in Ardnamurchan included a knife, what could be the tip of a bronze drinking horn, a whetstone from Norway, a ring pin from Ireland and Viking pottery.

'The icing'
Dozens of pieces of iron yet to be identified were also found at the site.

The finds were made as part of the Ardnamurchan Transition Project (ATP) which has been examining social change in the area from the first farmers 6,000 years ago to the Highland Clearances of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Viking specialist Dr Colleen Batey, from the University of Glasgow, has said the boat was likely to be from the 10th Century AD.

Dr Oliver Harris, project co-director from the University of Leicester's School of Archaeology and Ancient History, reinforced the importance of the burial site.

An illustration of what the burial would have looked like in the 10th Century AD

He said: "In previous seasons our work has examined evidence of changing beliefs and life styles in the area through a study of burial practices in the Neolithic and Bronze age periods 6,000-4,500 years ago and 4,500 to 2,800 years ago respectively.

"It has also yielded evidence for what will be one of the best-dated Neolithic chambered cairns in Scotland when all of our post-excavation work is complete.

"But the find we reveal today has got to be the icing on the cake."

David Cameron proposes changes to royal succession

Any changes to the law would apply to children of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

Changes to the rules on succession have moved closer after David Cameron shared his plans with the 15 other countries who have the Queen as their monarch.

The PM wants to scrap the ban on spouses of Roman Catholics ascending to the throne and give girls the same right of succession as boys.

But he needs the 15 other Commonwealth nations to agree to the changes.

They would apply to any children of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge - even if they were born before a law change.

At present, the Act of Settlement gives male children the right to leapfrog their older sisters in the order of succession to the throne.

'Historical anomaly'
But in his letter, Mr Cameron said: "We espouse gender equality in all other aspects of life and it is an anomaly that in the rules relating to the highest public office we continue to enshrine male superiority."

The change would mean a first-born daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge could become Queen.

But it would not apply to previous generations, so Princess Anne would not leapfrog her younger brothers Andrew and Edward to become fourth in line to the throne.

Mr Cameron also said the ban on any monarch married to a Roman Catholic was an "historical anomaly" and could not "continue to be justified".

But he did not propose changing the ban on monarchs themselves being Roman Catholic because the British monarch is also head of the Church of England.

The monarch also has representation at the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, either in person or through a High Commissioner.

A third change would amend the provisions of the 1772 Royal Marriages Act, which requires all descendants of King George II to obtain the monarch's permission before marrying.

The government proposes to limit that requirement to the first six in line to the throne.

'Matter for Parliament'
Any changes require the agreement of all 16 Commonwealth "realms" - the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Grenada, Belize, St Christopher and Nevis, St Lucia, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Papua New Guinea.

Mr Cameron is to discuss his proposals with fellow leaders when he attends his first Commonwealth heads of government summit in Perth, Australia, later this month.

Downing Street said that Buckingham Palace was "aware" of the prime minister's letter, but the Queen was unlikely to be involved in any discussions at Perth.

Changes to legislation were "a matter for Parliament", said Mr Cameron's official spokesman.

Amanda Knox to learn murder appeal fate

The appeal has centred on a review of DNA evidence

Amanda Knox is waiting to hear whether she will be cleared of murdering British student Meredith Kercher, after an 11-month appeal.

Knox, 24, and Raffaele Sollecito, 27, are challenging their convictions for killing Miss Kercher, 21, from south London, in Perugia, Italy, in 2007.

The verdict is expected on Monday after final statements from the pair, who were jailed for 26 and 25 years.

Prosecutors have said they will appeal if the verdict is overturned.

The appeal case has centred on a review of DNA evidence on a kitchen knife, thought to be the murder weapon, which indicated it was flawed.

But prosecutors called for the sentences to be increased to life terms, saying there was also considerable circumstantial evidence putting the ex-lovers at the scene of the killing.

Final statements

The trial has heard some colourful phrases used to describe Knox, with one lawyer comparing the American to Who Framed Roger Rabbit cartoon character Jessica Rabbit, and another to a witch.

Carlo Pacelli, who represents Diya "Patrick" Lumumba, who Knox originally accused of the murder - she says under pressure from the police - said she had a split personality.

One side was "angelic, good, compassionate, and in some ways even saintly", but the other side was "Lucifer-like, demonic, satanic, diabolic" and "longs to live out borderline extreme behaviour", he said.

The jury, which comprises two judges and six members of the public, will retire to consider its verdict after the statements.

If the conviction is upheld, the pair can appeal for a final time at Italy's highest appeals court.

Knox's family have said they will take her back to Seattle immediately if it is overturned, despite prosecutors vowing to appeal.

Miss Kercher, from Coulsdon, had been sharing a cottage with Knox during an exchange year abroad from Leeds University.

Prosecutors says she was killed in a brutal sex game which had gone wrong. Her throat had been slit and she had been sexually assaulted.

Miss Kercher's family have said they feel the true victim has been "completely forgotten", with the media's focus on Knox.

In a recent interview on Italian television, her sister Stephanie said: "In these four years, Meredith has been completely forgotten. But we need to find justice for her, we need to find the truth for her."

Knox was sentenced to 26 years in prison, while her former Italian boyfriend Sollecito was given 25 years. Both deny any wrongdoing.

A third person - Rudy Guede, 21 - was also convicted of Miss Kercher's murder in a separate trial and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

His conviction was upheld on appeal but reduced to 16 years.

Meredith Kercher's family feel the true victim has been forgotten

David Cameron defends economic growth policy

David Cameron insists that the government has an "incredibly active growth strategy"

Prime Minister David Cameron has defended the government's policies on economic growth following criticism from a prominent Tory figure.

Commons Treasury Committee chairman Andrew Tyrie said the government was not doing enough to promote growth.

He called for tax cuts for business and questioned government initiatives, such as the Big Society.

Mr Cameron said growth was vital and the government had an "incredibly active" growth strategy.

Mr Tyrie said some government initiatives "have seemed at best irrelevant to the task in hand, if not downright contradictory to it".

According to Mr Tyrie, the government is pursuing policies more suited to an age of abundance rather than austerity.

He does support the coalition's strategy to reduce the public deficit, saying it is both necessary and correct.

Living standards
But in the pamphlet for the pro-free market think tank, Centre For Policy Studies, he said the government had to review its positions on the reform of public services, the increase in overseas aid and some aspects of its environmental agenda.

The pamphlet, called It's the Economy, says: "Without the lynchpin of a clear strategy for growth in place, other attempts to provide a more appealing theme than austerity are unlikely to succeed.

"The Big Society; localism; the Green strategy - whether right or wrong - these and other initiatives have seemed at best irrelevant to the task in hand, if not downright contradictory to it; likewise the huge spending hike on overseas aid and the cost of the Libyan expedition."

He said instead there should now be a relentless focus on improving living standards.
Mr Tyrie called for the tax system to be simplified and business taxation to be reduced, and said he wanted to see fewer regulations and changes to labour laws.

"There is much to do, and it is not just a question of gaps in policy; in places it is inconsistent, even incoherent," he wrote.

"A much more coherent and credible plan for supply-side reform to improve the long-term economic growth rate of the UK economy is now needed."

The issue is likely to dominate at the Conservative Party conference which begins in Manchester on Sunday. Economic policy is being debated on Monday.

Mr Cameron said: "First of all, we've got to deal with the debts and the deficit and stick to our plan there, but we are doing things to cut corporation tax, to help small businesses to de-regulate, to make it easier to employ people.

"Just today, we've announced the single thing the CBI have asked for most - which is to reform employment regulations, to make it easier for small firms to take people on."

Some of his views would be shared by other Tory backbenchers, former Conservative cabinet minister John Redwood told the BBC.

"I think Andrew Tyrie speaks for a lot of Conservatives when he says that he thinks that some of the spending priorities are not appropriate for current austerity Britain and that we need to make stronger strides to get the deficit down by controlling spending," he said.

Chancellor George Osborne has suggested there might not be tax cuts before the next general election.

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, the chancellor said tax cuts "should be for life not just for Christmas".

"We'll see how things develop in the rest of this parliament," he said.

"I'm a Conservative who believes in lower taxes. They lead to a more enterprising economy.

MP John Hemming's wife found guilty of kitten theft

Christine Hemming was involved in a love triangle that all parties knew about, the court was told

The wife of a Liberal Democrat MP has been convicted of stealing a kitten from the home of her husband's lover.

Christine Hemming, 53, whose husband John is MP for Birmingham Yardley, was found guilty of burglary at Birmingham Crown Court.

The kitten, called Beauty, has not been found since she was filmed on CCTV being removed from the Birmingham home of Emily Cox on 29 September 2010.

The animal was owned by the four-year-old daughter the MP had with Ms Cox.

'Arguing on phone'
Mrs Hemming, from Moseley, Birmingham, married Mr Hemming in 1981 after they met at a conference in Bridlington.
She told the three-day trial her husband had had 26 liaisons since they married and that he finally left their marital home three days before the theft.

Mrs Hemming said she had only learned that her husband had a "love child" with Ms Cox from members of the media in April 2005.

She told the court she was dropping off post after arguing with her husband on the phone and did not know there was a cat there.

The 53-year-old, from Moseley, Birmingham, told the court on Wednesday: "Everything just got out of hand.

"I didn't mean to enter the property.

"I left holding a kitten - there is no doubt about that - but I have no recollection of picking the kitten up."

She also said she tried to return the animal when she realised she had it.

Christine Hemming can be seen crawling on her hands and knees by the house

London shooting: Victim 'was holding her baby son'

Det Chief Inspt Mick Foote: "A young girl was holding her own child"

A teenager holding her 11-month-old son was injured when she came under fire from a shotgun as she chatted to two friends in west London.

Jessica Chrichlow, 18, was taken to hospital with the two others, aged 17 and 19, after the attack in John Fearon Walk, near Queen's Park, on Thursday.

Det Ch Insp Mick Foote said the baby was unhurt but the teenagers were struck by shotgun pellets.

The gunman joined three other men and all four fled on bicycles, he said.

No arrests have been made over the attack.

'Reckless act'


London Ambulance Service said the 18-year-old woman, who was hit in the chin and neck, was taken to hospital as a priority while the two others made their own way there.

The injuries to the three victims are not life-threatening, police said. The 17-year-old has been discharged from hospital but the other two victims remain in the central London hospital.

Mr Foote said the victims were in a back garden talking to a group of boys when the gunman opened fire.

He said: "It appears a man on his own has gone towards the crowd and let off one single shot from a shotgun.

"He ran away from the scene and he joined three other guys who were on pedal cycles, one of them holding a holdall."

He added: "It was a random, reckless act and we are fortunate we are not dealing with a fatal shooting here."

Mr Foote said officers were working on the basis the shooting was gang-related.
"I do not believe the girls were the intended targets. What's particularly devastating is the young girl was carrying a young child," he said.

"This was totally unprovoked."

The suspects were dressed in dark clothing and had their hoodies tightly wrapped around their faces.

Officers are appealing for witnesses who may have seen the suspects and particularly want to speak to the group of boys who were speaking to the victims at the time of the shooting.

The boys ran away just as the gunman approached and was about to open fire, police said.

Nearby resident Jenny Kantinda, 30, who said she knew the victims, said: "They were just sweet girls.

"We have had enough. The gang trouble has got worse, it's time police did something to help us.

"There are young children living here - are they safe? I don't think so."

The shooting took place in a pedestrian alleyway between two council blocks

Richard Desmond launching lottery for health causes

Richard Desmond's Northern & Shell owns Channel 5 and Express newspapers

A new televised lottery intended to raise £50m a year to tackle health inequalities will be launched later.

The Health Lottery, run by Richard Desmond's Northern & Shell media company, will offer a £100,000 top prize for matching five numbers.

The draw will be shown in adverts on Saturday evenings on ITV and Channel 5, which is owned by Northern & Shell.

Some charity leaders have been critical that less will go to good causes than from each National Lottery ticket.

The Health Lottery will donate over 20p per £1 ticket, compared with 28p for every National Lottery ticket.

That has been branded a "pretty disgraceful development" by Sir Stephen Bubb, of the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations.

Tickets will go on sale on Thursday. Four matching numbers will win players £500, while three will collect £50.

The launch of the game is being backed by a £20m publicity campaign and Health Lottery chief executive Martin Hall said the game would benefit every community in Great Britain.

The projects it aims to raise money for range from respite care for young carers through to funding of specialist nurses for conditions such as Alzheimer's disease.

More than 40,000 retailers have signed up to sell tickets, which is believed to be about 12,000 more than the National Lottery has.

Imran Khan calls for UK to cut aid to Pakistan

Pakistani opposition politician Imran Khan urged the UK yesterday to cut aid to his country, saying it fuels corruption.

Khan, leader of the Pakistan Movement for Justice (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf) party, said aid money propped up corrupt governments and that reforms were what would save Pakistan.

"Unfortunately, aid has been a curse for Pakistan. Total aid is about $20bn. This $20bn is not helping the people of Pakistan," Khan said.

The former cricketer told BBC Radio 4 that Pakistan was more poverty-stricken than ever but little international aid money reached its intended target.

Wrexham FC sale agreed with Wrexham Supporters' Trust

The future of Wrexham Football Club finally agreed

The fans are set to become the new owners of Wrexham FC, with a takeover deal completed.

Wrexham Supporters' Trust (WST), which has been the preferred bidder, said it would take over the day-to-day running of the club on Tuesday.

Earlier, one of the club's owners Geoff Moss threatened to talk to a rival unless he received a deposit by 17:00 BST.

A joint statement said a "suitable financial agreement has been reached".

Despite off-the-field uncertainties and delays in finding a new owner over recent months, the club currently lies top of the Blue Square Premier league.

"The directors of Wrexham FC are delighted to annnounce that agreement has been reached with WST today to purchase the football club," said the statement from the club.

"During this period Wrexham Supporters Trust will run the football club under a licence agreement pending approval by the football authorities."

Spencer Harris, one of the WST's directors, said the news was "fantastic" for fans, Wrexham and supporters in general.
Ratified
"We're taking over the club as a going concern, breaking new ground in Wales and looking forward to a bright future," he said.

Mr Harris said deal would need to be ratified by the Welsh FA and the Blue Square Premier League.

And he added that the next steps begin on Tuesday morning when WST directors take over the day-to-day running at the club.

The WST board has been in negotiations with the club for the past four months after it was put up for sale at the beginning of the year.

Members of the trust voted unanimously to back plans to take control of Wrexham FC in August.

When asked if the WST would move quickly to replace caretaker manager Andy Morrell, Mr Harris said he would not comment before any talks are held with the new manager and players.

Mr Moss has said previously that the uncertainty over the club's takeover had been frustrating and unfair to club staff, players and to former manager Dean Saunders, who was named as manager of Championship side Doncaster Rovers on Friday.

After the meeting, Jon Harris, chief executive of Wrexham FC, said the out-going directors will work with WST to "create stability for the caretaker manager and team".

"It will be everybody working together to try to assist one another in the forthcoming week," he said.

"Whilst we are top of the league it is a pretty unusual position," he told BBC Radio Wales.

Harvard website hacked by Syria protesters

Harvard's website carried a message from the "Syrian Electronic Army"

Harvard University has had its website hacked in what appears to be a "sophisticated" Syrian-related attack.

Along with a picture of Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, the hacked home page showed a message saying the "Syrian Electronic Army Were Here".

A further message made terror threats against the United States and criticised its opposition to the Assad regime.

Harvard said this has been the work of a "sophisticated individual or group".

"The university's homepage was compromised by an outside party this morning. We took down the site for several hours in order to restore it. The attack appears to have been the work of a sophisticated individual or group," said a Harvard spokesman.

The website was hacked on Monday morning by what appeared to be sympathisers of President Assad of Syria, with a picture of the president in military uniform appearing in front of a Syrian flag.

This was linked to another image of Syrian national colours, with a message accusing the United States of involvement in the uprisings against President Assad.

Violence threat

It told readers: "This site has been breached to spread our message even if illegally."

The message, claimed on this webpage as coming from the Syrian Cyber Army, accused the United States of supporting a "policy of killing" in Syria.

In fragmented English, it also carried a threat of violent attack.

"Do you support the war on Syria? If you are you, as well as the following Syria's population of 23 million people. This means 23 million mobile bomb. Imagine what we could do."

A Harvard spokesman suggested there had been a pattern of a growing number of such electronic attacks.

"Recent months have seen a rise in frequency and sophistication of these attacks, with hacking groups increasingly on the offensive and targeting news media, government and education websites," said a Harvard spokesman.

"We are analysing this event and will use the findings to improve our security practices for an environment that is seeing escalating threats."

Labour conference: Balls 'cannot reverse' all cuts

Labour cannot promise to reverse every spending cut by the coalition, "however unpopular or dangerous" they are, shadow chancellor Ed Balls has said.

The party must be responsible as it cannot foresee what the economy would be like at the next election, he added.

Ahead of his party conference speech, he said it was a "big task" to restore Labour's credibility on the economy.

And he said he was "deeply, deeply sorry" over failures in bank regulation during the party's years in power.

In Monday's speech, Mr Balls will pledge to spend any windfall from the sale of bank shares on paying off the national debt.

He will announce a "five-point plan" for boosting jobs and growth, while also vowing to bind Labour governments to strict spending rules.

But the Conservatives said Mr Balls had taken Labour "further away from economic credibility".

Labour has accused the government of cutting spending too fast and causing the economy to stall.

But while Mr Balls is urging the government to change course, saying Britain is "crying out for a better way", he said Labour would not be making any "irresponsible promises" of his own.

"I think people have to believe what we say and that means we have to be very careful about what we say," he told Radio 4's Today programme.

"We can't come along and just say now we will promise to reverse every tax rise or spending cut, however unpopular or however dangerous for the economy, because we don't know what the state of the economy will be in five years' time."

Mr Balls acknowledged the last Labour government had made mistakes over the economy, saying he was "deeply, deeply sorry" for not introducing tougher regulation on the banks.

"The banking crisis was a disaster... If we had acted earlier on bank regulation, we could have avoided that economic crisis."

Public trust
He accepted it would take time for the party to earn the public's trust on the economy again.

"History shows it is hard... It took Labour 18 years after 1979 to restore credibility. We have not got 18 years. We have to do this in this parliament.

"Opposition is about answering the big question but I cannot answer that question unless people are trusting in our credibility and ability to make tough decisions."

Mr Balls said David Cameron and George Osborne had "the wrong prescription" for the current economic crisis, which he said was the "most serious in his lifetime".

In his speech, Mr Balls will say Britain's economy faces a "global growth crisis" that is becoming "more dangerous by the day".

He will argue that having a plan to boost growth "will help get the economy moving again and stop the vicious circle on the deficit - but by itself it won't secure our economic future or magic the deficit away" and tough decisions will still be needed on tax and spending.

With the party in the middle of a two-year policy review, manifesto commitments are likely to be thin on the ground in Liverpool.

Share pledges
But Mr Balls will make two new pledges in his speech.

He will say: "First, before the next election - and based on the circumstances we face - we will set out for our manifesto tough fiscal rules that the next Labour government will have to stick to - to get our country's current budget back to balance and national debt on a downward path. And these fiscal rules will be independently monitored by the Office for Budget Responsibility.

"And second we know that, even as bank shares are falling again, David Cameron and Nick Clegg are still betting on a windfall gain from privatising RBS and Lloyds to pay for a pre-election giveaway.

"We could also pledge to spend that windfall.

"But - just as with the 3G mobile phone auction - we will commit instead in our manifesto to do the responsible thing and use any windfall gain from the sale of bank shares to repay the national debt. That will be Labour's choice - fiscal responsibility in the national interest."

A Conservative spokesman said Mr Balls had "deliberately fiddled" fiscal rules in the past, and the public would not trust his announcement of new restrictions.